Slaves of James Graham, Sr.

In addi­tion to the land and oth­er prop­er­ty donat­ed by James Gra­ham, Sr., to his chil­dren, he also gave to each one or more negro slaves.

To his descen­dants (for whom this book is espe­cial­ly writ­ten) it may not be unin­ter­est­ing to know the names of the slaves and to whom they were giv­en, espe­cial­ly to the younger gen­er­a­tion, to whom may have been hand­ed down the names of slaves owned by their imme­di­ate ances­tors, with­out the accom­pa­ny­ing infor­ma­tion of from whence they came. To such it is hoped that a very brief sketch of his slaves and to whom, they descend­ed will be ful­ly par­don­able and even appre­ci­at­ed.

To his son, William, he gave a negro man named Bob, who died while in his (William’s) pos­ses­sion.

To his son, David, was giv­en a negro man named Neese, and also a negro woman, whose [115] name was Phillis. David also owned sev­er­al oth­er slaves.

A negro man named Plim was giv­en to his son, James, Jr., at whose death he fell to his wid­ow, who kept him till she moved west in 1827, when he was sold to James Jar­rett of Mud­dy Creek. Jar­rett was a broth­er of the wid­ow.

To his son, Samuel, was giv­en a negro man named Cae­sar, who remained in the fam­i­ly until about the year 1836, when he was sold, the wid­ow of Samuel hav­ing about that time moved to Ten­nessee. Cae­sar spent the remain­der of his days at Union, Mon­roe coun­ty.

To the youngest son, Lan­ty, descend­ed a negro named Ben, who, at the mov­ing away to the west of Lanty’s wid­ow in 1841, passed into the hands of Joel Stodghill, as did also the negress, Phillas, who belonged to David. Ben and Phillis were man and wife, after the man­ner of such rela­tions as exist­ed among slaves.

To Eliz­a­beth Stodghill, his old­est daugh­ter, he gave a negro ser­vant whose name can­not now be recalled.

[116] To his sec­ond daugh­ter, Jane Jar­rett, he gave a negro names Rose. Rose lived a a very old age and died in the Jar­rett fam­i­ly about 1850 to 1860.

To his third daugh­ter, Rebec­ca, descend­ed a negress named Dian­na, which name was always abbre­vi­at­ed to “Dine”.  “Dine” lived to see slav­ery abol­ished and died only a few years ago.

His fourth daugh­ter, Flo­rence Tay­lor, fell heir to a negro woman named Clara, who, when Flo­rence moved to Indi­ana, was sold to Peter Miller of Mon­roe coun­ty.

After thus pro­vid­ing for his chil­dren by giv­ing each a slave as named, there were oth­er slaves dis­posed of at his death.

There are a few names in these pages that are spelled dif­fer­ent, but are intend­ed for the same names, viz: Ann, Anne and Anna, and Eliz­a­beth, Bet­tie and Bet­sy. if you will notice in John Gra­ham, Sr.’s will, in these pages, his wife was named Eliz­a­beth, his daughter’s name was Bet­ty. In said will he bequeathed some lega­cies to his [117] daugh­ter, Flo­rence, and in the same will he gave some prop­er­ty to his daugh­ter, Flo­ra. Of course, Flo­rence and Flo­ra was the same per­son. To illus­trate, in my ear­ly man­hood days, a Mr. S. court­ed a Miss Pat­sy S., and when her father gave a cer­tifi­cate to the Clerk to issue license for his daugh­ter Martha to mar­ry James S., James S. said that was not the girl he court­ed, it was Miss Pat­sy he want­ed.

3 thoughts on “Slaves of James Graham, Sr.”

  1. I am a descend­ed from john and eliz­a­beth gra­ham. My grand­fa­ther is Earl Gra­ham i would like to know more so would the rest of my fam­i­ly

    Reply
  2. hi crys­tal did you find any oth­er infor­ma­tion on the gra­hams, earl gra­ham do you know his father was an where they lived in vir­ginia my grand­moth­er was a gra­ham from rad­ford va her father carl gra­ham his father allen gra­ham then asa gra­ham an I think asa had a son ear­le so they might be the same not sure let me know.….…Vicky

    Reply
  3. My moth­er was Mar­garet Bal­lengee Pavlick. Her grand­moth­er was a Gra­ham. I asked my cousins if they knew any­thing about slaves in the fam­i­ly.

    John LeMas­ters of Goshen IN said that he remem­bers his grand­par­ents hav­ing “Aunt Di” liv­ing with them. He only knew she was “dif­fer­ent”, mean­ing col­or.

    Reply

Leave a Comment