My Genealogy Hound

THE WALL FAMILY. The ancestry of this family in America dates from an early period in the history of the country. In 1640 Lady Deborah Moody, the widow of a Wiltshire baronet, organized an association of some fifty persons who came to America, and among them was Walter Wall. This association first established at Lynn, Mass., remaining there until 1643, when they removed to Gravesend, on Long Island. In the latter part of 1657 Walter Wall and others emigrated to New Jersey with their families, where they made a purchase embracing the present county of Middlesex and part of the county of Monmouth. Walter Wall purchased a large tract of land in the neighborhood of Middletown, on a portion of which, known as Wall’s Mill, and afterward as Van Meeter’s Mill, was born Gen. Garret D. Wall, who served for several years as a member of the United States senate, and, in the several divisions of town lots and outlands of Middletown, Walter Wall found himself the possessor of much valuable land. Here his son Garret became a man of some prominence in public affairs, his name being mentioned in Middletown town-book as receiver of taxes, and his son Jarat, or Jarrett, was among the leading citizens who resisted the unjust demands of the proprietary in 1700-01. James Wall, son of Humphrey Wall, and grandson of Jarrett Wall, above mentioned, together with his brother Walter, moved from their Jersey homes in 1766 to find greater freedom and change of scene in the then “western wilds,” west of the mountains. Arriving at the forks of the “Yough,” as it was then called (which included that portion of the counties of Allegheny and Westmoreland now lying between the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers, comprising the townships of Lincoln, Elizabeth and Forward in Allegheny, and Rostraver township in Westmoreland, they built cabins, cleared the land and commenced the cultivation of the frontier land, surrounded by Indians and the wild animals of the forest. In the spring of 1769 they revisited New Jersey, and in the fall of same year returned to their own homes with their families. Several other New Jersey families came with them, among them the Applegates, Pierces, Ketchams, Johnsons, Imlays, Smiths and others, some of whose descendants still reside in the district. The region known as Yohogania and Rostraver being mainly settled by emigrants from New Jersey caused it to be called the New Jersey settlement at an early day, a name still familiar to the present generation. Owing to the land controversy which existed for a period of over thirty years between the authorities of Pennsylvania on the one hand and those of Virginia on the other, titles to lands could not be obtained with any degree of certainty until after the year 1784. Warrants were granted by the land department of Pennsylvania to James Wall and Walter Wall for 322 acres 64 perches and allowance, each, under date of July 10, 1786, and the farm on which James Wall settled is now owned by William Caldwell and Stephen Applegate. He (James Wall) married Catherine Van Eman, a sister of George Van Eman, the grandfather of Hon. George Van Eman Lawrence, of Monongahela City, Pa., and had eight children: Walter, William, Garret, Nicholas, Andrew, Naomi, Mary and Hannah. James Wall died on the homestead farm May 20, 1811, and his widow a few years later. He was noted for his hospitality and genial disposition; was a strict observer of the laws of God and of man, honest in business, and kind to his family and good to the poor. He took considerable part in public affairs.