Having thus briefly sketched the descendants of Ann Graham Kincaid, we will now take up the meager account we have of another daughter of John Graham, Sr. His daughter, Betsy, married Robert Armstrong, probably as far back as 1750 to 1760. The best information we have of the number of children and their names of this family is taken from the deposition of Mrs. Alice Cavendish of Bath county in 1818 in a chancery suit between Graham and Armstrong in Monroe county. We are also indebted to these depositions for other valuable information.
Robert Armstrong settled in Bath county on Jackson river and lived there till about the year 1803 or 1804, when he moved to the state of Ohio. The place on Jackson river at or near which he lived was called Mann’s Bottom. At the time he moved west he had living five children; three sons and two daughters, whose names [36] were Elizabeth, Margaret, Archibald, Thomas and Robert. Margaret married Joel Walker; Elizabeth married first Thomas Mann and, after his death, married James Steele of Monroe county. Joel Walker and family moved to Ohio presumably at or near the same time that his father-in-law, Robert Armstrong, moved. Thomas Armstrong also moved to Ohio. Archibald married a Miss Scott of Greenbrier county, who was a sister to both the wives of Lanty and Mathew Kincaid. Archibald settled on Anthony’s Creek and his descendants are still to be found in Greenbrier county. His daughter married Cornelius Rodgers, who lived and died near Blue Sulph,.Ir Springs and of her children there are now living: John, Moses and Archibald Rodgers and their two sisters, Mrs. Keeney, widow of the late John Keeney, and a Mrs. Patterson. Archibald Armstrong also had a son, Robert, but of his descendants the writer has no information.
As previously stated, Elizabeth Armstrong [37] first married Thomas Mann and to them was born one son, William T. Mann, who lived near Fort Springs in Greenbrier county and owned a large estate there. He lived to an old age and died some eighteen or twenty years ago. He was the father of Aleck, John, Thomas, Mathew and James Mann, the latter two are living. Mathew lives at Fort Springs in Greenbrier county and James at Alderson, Monroe county. of the children of Elizabeth, by her second husband, James Steele, there are two still living: Mrs. Tilda Perry and Eliza, her maiden sister, both of whom are nearing their ninetieth year. They live near Sinks Grove in Monroe county. The other children of James Steele were Dr. John Steele, who moved to Illinois many years ago, and B. Frank Steele, the oldest, who was a successful merchant at Union for many years, and who also for many years was Sheriff of Monroe county. He lived to a very old age.
Of the remaining children of John Graham, Sr., tradition does not furnish sufficient data, or [38] the records we have examined sufficient information to venture to recite even a meager account of their descendants. By his will as well as other documents we learn that there were other sons and daughters as previously named, but except as to the history of the descendants of his daughter, Florence, who was the writer’s grandmother, we must leave to others to give further search of the archives of counties and states and to knit together the scraps of tradition that may be gathered here and there to complete the task we have begun.
It will be noticed by his will, which is inserted on another page, that one Joseph Robinson was a subscribing witness, as was also John Kincaid. As already stated, John Kincaid was a son-in-law of the testator, having married his daughter, Anne, and from circumstances which we have been able to gather, it is believed that Robinson was also a son-in-law and, if so, he married Rebecca, as the husbands of the other four, Jane, Betsy, Anne and Florence, are known, as pre- [39] viously mentioned. This, however, is inserted as conjecture rather than a fact.
The assessor’s books of Augusta county show that Robert Graham was assessed in the year 1800 with considerable amount of lands. This is believed to be the same Robert Graham as mentioned in the will and a son of John Graham, Sr. Strange to say, there seems to have been no assessment records kept in Augusta county from its organization in 1745 to 1800. Neither does there exist any record of marriage licenses in that county until the year 1785 — forty years after the formation of the county. The records of these two important items being wanting, much valuable information that otherwise could have been easily obtained is entirely lost.
In the year 1781 the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act exonerating one James Graham, Sheriff of Augusta County, from the payment of seventy-five thousand dollars, of which he had.been robbed. While positive proof is not at hand identifying the family connection of this man, [40] every reasonable supposition points to the fact that he was the son of John Graham, Sr. No other family of Grahams are known to have resided in Augusta county at that time, with the exception of the three sons of Michael Graham, who emigrated from Lancaster county, Pa., about that date, and whose names were William, Michael and Edward.