05/14/2026
Cooper County Revolutionary War soldier story by Eric McNeal.
For the 1000th post of M2HA on this page, I am happy to bring you the story of another Revolutionary War Patriot.
In Wear Cemetery, on the border of Cooper and Morgan County, is found the final resting place of one of the Revolutionary Patriots – a man named Achilles Jackson Eubank. Like many who settled in Missouri, Achilles was born in Virginia, specifically Goochland County. His parents were Richard Eubank and Polly Carlton. Born July 31, 1758, records indicate that he was possibly a twin as a sibling named Richard also has a birthdate of 1758. Both of these men fought for the Independence of our nation.
Achilles enlisted five times between 1777 and 1781, serving roughly twenty months in total during the eight year war. In July 1777, he served at Fort Boonesborough under Captain Charles Watkins. Following the capture of Daniel Boone by the Shawnee in February 1778, Eubank was dispatched as a high-priority “express” messenger to Virginia alongside Squire Boone – the younger brother of Daniel Boone. Other portions of his enlistment included action at Guilford Court House in March 1781 and the Siege of Yorktown that fall. He was present to witness the surrender of Lord Cornwallis in October that year.
On July 19, 1779, in the midst of the war, Achilles married Mary “Polly” Bush. The marriage took place in Bedford County and six children were born to that union. The family settled in Clark County, Kentucky around 1787. His land holdings eventually grew to nearly three hundred acres. He served as an attorney, a piorneer justice, and was twice elected sheriff of Clark County. From 1799 to 1800, he represented the county in the Kentucky Legislature. In 1812 he build a large brick house that still stands to this day and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
He continued service in the military, joining the “Cornstalk Militia.” This early Kentucky militia was known for drilling with cornstalks instead of muskets due to a lack of proper equipment. The militia served as the frontier’s primary defense system until the end of the native Indian threat. In 1799 he was commissioned as a Major in that militia, a title he carried with him for the rest of his life. Family tradition holds that he fought in the War of 1812 and was captured by Indians – forced to run the gauntlet and barely escaped with his life. He returned to his farm in Clark County and lived there until tragedy struck.
His wife, Polly, passed away in 1830. Shortly thereafter, Achilles divided his estate among his children and moved to Cooper County, Missouri. In 1837, at the age of 79, he married Nancy Ware who was aged 23 to 27, depending on the source. To this union were born six additional children, several of whom have been the subject of this page and its covering of personalities of the Bethlehem and Vermont Station area.
In the 1840 census, Achilles Eubanks was listed as a resident landowner in Cooper County. His household consisted of three males who were under the age of five, two males aged 5-10, and himself – aged 80-90. His wife is not named but listed as a female aged 20-30. The census reveals another part of his legacy – he was enumerated as the owner of ten slaves.
Major Achilles Jackson Eubank passed away on August 16, 1844 in Cooper County, Missouri at the age of 86. He was laid to rest at Ware Cemetery, though the headstone is lost to history and his exact location in the cemetery is unknown. His second wife, Nancy, does not appear to have remarried. Four of sons from that marriage served in the Confederate army, and did not survive the American Civil War. His oldest was taken as a P.O.W. in late 1861 and appears to have not fought the remainder of the war, but instead was a community leader in the Bethlehem area. He has a prominent gravesite at the center of the Bethlehem cemetery.
The brother of Achilles, Richard, enlisted as a private in a Virginia Company in 1776 and was eventually made a sergeant in the 14th Virginia Regiment, and later the 10th Virginia Regiment. His tombstone is carved from a meteor that his great-grandchildren dug out of a hillside in Churchill, Virginia. On it is detailed an extraordinary service – he was the coxswain of the boat that took George Washington across the Delaware in December 1776.
Major Achilles Eubank and his family are heavily tied to multiple wars in Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, and American History. His ties to Daneil Boone and Yorktown place him in the presence of prominent personalities and events that detail our fight for Independence and our taming of the frontier. As an early settler in Cooper County, his service is certainly worth acknowledgement on this page and I am happy to bring his story to you.
Thanks for reading,
Eric, M2 Historian
