On June 27, 1998, a Saturday, I attended the 1998 Wallace Family reunion
at Dawson Springs, Kentucky (State Park Resort). There were
a good many in attendance and at least $400.00 in paid
family dues.
Chuck Carter is the association president.. We listened
to a lecture given by a professor from the University of Kentucky.
He was a Wallace by blood. His mother and family were In attendance. He
is acquainted with Dr. Lowell Harrison and Dr. Clark of UK and WKU. He
spoke on basic early Kentucky hardships and style of survival--corn,
deer meat, greens, berries, hominy, corn
- cakes, seasonal squash beans and et al.
There Were about 15 descendants of old Ben Wallace; and the balance descended
from James Wallace; and one descendant from Elijah. Of the two or
three Wallace girls, none of their descendants were present--they married
Dodges!! I believe their line is Dodge, Veatch, et al.
The cemetery at Rocks Springs Church, both Baptist and Cumberland Presbyterian,
are now clean and in good shape. The area looks like a national park. Old
Rev. John Withers (1811-1858) would be proud as well as Mr. Thompson, the
grantor of the school and church lot--way back in early 19th century. Now
the Wallace clan (from Texas to California) is going to work on Granny's
Hill,- up near the three new Hudson's chicken houses.
I hope Wheatcroft and Blackford will pitch in to
help clean up the very early burial ground. Also, the Curry cemetery
in Blackford area is next on the agenda.
There was some discussion of making the next meeting a Wallace-Curry-Kuykendall
get together.
Harry Kuykendall was present and his Wallace connection is through William
Featherstone Kuykendall--son of old Simon Kuykendall (death 1843). He married
a Wallace.
I visited the new golf course at the Sturgis airport grounds. I was
surprised to find a driving range, two descendants of Simeon Kuykendall
on the grounds work ing. The golf course is built on land owned by old
Simeon Kuykendall from 1837. to 1844 and his heirs thereafter. Simeon Kuykendall
is listed in the old 1810 census of Hen derson (Union County), Kentucky.
Aside from Kuykendalls and Wallaces, I spoke with Mr. Cook, a descendant
of a daughter of Simeon Kuykendall. It seems
that Simeon Kuykendall married a Thompson lady and she died; and then he
married her sister. By the second wife there were a good many children.
Some married Smallwoods.
As for old Wallaces, none are buried in the old Pythian Ridge (Christian
Church) church burial ground that we know of.
It seems the Wallace's buried their own in family tracts and plots. Most
of the Wallaces and Kuykendalls fought for the south in the war of northern
aggression. Harry Kuykendall boys and father fought with General Forest
or Wheeler or ?. I wonder who took care of the home front and the farms?
I suspect the women were stalwart. I asked Harry Kuykendall where the Kuykendall's
gpt their red hair-- he said Herrons and ______ over near the Ashland Church.
I knew the Ashland Church grounds were haunted--but there were Saints there
galore. Tread lightly on the old grave yards and the burial grounds. The
Wallaces and Kuykendalls will get you if you don't watch out. And don't
run across Lucy Curry. She survived two husbands and bossed S. McGill around
until she died. First was Elijah Wallace and second Stephen Williams.
There are old tales and sayings that sometimes carry the old times forward
and illumine the past.
Grandma Nancy Wallace (Wynns married name) said that as a girl during the
Civil War in February of 1862, she could hear the cannon firing at Ft.
Donelson on the Cumberland River. I do not know where she was when
she heard the firing.
Nancy Wallace's (Wynns') mother died when she was five years old; her mother
had been Nancy Williams and she had been courted by Robert P. Wallace at
the Mt. Ephraim Cumberland Presbyterian Campground. They were both
Cumberland Presbyterian's. Miss Williams' father had.been Stephen Williams,
the second husband of Lucy Curry (Wallace and Williams).
Also, before the surrender at Ft. Donelson, Nancy Wallace (Grandma Nack)
said that their cousin rode out of Ft. Donelson on the back of a Clay bank
mule with General Forest and did not surrender to the Yankees.
While Nancy Wallace was living with her Aunt and Uncle Williams down in
the Pond Fork country, the Yankee soldiers came through and asked that
she cut the ham and fry them some ham. Nancy Wallace cut the ham, spit
on the frying pan, threw the fresh cut ham. in and said. "Now eat the ham,
you Yankee's" She could have gotten herself shot or imprisoned but she
did not get hurt. As one can tell, she was against the war of northern
aggression.
Her Aunt and Uncle Williams raised her from age 5 to her marriage
time. She learned to cook from her people, Williams', but she used
lots of butter td season her cooking. Years ago I recall my family
saying, "Why, so and so cooks just like Grandma Nack--uses
a lot of butter."
Grandma. Nack (Nancy Wallace) married Rev. W. W. Wynns and he was a big
Cumberland Presbyterian preacher. She was a dyed-in-the wool Southerner
and Cumberland Presbyterian Church member.
Her husband, W. W. Wynns, would leave home for weeks--preaching
in a Cumberland revival, and Grandma Nack would have
to manage the farm, the cattle and the horses.
She had four boys--R. E. Bill--better known as Wild Bill Wynns, Steve Wynns,
and Dr. John Wynns. She had three girls--Sally, who married Uncle
Joe Kuykendall, and Gertrude who married Watkins, and Lucy Wytins who married
Mr. Bill White.
Grandma Nack (Wallace) owned 600 acres of the Williams land through her
mother, Nancy Williams. She sold her land and invested it in the
Wynn Land. When old Rev. W. W. Wynn died, most thought him a pauper,
but he left a $1O,000.00 insurance
paid for each of his children.
My grandfather, R. E. Wynns, once said in my presence, Nina Sue (my
mother) Was very much like his mother. He never explained what he
said.
I wrote this to conclude the old Wallace reunion.
I know less of my Benjarnin Wallace Side--as that was my grandmother's
side. She proclaimed proudly that she was a brown-eyed Wallace. She
belittled the blue-eyed Wallaces. Why, I don't know. They were all from
old Samuel Wallace and Nancy Hardin.
Miss Sue Wallace (Payne) was a brown-eyed Wallace. She was a Baptist and
knew her Wallace lineage. She said to me years ago to go visit the
old Ben Wallace burial land out on Kentucky 270. She said she was raised
out there. Dora Wallace (Syers)-was a loyal Wallace from the Ben
Wallace side. Julia Wallace, now an attorney in Louisville, was my
secretary and book editor for several years. Her mother and father were
at the Wallace reunion on June 27, 1998.
Grandma Nack Wallace (Wynn) was a short
woman; consequently you can tell her short descendants. Also, I think it
most stems from Lucy Cook Curry's genes way back there. But that is just
a guess.
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