The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: VA
Qualifying Service: Sergeant Major
North side of Mountain Parkway, approximately two miles ease of Bowen, at Powell County, Kentucky
Photo: 1 of 1
Author: LtC R. Michael Sullivan
William Hall was born 15 November 1756 at Bedford County, Virginia, the fourth of 12 children of Leonard Hall, Sr. and Johanna Letton Hall. His father is credited with being a patriot of the American Revolution for providing supplies. On November 25, 1777, William Hall married Urcilla (Usly) Woodward (born 7 July 1762), a daughter of Richard Woodward of Bedford Counrty and his second wife, Elizabeth. The marriage bond is of record at the Bedford County Clerk’s office.
In early 1778, William enlisted as a Continental soldier in the Virginia Line for three years. He was a member of the 1st Regiment of Light Dragoons from Virginia. According to an affidavit by his sister, Grayce Hall Forquenan dated 24 September 1840, she lent her sister-in-law Urcilla “…thread enough to make into linen to make her brother William two suits of clothes to wear to the Army…”
A re-enlistment has not been found, however; he apparently he served more than the initial three years. A miltary pay record from the National Archives at Washington, D.C., dated 1 August 1783, states that William Hall was “omitted” [discharged] and paid 157 pounds, eight shillings and one pence for the balance of his service to that point, with the payment received by a Captain Pemberton. It also provided his rank as Sergeant Major.
After the Revolutionary War, William and Urcilla migrated to Cane Ridge at Bourbon County, Virginia (now Kentucky). They had three or four small children at this time, and the birth dates of these children compared with his time in the service indicates more than one amorous homecoming during his time as a soldier. According to family folklore, the family came by flatboat down the Ohio River and disembarked at Maysville, Kentucky, and continued on to Bourbon County, Kentucky, where they attended the great revival meetings held at Cane Ridge in the early 1800s, and listened to preaching by Barton Stone and others in what is known as the “Second Great Awakening.”
About 1805, with the Bluegrass becoming crowded, William and Urcilla pulled up stakes in Bourbon County and moved on to Red River in Montgomery (now Powell) County, Kentucky, near the current town of Nada (first called Hall’s Store and later Lombard). They had eleven children who lived to adulthood, the first four or five born in Virginia, the others in what is now Kentucky.
William Halll died in 1811 and was buied at what is now known as the Hall-Hanks Cemetery (previously the Green Hall Graveyard) on the original 400 acre land grant. In 1840, his widow Urcilla applied for and was granted a widow’s pension for his service in the Revolutionary War. She drew the pension until her death in 1854 at the age of 92, never remarrying. Urcilla filed two depositions (signed with an "X"). Grayce Hall Forquenan’s deposition (also signed with an "X"), and Green Hall’s deposition signed by himself are in the pension file numbered *W8884.
On July 1, 1956, a military marker for Sergeant Major William Hall was dedicated at his grave by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
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