James and Florence Graham’s Family

We will now return to the geneal­o­gy of the Gra­ham fam­i­ly. James Gra­ham and Flo­rence, his wife, had born to them ten chil­dren, six sons and four daugh­ters, whose names were as fol­lows: William, born Decem­ber 25th, 1765; John, born Decem­ber 22nd, 1767; Eliz­a­beth, born March 29, 1770; David, born March 24, 1772; Jane, born Sep­tem­ber 4th, 1774; James, born 1777; Samuel, born 1780; Lan­ty, born 1783; Rebec­ca, born Jan­u­ary 13, 1786; and Flo­rence, born May 3rd, 1789.

William, the old­est, mar­ried in 1809, Cather­ine John­son, daugh­ter of Robert John­son of Johnson’s Cross Roads, and set­tled on the farm more recent­ly owned by the late D. M. Riffe. This tract of land con­tain­ing four hun­dred acres, most­ly riv­er bot­tom, was sur­veyed and [58] patent­ed by William Gra­ham in 1785. At the first court held for the orga­ni­za­tion of Mon­roe coun­ty in 1799, William Gra­ham was appoint­ed Mil­i­tary Major of the six­ty-sixth reg­i­ment of Vir­ginia.  He was also appoint­ed Jus­tice of the Peace at the orga­ni­za­tion of said coun­ty and held the office con­tin­u­ous­ly for thir­ty-sev­en years or until his death.  In the year 1809 he was elect­ed as a Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of his coun­ty to the Gen­er­al Assem­bly of Vir­ginia and served accept­ably in that body in the ses­sion of the win­ter of 1809-10. He had three chil­dren, James (No. 2), William and Bet­ty. James was born in the year 1810 and mar­ried Pat­sy Guinn, daugh­ter of Joseph Guinn. William, Jr., born 1812, mar­ried Rebec­ca Kin­caid, daugh­ter of Lan­ty Kin­caid, and had three chil­dren, James Lan­ty, the Nim­rod (see sketch of the Lan­ty Kin­caid fam­i­ly), Katy and Julia. Both William, Jr., and his broth­er, James, moved to Mis­souri in the year 1841. William died there a few years lat­er. James went from Mis­souri to Cal­i­for­nia in the [59] great rush for gold in 1849. He again vis­it­ed his native coun­ty about the year 1866. He died but a few years ago in Mis­souri. Bet­tie mar­ried Allen Ellis, son of Jacob Ellis, and moved to Ohio, where sev­er­al years lat­er they both died. They had three chil­dren, one of whom, Edgar Ellis, lived soon after the civ­il war on Wolf Creek, Mon­roe coun­ty, but lat­er moved away.

William Gra­ham, Sr., died in June 1836, in his sev­en­ty-first year.

John, the sec­ond son of Col. James Gra­ham, was killed by the Indi­ans in 1777, fur­ther men­tion of which will be made in these pages. To Eliz­a­beth, the old­est daugh­ter, who was cap­tured by the Indi­ans, will also be reserved fur­ther space.

David, the third son, mar­ried Mary Stodghill about the year 1795 and first set­tled at the mouth of Hungart’s Creek, on what is now the Wood­son farm. The dwelling house now on that farm, was built by him. He was a com­pe­tent land sur­vey­or and held the office of Deputy Sur­vey­or of Green­bri­er Coun­ty under Alexan­der Welch, as [60] prin­ci­pal Sur­vey­or when he was but lit­tle more than twen­ty-one years of age. He was also made Lieu­tenant of one of the com­pa­nies of the 66th Vir­ginia Reg­i­ment. He had three sons whose names were: James (No. 4), David and Har­ri­son; and one daugh­ter named Sal­lie, who mar­ried Jonathan Gavy Tuck­er, a Methodist preach­er. James mar­ried Jane, a.daughter of Archibald Arm­strong, a son of the Emer­ald Isle, and set­tled on what is known as the Fluke or Bacon farm. It was he who built what is now Bacon’s mills.

David and Har­ri­son moved to the west unmar­ried. David Gra­ham, Sr., died in the year 1818, aged forty-six years. His wid­ow, togeth­er with all his chil­dren moved to Schugler coun­ty, Illi­nois in the year 1836.

Jane, the sec­ond daugh­ter of Col. James Gra­ham, mar­ried David Jar­rett about the year 1792 and first set­tled near Buf­fa­lo Lick (Pence’s Springs) on the farm recent­ly owned by the late Edwin Mays. A few years after­ward they moved to Kanawha coun­ty and after a brief stay then [61] moved to the falls of Tug Riv­er and still lat­er they set­tled in the Lev­isa Fork of Big Sandy riv­er in Ken­tucky, where their descen­dants still live.

David and Jane Jar­rett raised three sons and eight daugh­ters, name­ly: James, Ulysses and David W. were the sons. The daugh­ters were: Pol­ly, who mar­ried a Mr. Cham­bers. They had one daugh­ter, who mar­ried a Mr. Vin­cent. The names of the oth­er mem­bers of the Cham­bers fam­i­ly, with excep­tion of Robert and Nan­cy, can­not now be recalled.

Flo­rence, the sec­ond daugh­ter, mar­ried Jar­rett See and raised a large fam­i­ly: one daugh­ter, of which Flo­rence mar­ried Jas. Well­man, and resides in Cat­tles­burg, Ky.

Jane, the third daugh­ter, mar­ried a Mr. Rat­cliff; of her descen­dants we know noth­ing.

Nan­cy, the fourth daugh­ter, mar­ried William Rat­cliff; they had sev­er­al chil­dren.

Han­nah, the fifth daugh­ter, mar­ried Charles Wil­son.

[62] Eliz­a­beth, the sixth daugh­ter, mar­ried a Mr. Goff.

Sarah Ann, the sev­enth daugh­ter, mar­ried a Mr. Patrick. Some of her chil­dren are liv­ing in Ken­tucky.

Min­er­va, the eighth daugh­ter, mar­ried Chancey Kize. They had four chil­dren; Ben­jamin, David, Ulysses and Thomas.

James was twice mar­ried, but know noth­ing of his descen­dants.

Ulysses mar­ried Lydia Stafford; they had a large fam­i­ly, all of whom are dead, except­ing one daugh­ter, who lives in Mis­souri.

David W., the only one of the chil­dren of David Jar­rett and Jane (Gra­ham) Jar­rett now liv­ing, mar­ried Nan­cy Dyer. The names of his sons are: Isadore, the old­est; Owen, Bernard P., Arnoldus, Ulysses, Michael M. and Lee and one daugh­ter, Onol­da, who mar­ried Jef­fer­son Burgess. David Jar­rett, Sr., born 1771, died about the year 1838 and his wife in the year 1853. They are both buried in a vault above ground on the [63] farm on which they lived. It was the writer’s plea­sure to vis­it his aunt Jane Jar­rett in Ken­tucky in the year 1844 and fifty-two years lat­er he again vis­it­ed the old home of his aunt, but found but few faces that greet­ed him a half cen­tu­ry before. out of eleven cousins of the Jar­rett fam­i­ly, but one, David W., as stat­ed, remains. He occu­pies a por­tion of the farm owned by his father. There are many descen­dants of David Jar­rett, Sr., and Jane Gra­ham Jar­rett to be found in Lawrence and adjoin­ing coun­ties of Ken­tucky. Among whom we might men­tion the names of Ben­jamin, Thomas and Ulysses Kize, who were sons of Min­er­va Kize and grand­sons of David Jar­rett, Sr.

Dr. York, liv­ing near Louisa, a promi­nent physi­cian, is also a descen­dant, his moth­er being a Rat­cliff. Also might be men­tioned the Wilsons, Cham­bers, Vin­cents, John­sons and oth­ers. Ulysses Jar­rett, son of David, Dr., died some years after the civ­il war, and was in his day quite promi­nent, hav­ing one time rep­re­sent­ed his coun­ty [64] in the Ken­tucky Leg­is­la­ture and filled oth­er posi­tions of hon­or. It may here be observed that the name as claimed by this fam­i­ly is Garred, but they being a branch of the fam­i­ly now most­ly of Green­bri­er coun­ty, whose names are writ­ten Jar­rett. We have adopt­ed that orthog­ra­phy in this writ­ing.

Leav­ing the fur­ther geneal­o­gy of the Jar­rett branch of the fam­i­ly, we will now take up that of James Gra­ham, Jr., fourth son of James Gra­ham, Sr. James mar­ried Leah Jar­rett, a sis­ter of James Jar­rett, Sr., of Green­bri­er coun­ty, in the year 1800 and locat­ed on a por­tion of the farm recent­ly owned by the late D. M. Riffe, he own­ing and occu­py­ing the upper por­tion and his broth­er, as before stat­ed, the low­er end of said farm. This farm at that day, and even for years after­wards, was believed to be the most pro­duc­tive bot­tom land on Green­bri­er riv­er.

To James add Leah Gra­ham were born five sons and two daugh­ters. The names of the sons: James, Hiram, Jehu, Ezra and Cyrus; and the [65] daugh­ters, Cyn­thia and Bet­sey. Of these, James mar­ried a Miss Bur­dette of Mon­roe coun­ty; Bet­sey, a Mr. Heffn­er of Green­bri­er coun­ty; and Hiram mar­ried Nan­cy Gra­ham, daugh­ter of Samuel Gra­ham. The remain­ing chil­dren were unmar­ried pri­or to their mov­ing to the west.

James Gra­ham, Jr., died about the year 1815 of a dis­ease known in local phrase­ol­o­gy as “The Milk Dis­or­der” or milk dis­ease. This dis­ease was believed to be con­tract­ed by drink­ing milk from cows which had eat­en some poi­so­nous weed, herb or grass. Strange to say, what this poi­so­nous sub­stance was could nev­er be found out. A search of the pas­ture fields and the removal of every sus­pi­cious weed failed to pre­vent an attack of this dis­ease. While some farms were believed to be infest­ed with this plague and oth­ers to be free, the occu­pants of one seemed as liable to the dis­ease as oth­ers. It was a dread­ful mal­a­dy and baf­fled the skill of all the physi­cians and gen­er­al­ly proved fatal to those whose mis­for­tune it was to take it. It was usu­al­ly brought on [66] in its most fatal form by overex­er­tion or over­heat­ing. Cat­tle were sub­ject to it as well as their own­ers.

About the year 1827 the wid­ow of James Gra­ham, Jr., moved to Tippeca­noe coun­ty, Indi­ana. Her son, James, was a Cap­tain in the Black Hawk War of 1832, since which time but lit­tle is known of this fam­i­ly.

Next in order of the chil­dren of James Gra­ham comes his fifth son, Samuel. Samuel mar­ried Sal­lie Jar­rett, daugh­ter of David Jar­rett (this David Jar­rett being the father of the David Jar­rett that mar­ried Jane Gra­ham), about the year 1808 and set­tled on the Green­bri­er riv­er on the farm owned and occu­pied by Joseph Nowl­an. This land was entered and patent­ed by James Gra­ham, Sr., about the year 1785. To Samuel Gra­ham were born five chil­dren: James Madi­son, the old­est; Nan­cy; Bet­sy; David and Susan.

Nan­cy mar­ried Hiram Gra­ham, her cousin, who was a son of James Gra­ham, a broth­er of Samuel. [67] Susan mar­ried Andrew Jar­rett, who was a son of James Jar­rett, Sr., a broth­er of the late James and Joseph Jar­rett of Green­bri­er coun­ty. Andrew and his fam­i­ly moved to Mis­souri in the year 1840. Madi­son (James Madi­son) went to Ten­nessee about the year 1835 unmar­ried. Samuel Gra­ham was drowned in Green­bri­er riv­er while ford­ing on horse­back at a ford near his home, now known as Hayne’s Ford, in March 1819. His wid­ow, after his death, mar­ried Ben­jamin E. Blaine and moved to Ten­nessee about the year 1835. The two remain­ing chil­dren, David and Bet­sy, went to Mis­souri unmar­ried.

The farm owned by Samuel Gra­ham, con­tain­ing about four hun­dred acres, descend­ed to his son-in-law, Andrew Jar­rett, and was by him sold to Madi­son Haynes in 1840 and a por­tion of it, includ­ing the Gra­ham home, was pur­chased by Joseph Nowl­an from the descen­dants of Madi­son Haynes in the year 1884.

Lan­ty, the sixth son of James Gra­ham, Sr., mar­ried Eliz­a­beth Stodghill in 1814, and re- [68] mained on the home place of his father at Low­ell. The names of his chil­dren were as fol­lows: James Jack­son, born in 1815; Flo­rence, born in 1817; Mary, born in 1819; Emma, born in 1821; Jane, born in 1823; Sarah, born in 1825; also John, Eras­tus and Martha; we can­not give the date of birth. Those who mar­ried before the fam­i­ly went to the west were Flo­rence, who mar­ried John Guinn, son of Samuel Guinn, Jr., and grand­son of Samuel Guinn, Sr. Mary mar­ried Thomas B. Guinn, son of Andrew Guinn, and also a grand­son of Samuel, Sr. Mrs. Mary Guinn is the only mem­ber of the Lan­ty Gra­ham fam­i­ly now liv­ing in this coun­ty. She lives as the home of her late hus­band, togeth­er with her daugh­ter, Mrs. Louise Coin­er, about a mile south­east of Low­ell. She is now in her eight­i­eth year and well pre­served, both men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly for one of her age. Emma mar­ried James Bal­lengee, son of Hen­ry Bal­lengee, who for­mer­ly lived at the mouth of Green­bri­er riv­er, where a part of the town of Hin­ton is now locat­ed.

Lan­ty Gra­ham died in 1839.

[69] After his death, his wid­ow and all the unmar­ried chil­dren moved to Mis­souri, about the year 1840 to 1841. Those who were mar­ried also moved away about the same time and their descen­dants are now scat­tered over the West­ern States, with the excep­tion of Mrs. Mary Guinn and her chil­dren, grand­chil­dren, &c, who long since returned from their west­ern home and set­tled in the coun­ty of her nativ­i­ty, as already stat­ed.

There are three of Lan­ty Graham’s chil­dren liv­ing in Davies coun­ty, Mis­souri, name­ly: John S. Gra­ham; Jane, nee Gra­ham; and Martha, nee Gra­ham. We are indebt­ed to John S. Gra­ham for the fol­low­ing: he is liv­ing in Pat­tons­burg, Mo.; mar­ried a daugh­ter of John Mead­ows, a grand­daugh­ter of Joseph Guinn of Mon­roe coun­ty, W. Va. He has two daugh­ters liv­ing near him. He and his daugh­ters, it is claimed, are in good cir­cum­stances finan­cial­ly. His sis­ters, Jane and Martha, are wid­ows; they live near him. Their chil­dren are all mar­ried and scat­tered from home.

[70] Flo­rence, younger daugh­ter of James Gra­ham, Sr., mar­ried William Tay­lor, son of Natliff Tay­lor, one of the ear­li­er set­tlers of this local­i­ty and set­tled on Hun­garts Creek about one mile north­west of what is now Stock Yard Sta­tion on the farm now known as the “Bush place”. The dwelling house now occu­pied on this farm by C. E. Mann was built by William Tay­lor near­ly nine­ty years ago. William and Flo­rence Tay­lor had born to them sev­er­al chil­dren, but as they left this coun­try before they were grown, their names can­not now all be giv­en. John, James and Flo­rence are the only names now remem­bered. They moved to Tippeca­noe coun­ty, Indi­ana, and set­tled on the land where now extends a por­tion of the city of Lafayette. Flo­rence Tay­lor, her son, John, and her daugh­ter, Flo­rence, vis­it­ed their rela­tions in their native coun­ty in 1851, since which time but lit­tle is known of them.