Joseph and Rebecca Graham’s Children

Joseph and Rebec­ca Gra­ham had born to them four sons and five daugh­ters, whose names and date of birth are as fol­lows: Flo­rence, born Jan­u­ary 31, 1805; Lan­ty, born Decem­ber 8, 1806; John, born Feb­ru­ary 23, 1809; Jane, born April 6, 1811; James, born March 31, 1813; Eliz­a­beth, born July 19, 1815; Ann, born Octo­ber 16, 1818; David, born Jan­u­ary 1, 1821; Rebec­ca, born Decem­ber 13, 1823.

Flo­rence, the old­est daugh­ter, mar­ried John Nowl­an, who was a native of Car­rick on Suir Kilken­ny coun­ty, Ire­land, about 1835. After his mar­riage Nowl­an set­tled about two miles south­ward from his father-in-law’s, where he lived until his death in 1876. To them were born four chil­dren, one daugh­ter and three sons. The old­est, Rebec­ca, mar­ried George W. Hedrick, [75] broth­er of Moses Hedrick, pre­vi­ous­ly men­tioned. Rebec­ca Hedrick died in June 1863, leav­ing her hus­band and two chil­dren, Mary F. and Patrick, the lat­ter dying unmar­ried in the win­ter of 1884 at about the age of twen­ty-three years. Mary Flo­rence, the only remain­ing child of G. W. and Rebec­ca Hedrick, mar­ried Wm. Sher­wood and is liv­ing about two miles from Tal­cott this coun­ty.

Joseph, the old­est son of John and Flo­rence Nowl­an, mar­ried Mary Keeney, of Kanawha coun­ty, in the spring of 1865, and now lives on the farm near Stock Yard, owned eighty years ago by his grea­tun­cle, Samuel Gra­ham. To them were born a large fam­i­ly, among whom are John C., who is now a jus­tice of the Peace of this coun­ty; S. J., who lives at Stock Yard; Rebec­ca Flo­rence, who is now the wife of Rev. C. T. Kirt­ner, an able Bap­tist min­is­ter; Kel­lus P., who is a tele­graph oper­a­tor and agent for the C. & O. R’y. Co.; Wm. C., is a prac­tic­ing physi­cian at Tal­cott, W. Va.; Elmer is a lawyer with [76] his office at Hin­ton, W. Va.; Mac is engaged in the lum­ber busi­ness, and those still at home are Lawrence, George, Anna and Homer. John Nowl­an, Jr., sec­ond son of John and Flo­rence Nowl­an, died in 1862 unmar­ried at the age of 22 years. He died in Fayette coun­ty from the result of expo­sure inci­dent to the Civ­il War which was then in progress.

Patrick, the third son, was drowned Jan­u­ary 8, 1877, while cross­ing Green­bri­er riv­er at Haynes’ Ford, at the exact point where his great uncle, Samuel Gra­ham, met the same fate near­ly six­ty years before. The riv­er, being much swollen in each instance, washed their hors­es into deep water below the ford.

Flo­rence Nowl­an died Jan­u­ary 21, 1869, aged 64 years. John Nowl­an, Sr., died Novem­ber 4, 1876, hav­ing been born June 24, 1793, and was there­fore in his eighty-fourth year.

Lan­ty Gra­ham, the old­est son of Joseph and Rebec­ca Gra­ham, mar­ried Sarah Ellis, daugh­ter of James Ellis, in the year 1833, and first set­tled [77] on Green­bri­er riv­er, on a por­tion of what is now known as the Riffe farm. In the year 1836, he set­tled at the foot of Keeney’s Knob, a short dis­tance west of his father’s, where he lived until his death in 1880. He had a large fam­i­ly sev­er­al of whom died in their youth. Among those liv­ing and who have descen­dants now liv­ing, are James N., the old­est, who now lives at Hunt­ing­ton, W. Va., and is about six­ty-four years old, he being the old­est grand­son of Joseph Gra­ham now liv­ing. He is engaged in keep­ing a dairy and doing a suc­cess­ful busi­ness. The names of his chil­dren are: Lau­ra, a teacher in the pub­lic schools of the city of Hunt­ing­ton; Thomas C., who lives near Hunt­ing­ton; James Lewis, a sol­dier in the U. S. Army, who has recent­ly seen ser­vice in the Span­ish Amer­i­can War; and one or two oth­ers not grown.

Joseph Allen, the sec­ond son of Lan­ty Gra­ham, lives near his father’s home­stead. He mar­ried Susan Dubois in the year 1859, and has five chil­dren, all of whom are still liv­ing. Their [78] names are: Susan, a wife of J. L. Mead­ows of Alder­son, W. Va.; Martha J., wife of M. V. Wheel­er; David U. and Allen B. C., who live in this coun­ty; and George W. of Fayette coun­ty.

Rebec­ca J., eldest daugh­ter of Lan­ty Gra­ham, mar­ried Andrew Honaker May 18, 1865, and died in Jan­u­ary, 1882, leav­ing four sons, viz: Calvin L., lum­ber man­u­fac­tur­er; Oscar T., mer­chant; Mar­i­on and Charles W., all of whom are liv­ing near New Rich­mond, W. Va. There were two daugh­ters, Rebec­ca and Lelia, both of whom are dead.

Jehu Shan­non Gra­ham, third of the liv­ing sons of Lan­ty, mar­ried Frances Alder­son and now lives near Clay­ton, this coun­ty; they have sev­er­al chil­dren most of whom are yet small. Their names are: Min­nie; Clark L.; Floyd; Homer; Bertha; Hat­tie and Elmer. Jehu S. is a black­smith.

Lan­ty Gra­ham also had a son, Lan­ty Jack­son, who lived to man­hood and was a sol­dier in the Con­fed­er­ate army and died at Jack­son, Mis­sis­sip­pi in 1863.

[79] There were two grown daugh­ters, Mary and Eliza, who are dead.

Thomas Clay Gra­ham, youngest son of Lan­ty, mar­ried Melse­na Bryant in 1871 and now lives at his father’s home place and has two daugh­ters by his first wife: Lau­ra A., wife of James H. Har­ris, and Jen­nie, wife of Hugh P. Miller.

For his sec­ond wife he mar­ried Rosa Tay­lor in 1895 and by this union has one child whose name is Gol­da. He was for sev­er­al years in the lum­ber busi­ness, but now fol­lows the avo­ca­tion of farm­ing.

John, the sec­ond son of Joseph Gra­ham, lived unmar­ried until he was near­ly six­ty years of age; he then mar­ried Mary J. Crews, daugh­ter of Sed­ly Crews. They had no chil­dren. He lived oh his farm about one mile east of his father’s place. John Gra­ham held many posi­tions of trust and hon­or dur­ing his life. He was a sur­vey­or by pro­fes­sion and was long a deputy sur­vey­or of Green­bri­er coun­ty, and after­wards held the office of sur­vey­or of Mon­roe coun­ty. [80] In trac­ing old lines, locat­ing old land­marks or in mak­ing true and accu­rate sur­veys and maps he had few equals. In his long expe­ri­ence as a sur­vey­or he was often called upon to decide the lines of lands in lit­i­ga­tion, which, togeth­er with his expe­ri­ence in oth­er legal trans­ac­tions, as well as his incli­na­tion to acquire knowl­edge of this char­ac­ter, led him to be well post­ed in law, and his legal coun­sel was often sought by many with as much con­fi­dence as if he had been a prac­tic­ing lawyer at the bar. He died Octo­ber 25, 1893, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, leav­ing his lands and prop­er­ty amount­ing to sev­er­al thou­sand dol­lars to his wid­ow, who still holds and occu­pies it. His wid­ow mar­ried for her sec­ond hus­band Eli­jah Mead­ows in March, 1897.

Jane, the sec­ond daugh­ter of Joseph Gra­ham, died unmar­ried.

James Gra­ham, the third son of Joseph, also lived to an old age unmar­ried. In the year of 1877, in his six­ty-fourth year, he mar­ried Rebec­ca A. Vass, a daugh­ter of Cur­tis Vass. To this [81] union was born one daugh­ter, Mary Jane, who is now liv­ing. James Gra­ham spent sev­er­al years of his life in the west, in the states of Ohio, Indi­ana, Illi­nois, Mis­souri and Ken­tucky. He and his broth­er, John, vis­it­ed their many rela­tions in those states who had pre­vi­ous­ly moved from this coun­try. James returned from his last vis­it at the close of the Civ­il War and remained in this coun­try until his death, which occurred in 1889. He lived about one mile to the south­east of.his father’s home.

Eliz­a­beth, the third daugh­ter of Joseph Gra­ham, mar­ried Archibald Bal­lengee and set­tled on a por­tion of her father’s land. She died Jan­u­ary 12th, in the year 1857, leav­ing her hus­band and four chil­dren. Archibald Bal­lengee was born Novem­ber 13th, 1819, and died March 14th, 1894. The names of their chil­dren are as fol­lows: Cyn­thia Jane, who mar­ried J. H. Bow­den; Martha Flo­rence, the wife of J. H. Har­rah; Mary Hicks, wife of Mar­i­on Hicks; and one son, Hern­don Bal­lengee. All of these live in this coun­ty, ex- [82] cept Martha Har­rah, who lives in Rock­bridge coun­ty, Vir­ginia. All have chil­dren whose names are not all known.

Ann Gra­ham, the fourth daugh­ter of Joseph Gra­ham, died in 1837, at the age of nine­teen years, unmar­ried.

David, the youngest son, mar­ried Sarah Alder­son, daugh­ter of James Alder­son, and has six liv­ing chil­dren, name­ly: Joseph Ulysses, who mar­ried Sarah S. Flint, daugh­ter of Jere­mi­ah Flint, and who now lives in Charleston, West Vir­ginia. He is engaged in the lum­ber busi­ness there and but recent­ly moved from New Rich­mond, West Vir­ginia, where he oper­at­ed a saw and plan­ing mill for many years. He has six liv­ing chil­dren.

Zora E., the old­est, who mar­ried Lon­nie E. Bur­dette, and who is doing an exten­sive lum­ber busi­ness on Elk Riv­er.

Het­tie A., mar­ried Wash­ing­ton Bur­dette and lives at New Rich­mond. The names of the four remain­ing at home are Julia, Mabel, Elbert and Myr­tle. They also have four chil­dren dead: Emma and Luel­la both died at about the age of 16 years; the oth­ers [83] died in infan­cy.

Charles H. Gra­ham, sec­ond son of David, lives at Clay­ton, this coun­ty, on the farm for­mer­ly owned by his father. He mar­ried Min­er­va S. Bal­lengee, daugh­ter of John R. Bal­lengee, and to them were born three chil­dren, name­ly; Oth­er, Clara and Frank; the first two named being stu­dents at the Con­cord Nor­mal School at Athens, West Vir­ginia. He is engaged in the lum­ber busi­ness, farm­ing and oth­er pur­suits and has served his coun­ty as Jus­tice of the Peace. His wife died in August, 1897.

James A. Gra­ham, third son of David, mar­ried Sabi­na S., only daugh­ter of Ezekial Flint, and now lives in Hin­ton. Their liv­ing chil­dren are Hunter, the old­est, who is now a clerk in the Inte­ri­or Depart­ment of the Gov­ern­ment, at Wash­ing­ton; those at home are Roscoe, engaged in plumb­ing busi­ness; Cora; Her­bert; Mat­tie; Sey­mour and Anna. James A. is engaged in the [84] flour­ing mill busi­ness and also has mer­can­tile and oth­er com­mer­cial inter­ests. He has served his coun­ty as Jus­tice of the Peace and is now a mem­ber of the Coun­ty Court of Sum­mers Coun­ty.

Luther P. Gra­ham, fourth son of David, also lives in Hin­ton and mar­ried Mado­ra M. Miller for his first wife, his sec­ond wife being Jen­nie Hamer, daugh­ter of the late A. W. Hamer, of Hin­ton. The names of his liv­ing chil­dren are as fol­lows: Cecil, the old­est; Emmons; Car­rie and Ernest; the last three named being of his sec­ond wife. He is engaged in mer­can­tile and oth­er com­mer­cial busi­ness of Hin­ton.

Syd­ney Ann, only daugh­ter of David Gra­ham, mar­ried, first George G. Sta­ton, and after his death, mar­ried for her sec­ond hus­band M. L. Dun­can. She now lives in Cen­tral City, West Vir­ginia, and has sev­er­al chil­dren, whose names are as fol­lows: Geor­gia G., by the first hus­band, and Porter, Fred­die and Homer, by the sec­ond hus­band. Her hus­band is engaged in oper­at­ing a box fac­to­ry at Cen­tral City.

[85] John W., the youngest son of David Gra­ham, mar­ried Frankie Lowry, daugh­ter of Law­son Lowry, of Fayette coun­ty. They have one liv­ing child, whose name is Lowry. He is now liv­ing in Hin­ton and is edi­tor of the Hin­ton Leader.

David Gra­ham is the only mem­ber of Joseph Graham’s fam­i­ly now liv­ing. He, like his broth­er, John, is also a prac­ti­cal sur­vey­or and held the office of deputy sur­vey­or of Mon­roe coun­ty many years ago and oth­er posi­tions of trust and hon­or.

His wife died Feb­ru­ary 27, 1878. For sev­er­al years he has not kept house, but enjoyed him­self in his declin­ing days in the homes of his chil­dren.

Rebec­ca, the youngest daugh­ter of Joseph and Rebec­ca Gra­ham, mar­ried in 1842 John R. Bal­lengee, son of George Bal­lengee, and set­tled first at the mouth of Green­bri­er riv­er. It may here be remarked that George Bal­lengee was one of the old­est set­tlers at the mouth of Green­bri­er, his father, Isaac Bal­lengee, hav­ing locat­ed there about the year 1780, when George was about one year old. They came there from North Car­oli­na and are of French descent.

[86] After liv­ing a few years at the mouth of Green­bri­er, Rebec­ca and her hus­band locat­ed on a por­tion of her father’s land, near the foot of Keeney’s Knob and died there in the year 1852, leav­ing three chil­dren, who are now liv­ing, name­ly: Anna G., the old­est, who mar­ried first, John Nowl­an, who was a native of Ire­land, and sec­ond­ly, G. W. Bur­dette. To her last hus­band were born five chil­dren; John L., Bessie; Blanche; Ida and Oscar, all of whom are liv­ing and sin­gle.

David Gra­ham Bal­lengee, the old­est son of John and Rebec­ca, mar­ried Del­phia Flint, daugh­ter of J. D. Flint, and now lives at the old Joseph Gra­ham home­stead at Clay­ton. He has a large fam­i­ly of five sons and six daugh­ters, all liv­ing, and most­ly grown. George, the old­est, mar­ried Isabelle Mann; David, the sec­ond son, mar­ried Helen Kel­ley; John, the third son, mar­ried Emma Ersk­ine and is engaged in the lum­ber busi­ness, the oth­er two sons being farm­ers. The chil­dren unmar­ried and remain­ing at home are Ella, Sal­lie, Minor, Dora, Etta, Emma, Homer and Grace.

[87] David G. Bal­lengee is engaged in farm­ing and is suc­cess­ful in his cho­sen occu­pa­tion.

Mary J., youngest daugh­ter of Rebec­ca and John Bal­lengee, mar­ried, first, Robert Carter and, after his death, mar­ried Andrew H. Honaker. She now lives near Clay­ton and has four liv­ing chil­dren: Otey C. Carter, the old­est (liv­ing); Alice; George and Wal­ter, the three last named being chil­dren of her sec­ond hus­band.

Joseph Gra­ham, whose fam­i­ly and descen­dants we have thus described, died Decem­ber 8, 1857, at the advanced age of 91 years, two months and eigh­teen days, hav­ing been born Sep­tem­ber 20th, 1766. His wife Rebecca’s death occurred near­ly twen­ty years lat­er at the age of 90 years, one month and thir­teen days. Joseph Gra­ham, togeth­er with his wife, was a large landown­er, he hav­ing accu­mu­lat­ed near­ly two thou­sand acres of land in one com­pact body, besides oth­er out­ly­ing lands not con­tigu­ous to the main body. Near­ly the whole of this land is today in the hands of his descen­dants. The home tract, on which he [88] lived and con­tain­ing three hun­dred and thir­ty acres was sur­veyed and patent­ed by James Gra­ham, Sr., in the year 1786 and by him giv­en to his daugh­ter and has been in the fam­i­ly for more than one hun­dred years.

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