DuVal Family Association

The Duel which took Nathaniel DuVal's life

NATHANIEL POPE DUVAL was the oldest son of Major Claiborne DuVal and Elizabeth Pope. He was born in Richmond in 1785 and moved to Kentucky when he was nine years old.

He was an extraordinarily handsome and gallant man of that period. As he was passing a corner of a street in Louisville, KY on which was grouped some of the fashionable youth of the city, he heard a loud guffaw of laughter as one of them mentioned the name of his sweetheart. Immediately he slapped the face of the offender with his glove, and a duel resulted, in which he received a mortal wound.

It is said he sat with his back to a tree after he was shot, coolly smoking a cigar, until death ended the life he readily gave in defense of the honor of the name of the lady whom he loved.

His body was buried in the old Jefferson St. Cemetery, and a marble shaft was erected over his grave. No trace of either could be found in the spring of 1933 when diligent search was made for it by Miss Dorothy Laverty and Miss Pearl Buchanan in an effort to locate his grave and secure the date of his death.

The information above is taken from "The DuVals of Kentucky from Virginia" by Margaret Gwin Buchanan.