Who were the women of Bryan Station and why does this monument honor them?

An obscure Lexington monument to women’s bravery is being restored after over a century.

The Bryan Station Monument has been standing in Lexington since 1896. It was constructed by the Lexington chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution as a way to honor the bravery of the Bryan Station women in the American Revolutionary War, and their acts in 1782. Now, the Lexington DAR has launched a $5,000 project to restore and rededicate the structure.

Bryan Station was an early fortified settlement in what would later be Kentucky. In 1782, during the Revolutionary War, a coalition of British Canadian soldiers and Native Americans surrounded the settlement and waited “in secret” to attack.

To preserve the illusion that the siege force had been undetected and buy time for reinforcements to arrive, the women of the fort went down into the spring at the bottom of the property, and gathered water as they would any other day.

Though the settlers did not have a prepared militia, they were able to hold out until word spread that another Kentucky militia was on the way, and the siege force dispersed.

“This monument serves to remind us that these courageous women, in the face of adversity, went about their morning routine and carried pails and buckets of water from this spring back into the fort with the knowledge that a siege was about to happen,” said Amelia Wisner, registrar of the Lexington DAR chapter.

The octagonal structure built around the original spring is constructed of Indiana limestone. The walls are about four feet high with the names of Bryan Station pioneers. It is located on a private farm off of Bryan Station Road, and isn’t open to the public.

According to Wisner, the openness of the structure makes it more susceptible to natural erosion and degradation.

The structure has been standing since 1896 and since then, has been cleaned and had mortar patched in the past, but has never been fully restored.

Now Stuart Joynt, owner of Lost Art Stone Masonry, is working to restore the monument. He specializes in restoring monuments, including at cemeteries and other historic structures around the country.

Joynt’s goal is to preserve all of the characteristics of the monument, while cleaning it up and fixing portions that have been damaged by weather and wildlife.

“You don’t want to do too much or you start to mess with the authenticity of the structure,” Joynt said.

Joynt has cleaned the monument and removed overgrowth of weeds and other plants. He has redone some mortar, along with fixing up some of the surrounding rock.

Some honorary names that had been carved into the stone have been eroded and are beyond repair, so Joynt is carving them into new pieces of stone. He traced out the original carving to ensure the restored carvings look the same as they originally did in 1896.

The DAR will rededicate the monument this weekend. Wisner hopes it also will restore the bravery of Bryan Station’s women to public consciousness as well.

The DAR is a lineage-based group of women that was formed in 1890 to promote “historic preservation, education and patriotism,” according to its website. The members are female descendants of those who fought for American independence in the Revolutionary War.

This story was originally published July 31, 2019 at 10:24 AM.