© 2003-2008 R. L. Steinacker
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The Kelso Family
© 2003-2008 R. L. Steinacker |
| Alexander Kelso, Jr., and
His Descendants
Alexander Kelso, Jr., my ggggg grandfather, was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. At enlistment, his residence was listed as Waxhaw Settlement, near Catawba River, South Carolina. Serving four periods, Alexander usually served a month or two at a time. One of those times, Alexander was among the 1,400 frontiersmen from East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, known as Overmountain Men, who fought in the famous |
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war Battle of King's Mountain in North Carolina. English Colonel Ferguson
had threatened to "march his army over the mountains, hang their [militia]
leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword." The militia
leaders gathered their men together at an appointed site and time. Though
the Overmountain men were inexperienced in regular warfare, they were, for
the most part, very experienced Indian fighters, and that experience was
too much for the American loyalists they fought. The Overmountain men won
the battle resoundingly, in one hour and five minutes.
Even when the Revolutionary war over, the settlers and the Indians continued their struggles over territory and hunting rights. The conflicts escalated to war in the early 1790's. On 17 Oct 1793, Alexander Kelso, Jr. was part of a large strike force led by Sevier, who attacked Hightower, a large Chickamaugan Cherokee village, on the site of present-day Rome, Georgia.
I have, to this date, 530
of his descendant (and their connections) in my database on Rootsweb WorldConnect
(see link
below). I have not included those
people born after 1900 unless I have a date of death. I have not tried to duplicate the efforts of others, like Joe Kelso, who have put great Kelso historical information on their websites. On Joe's Kelso Genealogy Resource Page you will find Alexander's pension info as well as photos of his grave and a mill Alexander and his brother built on the Tennessee River, plus much interesting info on the Kelso family as a whole. I highly recommend that you take a look at Joe's site. (See link below)
I also highly recommend Gene
Balch's website, "The Balch Family of Maryland" (see link below). Gene's
site deals with the ancestors and family of Margaret Balch, Alexander's wife,
whose father and brothers were prominent Presbyterian ministers. |
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Links pertinent to the Kelsos
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The Battle of King's
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