Robert Graham of Fort Chiswell

[110] Robert, the oth­er broth­er of David and James, Sr., who set­tled at Fort Chiswell, Wythe coun­ty, Vir­ginia, mar­ried in Ire­land (or Scot­land) Mary Craige, who bore him four sons and two daugh­ters. The names of the sons were: Samuel, John, Robert and James; the daugh­ters names being Mar­garet, who mar­ried a McGav­ock, and Nan­cy, who mar­ried a Crock­et. After the death of Robert Graham’s first wife, he mar­ried a Miss Cow­an, by whom he had three sons, David, Joseph and Calvin. From these have descend­ed a large and influ­en­tial fam­i­ly, who live in Wythe, Tazewell and adjoin­ing coun­ties.

Robert Gra­ham accu­mu­lat­ed a large land­ed prop­er­ty, which to this day is most­ly in the hands of his descen­dants. As a remark­able coin­ci­dence, it wil1 be observed that the names of five of Robert Graham’s sons are the same as five of the sons of his broth­ers, David and James. In Robert’s fam­i­ly, we have Samuel, John, James, David and Joseph, while in James’ fam­i­ly there is John, who was killed by the Indi­ans, Samuel, James and David; and David’s fam­i­ly, John and Joseph. These facts them­selves, if [111] oth­er evi­dence was want­i­ng, prove beyond a doubt that they were broth­ers.

Samuel M. Gra­ham, of Gra­ham, Vir­ginia, a great grand­son of Robert Gra­ham, who set­tled at Fort Chiswell, Vir­ginia, about 1774. He claims that his great grand­fa­ther and the writer’s grand­fa­ther, James, who set­tled at Low­ell about 1771, were broth­ers.

As a mark of mil­i­tary tack of this fam­i­ly, James was made a Colonel and his son, William, a Major of Mon­roe coun­ty, and Samuel, a son of Robert, was a major in Tazewell coun­ty. And as to their math­e­mat­i­cal pro­cliv­i­ties, the Gra­hams had a strong incli­na­tion. We can trace sev­en sur­vey­ors and four or five very promi­nent ones of the before named fam­i­ly.