After leaving the militia, in 1779 John and his brother Samuel built a cabin along Guist Creek, about five miles north of Squire Boone's Station in what is now Shelby County, Kentucky.
John married Mary Brooks (1766–1843) of Virginia in 1783 and took her back to Kentucky a year later, after selling his land in Spottsylvania County.
[2] John died on his plantation outside of Hodgenville on January 4, 1792, and was buried in the old Phillips Fort Cemetery.
[2] In 1809, John's widow, Mary, who by this time had remarried, served as the midwife for the birth of Abraham Lincoln on the nearby Sinking Spring Farm.
John's daughter, Maraget LaRue Walters (1789–1864), is also believed to have been present, as well as his niece, Rebecca Hodgen Kieth (1784–1845).