USA > West Virginia > Summers County > History of Summers County from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81
Bull Falls, at the west end of Crump's Bottom, is also good water power, and has recently been purchased by Dr. J. A. Fox, of Hinton, to be utilized at some future day in the operation of a power plant. There is also further up considerable falls at Shank- lin's Ferry. There is also fine power at other places along New River.
Bull Falls took its name from the fact that a bull was washed over the rapids and came out alive lower down the river. There is a ford a short distance which was used during the war, and is known as "Warford," the name of the post office near there. These names were by reason of the shallow places in the river having been uti- lized as a ford in war times and by the Indians in their incursions.
Meadow Creek, which flows into New River twelve miles west of Hinton, heads in the "Little Meadows" country, and takes its name therefrom.
Lick Creek, both the one in the lower end of the county in Green Sulphur District, as well as the one in the extreme upper end of Pipestem District, are named after the great buffalo licks, one at Green Sulphur and one at Salt Works, besides many early deer licks in the hollows and mountain sides. Boring for salt on each creek resulted in a find. One, the Green Sulphur Springs, and the other, salt water.
As all buffaloes disappeared, like the Indians, with the advance-
363
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
ment of civilization, the deer were plentiful, and middle-aged men can yet remember watching the deer licks at night behind blinds and killing them, but they, too, are now a thing of the past.
The first name given the great Kanawha River from its mouth by the whites was by a French engineering party commanded by Captain De Celeron, and it was on the 18th day of August, 1749, that he planted the engraved leaden plate at the mouth of the river, by which he gave it the name of "Chi-no-da-che-tha," and by which action of these French explorers they claimed all of the territory drained by its waters from its mouth to its source, which included all of the Trans-Allegheny region, and on to North Caro- lina, in which State the river, under the name now of New River, gets its source. The leaden plate referred to was found just 100 years afterwards by a little boy, a nephew of John Beale, residing in Mason County. This plate was carried by James M. Laidley, who was a member of the Legislature of Virginia, to Richmond, and submitted to the Virginia Historical Society, where a copy was made and the original returned to Mr. Beale, with the result above stated.
The name "Kanawha" was given to the river between 1760 and 1770, and when this name was given it, it already had a name, as herein stated. Kanawha probably took its name from the Conoys, a tribe of Indians, as there is great variety in the spelling of the name. Wyman's map of the British Empire in 1770 calls it the Great Conoway, or Wood River. Kanawha County was formed by an act of the Legislature of Virginia in 1789, and therein it was spelled "Kenhawa." Daniel Boone spelled it in his survey in 1791, "Conhawway." If this river now had its original and proper name, it would be "Woods River" from its mouth to its source, or "New River" from its mouth to its source.
The Wolf Creeks, as there are several of that name in this region of the country, there being Big Wolf Creek in Monroc, emptying into the Greenbrier below Alderson; Little Wolf Creek. emptying into the Greenbrier between Talcott and Wiggins, as well as Wolf Creek, which empties into New River in Giles County. were named from the many wolves found, trapped and destroyed on these creeks.
Elk River was originally called by the Indians the "River of the Fat Elk;" by the Delawares, the "Walnut River." Pocatelico was known by the Indians as the "river of the Fat Doc."
CHAPTER XXII.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
I shall, under this head, give some of the oldest family history in a general way. I am unable to give as full and detailed stories of the founding and building up of these families as should be done, by reason of being unable to ascertain the histories thereof sufficiently to give complete accounts. Unfortunately, they have been allowed to lapse into oblivion, and the larger part of what we do obtain is traditional, but is, however, entirely reliable.
We shall begin with the Graham family, that being a family of which we are enabled to give possibly a fuller history than of any other family in the county, by reason of the very commendable diligence of Mr. David Graham, the oldest member of that historic family now living, who has, with great diligence and labor, at his own expense, gone to the trouble of tracing the history of the family as far as possible at this late day, from the obscurities into which old family histories always fall, unless preserved by some members as the generations pass.
Mr. David Graham, who is now eighty-seven years old, when in his 79th year, prepared, as stated, a history of the Graham family, a copy of which I have in my possession, and I am under obliga- tions to him for his courtesy extended to me in the preparation of this narrative for much of the information secured in regard to this family and other incidents of tradition.
GRAHAMS.
I shall not go back into the ancient times before the settlement of this family in this country. The family is of Scotch-Irish descent, and emigrated to this country from the counties of Donegal and Londonderry, North Ireland, having formerly located there from Scotland to escape religious persecution, which escape was of short duration, and they crossed the ocean to America.
The name of Graham, years ago, like the name of many other
David Graham
The Historian of the Graham family at 87 Years of Age.
CLARA, CHEMIE
R. HUNTER GRAHAM, Attorney at Law.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LEVAX AND TILDEN FOUNDATION!
365
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
of the old settlers, was sometimes spelled, for short, Grame, and sometimes Grimes, but there is no question about the correct name being Graham. Names in the earlier days were seldom seen in print, and but very seldom in writing, but were handed down orally, from one to another, thus giving ample opportunity for mispronun- ciation, and, as Mr. Graham says in his work, "Many names can be recalled, which, in our youth were pronounced differently from what they are now, and as an illustration, Stevenson was called Stinson." Stinson's Knob, the highest point of Keeney's Mountain, is called Stinson's Knob to this day, the correct name being Steven- son. The name of Withrow, an old name of the Greenbrier set- tlers, was called Withero; Stodgill was called Sturgeon, and so on.
The Graham name in all English history and in the history of this county, as well as in legal writings pertaining to the family from the earliest settlements in America down to the present time, is spelled as we now have it-Graham. The Graham family, before its emigration across the sea, was a very large and influ- ential one, and its official head was James Graham. The first emigration of the Grahams to this country of which there is an account was from about 1720 to 1730; the exact date is not known.
Michael Graham settled in Lancaster County, Pa., he being a direct descendant of the Earl of Montrose, who was beheaded by reason of his loyalty to the king. The descendants of Michael Graham afterwards settled in the Valley of Virginia. About the same period that Michael Graham came to this country other mem- bers of the family came, among whom were John Graham, the great grandfather of David Graham, the author of the "History of the Graham Family," who also settled in Pennsylvania from Ireland, direct Scotch-Irish, and later removed to the Great Calf Pasture River, then in Augusta County, Va. Scotch-Irish does not mean a commingling of Scotch and Irish blood, but applies to those Scotch emigrants who first came to Ireland and then to America. Mr. David Graham fixes this date from 1740 to 1745.
John Graham, the senior, in this country, had a family of four sons and five daughters. His oldest son's name was Lanty (Lan- celot) ; the other three sons were John, James and Robert. His will was probated in Augusta County. Virginia, on the 19th day of November, 1771. About the year 1770. James Graham, the son of said John Graham, moved to Greenbrier County, and settled in what is now this Summers County, just across the river opposite where the village of Lowell now stands on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. The house in which he lived is the same, together with
366
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
the farm now owned and occupied by Bunyon L. Kesler, which is spoken of and described in another part of this book. It is immediately at Graham's Ferry on the Greenbrier River at Lowell.
About the same time that Graham settled on the Greenbrier, Samuel Gwinn, and men by the name of Vanbibber, Scee, and Conrad Keller settled in the same region. Indian incursions were still made into this region after these settlements, but not frequently.
James Graham was a prominent citizen in the affairs of this region ; was created a colonel of militia under the laws then exist- ing ; assisted in the defense of Fort Donally when attacked by the Indians in Greenbrier County, and his name is largely connected with public affairs during his long life. The Gwinns and Grahams, we have no doubt, were all neighbors in the foreign country; emigrated across the ocean together, and sought homes in the same neighborhood when they advanced into the wilderness west of the Alleghenies, each inter-marrying into the other family. John was the oldest son of Joseph Graham, and lived nearly all of his life at the foot of Keeney's Knob on the Greenbrier side, near Clayton Post Office, dying at the advanced age of eighty-four years, he having never married until he was sixty odd years of age, when he married a Miss Mary Crews, who survived him, and died about 1902, leaving no children. He was a man of considerable property, both real and personal. He devised all of his property to his wife, making provision for two boys, William and James Ayres, whom he had taken and raised from infancy. John Graham was a man of extraordinary common sense, but without any education except what he had acquired by his own efforts. He was a master mathe- matician, and early took to the avocation of surveying and engi- neering. He was one of the finest land surveyors in all the country, and was noted for having with his own hands constructed entirely and completely the first surveyor's compass which he used in his work for many years and which was entirely correct. He was surveyor of Monroe County and assistant surveyor in Sum- mers, and occupied other positions of trust. He was considered a man of honor in his business affairs, leaving an estate valued at $20,000.00, which was a large fortune in those days. He wrote his own will, making a provision in it for the Methodist and Baptist churches, being a member of the former denomination. After his death his wife occupied and controlled the property.
She undertook to follow her husband, and wrote her own will, disposing of the property which she had acquired from her hus- band, giving it to her two nephews by marriage, Charles H. Gra-
367
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
ham and David Graham Ballangee. The two boys which she and her husband had raised from infancy undertook, after her death, being unmindful of the moral and other obligations, as well as the gratitude due from them, to substitute another will in the place of the one which was determined to be the last and only will. This was done by William Ayres, and a legal fight resulted before the court in determining which was her last will and testament. After some three days' trial, the court properly decided that the will which had been written by herself in her own handwriting to be the true will. The one which was undertaken to be substituted was found under an old clock on the mantel some time after her death, and was an attempt to imitate her handwriting, and had evidently been slipped under the clock on the day of the sale of her personal estate.
A few years after the death of her husband, John Graham, she inter-married with Elijah Meadows, who still lives in the Green Sulphur neighborhood.
His brother, James Graham, also remained a bachelor for many years, having, toward the end of his life, married Miss Rebecca Vass. He died several years ago, leaving one child, and his widow surviving him, married W. W. Walton, and they still reside at Clayton.
David Graham still survives, and is now eighty-seven years of age. He married a Miss Alderson, a descendant of John Alder- son. He now makes his home with his children, and is a man of considerable property and of fine intelligence. It is very interest- ing to converse with him of matters and affairs of long ago. He resided and reared his family at Clayton Post Office, near the foot of Keeney's Knob. His sons are James Allen Graham, L. P. Graham, Charles H. Graham, John W. Graham and Joseph Ulysses Graham, the latter residing at Charleston, West Virginia, while the others each make their homes in this county.
James A. Graham, son of David Graham, resides in Hinton, and is one of the leading citizens of this day in affairs of this county, being engaged in the mercantile business at New Rich- mond. His son, R. Hunter Graham, has occupied for a number of years an important position in the Revenue Department of the general government at Washington, D. C., and has recently re- signed, and is undertaking the practice of law at Hinton, West Virginia, with bright prospects for his success.
L. P. Graham is the organizer and cashier of the Citizens Bank of Hinton, founded in November, 1905. He has been a candidate
368
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
for superintendent of schools, sheriff and mayor of Hinton on the Republican ticket. James A. Graham held the important position of commissioner of the county court for six years, having been elected on the Republican ticket in 1894 by a majority of 300, although the county was largely Democratic. He was also elected to the office of justice of the peace for Green Sulphur District, which position he held for four years. He is a man of fine sense and judgment, and the only Republican ever elected in the county to the county court.
Charles H. Graham, now engaged in the lumber business and farming, still retains the ownership of the old David Graham home- stead at Clayton. He is a man of fine sense and generous impulses. He is, possibly, the best educated Graham of his name; was in his younger days a public schoolteacher for a number of years; justice of the peace of Talcott District at the election held in the year 1884, which position he occupied for four years. He was a can- didate for sheriff on the ticket with S. W. Willey later, and has been notary public for many years. He is a good business man of fine attainments, now engaged in the lumber business and farming.
The Grahams, in politics before the war, were Democrats, and were Union men during the Rebellion, not believing in the secession of the States or the dismemberment of the government. They have done more to create and maintain a Republican party organization in Summers County than any other family of people therein, even when the party was in a hopeless minority, and when there was no prospect of office, either Federal, State, county or municipal, and are noted for their political acumen and steadfastness to Republican party principles.
In 1904, while they were accused of party disloyalty in that cam- paign, that disloyalty, if it can be called such, and to which we do not agree, extended to the support, openly and through the press, of the Democratic candidate for the position of judge of the circuit court, they claiming as grounds therefor that his opponent was not loyal to the Republican party or its principles, but was a "flop- per" to that organization for the purpose of disruption and for office, and not in good faith.
John Graham was the ancestor in this country. His children were: Lancelot (Lanty), John. James and Robert, Elizabeth, Ann, Rebecca and Florence.
Joseph Graham, the settler at Clayton Post Office, married his cousin, Rebecca Graham, a daughter of James Graham, in 1803. Joseph was a son of David, Sr., of Bath County, Virginia. David
369
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
Graham, Sr., and James Graham, Sr., who settled at Lowell (Gra- ham's Ferry), were brothers, and another of their brothers settled at Fort Chiswell, in Wythe County, Virginia. After the marriage of Joseph and Rebecca, they lived for a short time in Bath County, Virginia, then, after the year 1804, they came to the Lowell settle- ment, and lived some time on an island on the present farm of Hon. M. M. Warren and T. J. Riffe. Their house was near where said Riffe now lives, and in 1813 they moved to the Graham farm at the foot of Keeney's Knob, where Clayton Post Office is now situate. On the spot where Joseph Graham built his house was a hunter's cabin, previously built by a man by the name of Stevenson (Stin- son). The cabin had probably not been occupied for years, as the survey for the land was made twenty-seven years before and pat- ented in the name of James Graham, Sr, (Colonel), and the calls included this cabin.
Joseph and Rebecca Graham raised the following children : Florence, born January 13, 1805 ; Lanty (Lancelot), born December 8, 1806; John, born February 23, 1807; Jane, born April 6, 181 -; James, born March 31, 1813; Elizabeth, born July 19, 1815; Ann, born October 16, 1818; David, born January 1, 1821 ; and Rebecca, born December 13, 1823.
Florence, the oldest daughter of Joseph Graham, married John Nowlan, a native of Carrick, Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1835, and settled two miles from her father, where they lived until his death in 1875. They raised four children. Rebecca, the only daughter, married George W. Hedrick, a son of George W. Hedrick, a brother of Moses Hedrick. She died in 1863, and her descendants still live on the land, one of the daughters having married a worthless fellow by the name of W. D. Sherwood. Patrick, the other child, died in 1884, aged twenty-three.
Joseph, the oldest son of John and Florence Nowlan, married Miss Mary Keeney, of Kanawha County, in 1865, and now lives on a farm near Pence Springs on Greenbrier River, once owned by his uncle, Samuel Graham. He has been a prominent farmer in the county. His son, John C., has been a justice ; another son is an attorney and telegraph operator: Elmer, now living at Alderson ; Rebecca, Florence, who married Rev. C. T. Kintner ; Stars, J., is a merchant, and Wm. C., lately died at Talcott, having married a Miss Huston, a daughter of the veteran station agent, E. P. Huston. He was a practicing physician. The other children. Lawrence, George, Anna and Homer, live with their father. K. P. Nolan, is
370
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
an operator and station agent on the C. & O. Railway; John died unmarried.
Patrick, the third son of John Nowlan, was drowned at Hayne's Ferry on January 8, 1877, at the exact place where his great uncle, Samuel Graham, was drowned sixty years before.
Florence Nowlan died January 21, 1869, and John Nowlan, the original ancestor, died November 4, 1876, having been born January 24, 1793.
Joseph Nowlan is one of the prominent Republicans of the county ; was the nominee for sheriff, and also the nominee of his party for commissioner of the county court of the county.
The land on which he lives was purchased from the heirs of James Madison Haynes. At one time it belonged to Samuel Gra- ham, and passed to the Haynes ancestor. Mr. Nowlan has erected on the farm a good brick residence. Since writing the above he has sold this plantation to a Mr. Tolly, of Raleigh County, for $8,000.00. He married the only daughter of Thomas Meadows of that county, a very wealthy farmer. The lands of Hon. Wm. Haynes and the Tolley farm were at one time owned by Samuel Graham ; after he was drowned accidentally at Haynes' Ferry, it passed into the ownership of James Madison Haynes, and consisted of some 400 acres.
Lanty Graham, the oldest son of Joseph and Rebecca Graham, married Sabina Ellis, daughter of James Ellis, in 1833, and settled on Greenbrier River, on what is now Riffe's Bottoms, owned by M. M. Warren, Thos. J. Riffe and Mrs. Jennie Boggess. In 1836 he settled at the foot of Keeney's Knob on land devised to him by his father, where he died in 1880.
Joseph Allen, the second son of Lanty, lives at his father's old homestead. He married Susan DuBois in 1859, and had five chil- . dren : Susan, the wife of J. L. Meadows; Martha J., wife of M. V. Wheeler ; David U., Allen B. and George W., who live in Fayette County. Rebecca J., the oldest daughter of Lanty, married Andrew J. Honaker, May 18, 1865, and had four sons, Calvin L., Oscar T., / Marion and Charles W.
Jehu Shannon, the third son, married Frances Alderson. Lanty Graham had a son, Lanty Jackson, who was a Confederate soldier, and who died at Jackson, Miss., in 1863. Another son was Thomas C., who married Malinda Bryant in 1871, and whose two daughters, Laura, married James H. Harriss, and Jennie, who married Hugh P. Miller.
JOHN W. GRAHAM, Publisher and Editor.
JAMES ALLEN GRAHAM, Merchant and Lumberman.
٠
371
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
John, the second son of Joseph Graham, when he was sixty years old, married Mary J. Crews.
Jane, the second daughter of Joseph Graham, died unmarried. She died a violent death some time prior to the war. It was never known whether she died by her own hand or whether she was killed. She was missing for some time, and a vigilant search was instituted, and the whole neighborhood was enlisted in the search. Her body was finally recovered, and showed evidences of a violent death. It was in a wild and unfrequented place; and whether she had gone there and died by her own hand was never known. Sus- picion fastened on her kinsman and brother, James Graham, who was arrested and placed in jail. Finally the case was removed to Giles County for trial, a change of vente being had from Monroe County, where the public feeling was strong against him. He was defended by the late Senator Allen T. Caperton and other distin- guished attorneys. The trial resulted in his acquittal of any crime, and the matter was not prosecuted further. This was a noted case in its day. This son, James Graham, was the third son of Joseph Graham, and lived to an old age before marrying, in 1877. He married Rebecca A. Vass, a daughter of Curtis Vass, and she still survives. He spent several years in the West, in Ohio and In- diana, Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky. He returned at the close of the Civil War, and remained in this country until his death in 1889, residing about one mile from the old Joseph Graham home- stead.
Elizabeth, the third daughter of Joseph Graham, married Archi- bald Ballangee and settled on a portion of her father's land. She died on the 12th of January, 1857, leaving four children. Archibald Ballangee was born November 13, 1819, and died March 4, 1894. His children were 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 Ballangee.
Ann Graham, the fourth daughter of James Graham, died in 1837, aged nineteen, unmarried.
Rebecca, the youngest daughter of Joseph Graham, married John R. Ballangee, a son of George Ballangee, of the mouth of Greenbrier River, and who was a son of Isaac, the settler, who located there in 1780, when George was one year old. The Bal- langees came from North Carolina, and are of French descent. He owned one-half of the George Ballangee farm by devise, and out of which grew extensive litigation between his heirs and their uncle, Evi Ballangee, and Aunt Katie, neither of whom married,
372
HISTORY OF SUMMERS COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.
and at their death their estate descended to their next of kin, some fifty in number, scattered throughout the land. This litigation is of record in the office of the Circuit Court of Summers County, and consists of three suits in chancery.
John R. and wife later removed onto the land which she inher- ited from her father, Joseph Graham, at the immediate foot of Keeney's Knob, on the east side, where he died in 1852, leaving three children, David Graham Ballangee, the oldest, who married Delphia Flint, a daughter of Jerry D. Flint. He now resides at the old Joseph Graham home, is its owner and is the postmaster at that place, and is given more extended notice elsewhere.
Rebecca J., youngest daughter of John R. Ballangee, married Robert Carter, whose children are Otey C. Carter, Alice, George and Walter.
Joseph Graham, the ancestor, died December -, 1857, aged ninety-one years. He was a large land owner, having accumulated 2,000 acres in a compact body, and owned a number of slaves. The whole of this land was devised to his descendants. The father of Rebecca was Colonel James Graham, of the Lowell settlement, and this land of 330 acres at Clayton was patented by her father in 1786 and by him given to his daughter, and has been in the family for 121 years. Joseph Graham's father was a son of David Graham, Sr., who lived in Bath, Virginia, and a son of John, Sr. Over the will and lands of Joseph Graham litigation grew among his chil- dren in the Circuit Court of Monroe County, and which was car- ried to the Supreme Court of West Virginia.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.