Remembering Walton County’s heroes in war for freedom

George Walton as painted by Charles Willson Peale, currently hosted in the Yale University Art Gallery.

It would be more than 42 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, that established the United States of America, before Walton County was officially established as part of the state of Georgia, one of the new nation’s 13 original colonies.

Nonetheless, the county, founded in 1818 by an act of the state legislature, has a historical connection to that momentous signing, as well as numerous human connections to the Revolutionary War that followed. In fact, the county’s very name harks back to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Walton County’s namesake is George Walton, one of three Georgians whose signatures appear on that foundational document.

The life of George Walton

According to the nonpartisan and nonprofit National Constitution Center, George Walton was born in Farmville, Virginia, although the exact year of his birth is unknown. Both of his parents had died by the time he was 12 years old, and he was apprenticed to a carpenter.

Walton moved to Georgia in 1769, and studied law under the tutelage of a Savannah barrister. He was admitted to the bar in 1774 at the age of 33, and started his own law practice. Two years later, he was appointed by the Georgia Assembly to the Second Continental Congress, and would sign his name to the Declaration.

In 1778, during the Revolutionary War, Walton received a colonel’s commission and was involved in defending Savannah from a British invasion. He was wounded in the fight, fell from his horse, and was taken prisoner. He was freed in 1779 and served briefly at governor of Georgia before opting to return to Congress the next year.

Some years later, he was appointed as Georgia’s chief justice before being elected again as governor in 1789. He was sent to the U.S. Senate in 1795, but was not reelected and left politics for farming.

According to the National Constitution Center biography, Walton died in 1804, sometime after moving to Augusta, where he was involved in numerous civic improvement projects. He left behind a wife and one son.

Other Revolutionary War veterans

Beyond the memory of George Walton, the county’s ties to the Revolutionary War extend to veterans of the conflict who are buried across the county, their grave markers continuing to offer silent testaments to the founding of the United States of America.

Here, drawn from various sources including RootsWeb, an online genealogical community, are the Revolutionary War veterans who rest in Walton County:

John Allgood, born in 1755 in Virginia, moved to Georgia sometime in the late 1700s. He and his wife, Sarah, had six children. Allgood died in Walton County in 1839, and is buried in a family cemetery near Walnut Grove. He headstone reads simply, “John Allgood was born in Virginia / May 19, 1755 / And died Jan. 18, 1839 / He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.”

Allgood was drafted into the Revolutionary Army in 1778, and served in various locations across Virginia until October of 1781. Six years later, he moved with his family to Georgia. The family came to Walton County in 1821 after Allgood was awarded a tract of land in a state land lottery.

William Brand, who wrote a memoir recounting his Revolutionary War service, was born in North Carolina in 1756 and died in Loganville in 1848, where he is buried in a family cemetery off Georgia Highway 81. He and his wife, Sarah, had six children. Like Allgood, Brand and his family came to Walton County after receiving Walton County acreage in the 1821 land lottery.

In his memoir, Brand wrote, “During the revolution for independence, I served under Captain Richard Shipp in the North Carolina Troops. My field officers were General Caswell and Colonel Benjamin Axum. That was my first term. I served for five months in 1780 then in 1781. I was called to serve an additional three months. The second term my commanding officer was Captain Benjamin Phillips and the field officers were Major Allen, Colonel Micholy Long, Major Thomas and General Gates.”

In his memoir, Brand called the Revolutionary War “a long hard war for everyone,” and added, “We were all glad when it was finally over.”

 Young Gill, also referred to in historical records as Thomas Young Gill, was born in Virginia sometime in the 1760s, and died in Walton County in 1854, where he is buried in a cemetery in Social Circle off Carver Drive. He and his wife, Ann, had one child, a girl named Meeky.