Elisha Walling (abt. 1734 - 1814)

Born about 1734 in Prince George's County, Colony of Maryland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died Jan 1814 at about age 80 in Irondale, Washington, Missouri, United States

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Elisha Walling resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies

Biography

Elisha Walling (aka Wallen, Walden, Wallin, and other variants) was a trailblazing backwoodsman who was born in Maryland but came to the southwestern Virginia frontier as a young child before 1741. He was a contemporary of Daniel Boone and was the Long Hunter who in 1761 led the first well-documented hunt across the Cumberland Gap into what is now Tennessee.

Early Life

Elisha Walling was born in about 1734.^[1][2] He was the son of Elisha Walling and his mother was reportedly Mary Blevins^[3] He was most likely born in Prince Georges County, Maryland, where his father appears on the tax lists in 1733. ^[4]

By 1741, his father had taken their family to the southwestern Virginia frontier, where Elisha grew up. This area was identified as Brunswick County at that time. It was carved into Lunenberg County in 1748, and then Halifax in 1752.^[4]

When he grew to adulthood, Elisha "was a man of darke skin about 5 feet 10 or 11 inches; a big square built and weighed a bout 180 pounds, vary course features, ordinary intellect and was regarded as a very honest and correct man in all his transactions."^[5]

The Long Hunters

Elisha Walling was one of the original Long Hunters on the southwestern Virginia frontier. He led the expedition in 1761 that was the first well-documented long hunt.^[6]

Later Life in Virginia and Tennessee

In 1767, Pittsylvania County, Virginia, was carved from Halifax. Elisha appears with his "negro Jake" on the tax lists taken by Robert Chandler in Pittsylvania County in 1767.^[7] He was also appointed as a Captain in the militia for Pittsylvania County between 1767-1770.^[8]

Botetourt County, Virginia, was carved from Pittsylvania in 1770. In 1772, Elisha Wallen appears on William Herbert's list of tithables in Botetourt County, most likely in the area carved out into Fincastle around that time. His brothers Joseph and James, along with likely brother-in-law William Roberts (husband of Elizabeth) also appear in the same area.^[9]

When John Redd first met Elisha in 1774, he was still living along Smith's River "at a place called the round-about, near the centre of the county, and about two miles east from Martainsville, the present county seat of henry...." He "never cultivated the soil, but lived entirely by hunting."^[10]

In 1776, the western portions of Fincastle County were carved into several new counties, including Montgomery County. Around that time, Redd reports that Elisha and several related families moved west and lived along the Holston River in what is now Tennessee. He explains why as follows:

During the revolutionary war the assembly of Va. passed a law that all British subjects owning land in Va. must come in by a ceartin time and take an oath of alegence, and become actual setlers, or ther land would be confiscated. After the act was passed, two of the british subjects owning land in Pitsolvania (now henry), came in and complied with the act of the assembly, and toock posseshion of their land, this gave alarm to Walden, the Blevinses and Coxes, for they feared they would have to pay many years rent they all moved off enmess. The Blevinses & Coxes settled on the holston a bove the long Isleans. Walden settled on the holston about 18 miles above where knoxville now is.^[11]

When he made this move and settled along the Holston River, likely in about 1775, Elisha Walling's was the furthest west in this region of any European settlement.^[12]

In 1779, he filed a claim for land in the Poor Valley in what was then the remote Tennessee frontier. His claim was eventually confirmed after years of litigation in 1800.^[13]

Marriage

Elisha Walling's wife was Katherine Blevins.^[14] Their children are said to include (not necessarily in correct birth order):^[15]

1. Berryman
2. John
3. Catherine
4. Elizabeth
5. Lucy
6. Elisha
7. William B.

Migration West to Missouri

Late in life, Elisha migrated west once more. Some time before 1810, he left the area in eastern Tennessee that he had explored as a young man. He may have lived briefly in Kentucky, where he may have been the Elisha Walden who appears in Fayette County, in 1810.^[16] Not long after that, he and Catherine moved west to the Missouri Territory in 1811.^[17] According to Redd, he

removed...to Missoura and settled in the vary extreme settlement up the Missoura river. I suppose his object in going to Missoura was to get where game was more plentiful; he followed up hunting as long as he was able to follow the chase; he died on the fronteers of Missoura at a very advanced age;...^[18]

Elisha Walling's will was probated in Washington County, Missouri, in April 1814. He died in January 1814 on the Wallen homestead in Washington County, Missouri, which the early Wallens in Missouri called "The Plantation."^[19]

Research Notes

Identity of Elisha Wallen's Wife

The identification of of Elisha Wallen's wife as Katharine Blevin is based on the following:

1. James Redd, a contemporary who knew Elisha Walling, says that Elisha's wife was the daughter of "Will. Blevins."^[20] Relying on Redd's account, several researchers and historians identify his wife as a Blevins, the daughter of William, but with an unknown given name.^[21]
2. Her given name is identified in the 1814 probate files of Elisha Wallen's estate, in which his widow is identified as "Katharine Wallen."^[22]

Confusion with his Father

Many family trees confuse Elisha Walling Sr. with his son, this Elisha Walling Jr., and mistakenly claim that the older Elisha was the one who led the original long hunt in 1761. However, John Redd -- a contemporary of Elisha the long hunter -- reported that "when [he] became acquainted with [Elisha the longhunter] in 1774, he was about 40 years of age," and thus born in about 1734. He was therefore clearly the younger Elisha.^[23] The longhunter's father Elisha Sr. was also a frontier settler and undoubtedly a skilled hunter, but he was not the Elisha Wallen who led those trailblazing long hunts.

Disputed Children

A previous version of this profile identified James Walden (abt.1789-1850) as an additional child without citing any source. That child has been detached, pending a reliable source supporting the connection.

A previous version of this profile identified Catherine Walling (1804-1849) as an additional child without citing any source. She was born almost 50 years after their marriage, and is unlikely to have been a child of this couple.

Sources

1. ↑ John Redd, "Reminiscences of Western Virginia, 1770-1790," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 6 (Apr 1899): 337-346, at 338; JSTOR, Image Copy : 2020.
2. ↑ John Redd, John, "Reminiscences of Western Virginia, 1770-1790 (concluded)," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 7 (Jan 1900): 242-253, at 249; JSTOR, Image Copy : 2020.
3. ↑ Maribelle Wilder, A Wallen-Walling Genealogy (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1985), 162; Carolyn D. Wallin, Elisha Wallen The Longhunter (Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1990), 59.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} See profile of Elisha Wallen.
5. ↑ Redd, "Reminiscences,"6:338.
6. ↑ For a more detailed discussion of this 1761 long hunt and a list of collected sources describing the long hunters in general, see The Long Hunters.
7. ↑ Mrs. N.E. Clement, "Tithables of Pittsylvania County, 1767 (cont.)," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Oct. 1915): 371-380, at 378 (tithables taken by Robert Chandler, Elisha Walling); images, jstor, (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4243469 : accessed 15 Sep 2020).
8. ↑ Maud Carter Clement, The History of Pittsylvania Virginia (Lynchburg, VA: J.P. Bell Company, Inc., 1929), 99; FamilySearch, Image Copy : accessed 18 Dec 2020.
9. ↑ Robert Douthat Stoner, A Seed-Bed of the Republic, (Kingsport, TN: R.D. Stoner, 1962), Section X, "Tithables," §4, at 2; images, FamilySearch.org, (http://www.familysearch.org/library/books/idurl/1/160193 : accessed 5 Dec 2020), images 613-14.
10. ↑ Redd, "Reminiscences," 6:338.
11. ↑ Redd, "Reminiscences," 6:338-9.
12. ↑ Samuel Cole Williams, Dawn of Tennessee Valley and Tennessee History, (Johnson City, Tenn.: Watauga Press, 1937), 436; Hathitrust, Digital Images : accessed 25 Apr 2021.
13. ↑ John H. Dewitt, "Journal of Governor John Sevier (1790-1815), (continued)," Tennessee Historical Magazine, 6 (Apr 1920):18-68, at 30; digital images, JSTOR, (https://www.jstor.org/stable/42637436 : accessed 25 Apr 2021).
14. ↑ See Research Notes.
15. ↑ Wallin, Elisha Wallen The Longhunter, 84.
16. ↑ 1810 U.S. census, Fayette County, Kentucky, Lexington township, p. 24 (penned), Elisha Walden; image, FamilySearch.org, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YYK-3KBK : accessed 23 Dec 2020); citing NARA microfilm publication M252, roll 6.
17. ↑ Wilder, A Wallen-Walling Genealogy, 178-180.
18. ↑ Redd, "Reminiscences," 6:339.
19. ↑ Wilder, A Wallen-Walling Genealogy, 180-81; Ancestry, Find a Grave, database, (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64163735 : accessed 24 Dec 2020), memorial 64163735, Elisha Walling (1732–1814), Wallen Cemetery, Washington County, Missouri, USA ; no gravestone image.
20. ↑ John Redd, "Reminiscences of Western Virginia, 1770-1790," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 6 (Apr 1899): 337-346, at 338; JSTOR, Image Copy : 2020 ("When I first knew him he lived on Smith's river at a place called the round-about, near the centre of the conty, and about two miles east from Martainsville, the present county seat of henry, he lived near his wife's fathers, Will. Blevenes.").
21. ↑ E.g., Samuel Cole Williams, Dawn of Tennessee Valley and Tennessee History, (Johnson City, Tenn.: Watauga Press, 1937), 321 n. 8; Hathitrust, Digital Images : accessed 25 Apr 2021. See also Maud Carter Clement, The History of Pittsylvania Virginia (Lynchburg, VA: J.P. Bell Company, Inc., 1929), 102.
22. ↑ FamilySearch, "Missouri Probate Records, 1750-1998," Washington>Probate court dockets, 1813-1845>image 8 : accessed 24 Jun 2021 (File No. 2, Elisha Wallen, Dec'd; probate docket entry dated 30 Jan 1814).
23. ↑ Redd, "Reminiscences," 6:338.

See also:

• Roberts, Jeff. "Elisha Wallen the Longhunter." My Long Hunters. 2 Aug 2010. http://www.mylonghunters.info/elisha-wallen-the-long-hunter Elisha Wallen the Long Hunter : 2020.