Wall family patriarch fought under Washington
By David Gambeal staff writer
Duncan, At the tender age of 24 George Washington was a colonel commanding troops in the French and Indian War. However, that was old compared to some of his troops.
Among the troops that fought under Washington in the war was the teen-age JACOB WALL.
WALL, the patriarch of the WALL family of Lincoln and Casey counties (KY), was a mere 16 years old when he first tasted the sting of battle in 1756.
WALL’s descendants recently honored their ancester with the dedication of a monument in his honor at the WALL family cemetery in the Duncan community on the Casey, and Lincoln county line on Ky, 501.
Eldred Melton, a descendant of WALL, who has conducted extensive research on the family, said the WALL Cemetery where the marker was erected is likely the final resting place of WALL, “We feel certain this is where he is buried,” she said.
WALL was born about 1740 in Virginia. According to “Culpepper: A Virginia County’s History” by Eugene M. Scheel, the Culpepper militia was organized in August 1756, the month after Gen. Edward Braddock’s defeat at Fort Duquesne. WALL was among the foot soldiers who enlisted in the militia. One of his sergeants was the middle aged HENRY GAMBREL the 6th great grandfather of the author of this article.
In April 1756, Washington wrote to Lord Fairfax, asking that the Culpepper militia be called up in his command. Later in a letter to Virginia Lt. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie, Washington reported that deserters had come from all the militia except for Culpepper’s 200 strong.
TOBACCO FOR SERVICE – Following their service in the war, the foot soldiers were paid between 1.385 and 1.425 pounds of tobacco for their part in the war.
That same year, 1767, the Paris Peace Treaty was signed ending the war, and WALL and his wife, ANN SPILLMAN WALL, had their eldest son, FRANCIS.
Following the Revolutionary War, the WALLS brought nine children, some of them already married, from Virginia into Kentucky, before Kentucky was even a state. The children included: NANCY or ANN, GABRIEL, JACOB Jr. ISAAC, MARY, PATSY, JAMES, ROBERT and FRANCIS, who by this time had married SARAH GRIGSBY.
The WALLS firs settled in Mercer County, Kentucky but soon moved to land they were granted south of the GREEN RIVER. According to Melton, the land where the cemetery stands is part of the land owned by the WALL FAMILY. The cemetery is still owned by his descendants.
FRANCIS and SARAH GRIGSBY WALL built their home in the area where Lincoln and Casey counties meet. They had 10 children, and were the progenitors of the WALL, WALLS, and WAHL families of Casey and Lincoln Counties, Kentucky.
The children of Francis and Sarah were MARY, WILLIAM F., ROBERT, JACOB, WHITFIELD, ELIAS, JESSE H, NANCY, NATHANIEL and a daughter whose name is not known.
Three of the WALL men married the daughters of JACOB FALCONBERRY, wh had moved to Fishing Creek from Virginia and North Carolina. Other Virginia families who associated themselves with the WALL family included the MARTIN, HENDERSON, MERRITT, CASSIDY, PATTERSON, HASTIN, DURHAM, SINGLETON, GOOCH AND COLEMAN families.
At the dedication of the monument on May 24 for JACOB AND FRANCIS WALL and their descendants, the military service of the family members was honored. The service included acting as spies in the War of 1812, service in the Civil War. One of the men buried in the WALL Cemetery is a Union soldier ROBERT WALL, who survived the horrors of prison life in Andersonville, Georgia. Three of the members of the CASWELL SAUFLEY AMERICAN LEGION post’s color guard on hand for the marker dedication were descendants of JACOB WALL. They included CHARLES WALLS, J.M. MORGAN, and RUSSELL BURTON.
