At the mouth of Jesse's Run stood the home of Jesse Hughes, an Indian fighter and scout, and about 1770 John Hacker settled there. Nearby was the scene of the Cozad and other border massacres, and several Indian villages and burying grounds were located there. At Jane Lew, Fort West was built from 1770 to 1773 by Edmund West and his sons and was burned by Indians in 1778. Beech's Fort was later erected nearby during the Indian wars, and Henry McWhorter built a mill there in 1793.