[ History
of the Graham Family ]  [ Cover
page ] Preface
Grahams
are Scotch Irish From
Scotland to Virginia John
Graham's Will John
Graham's Children Anne,
daughter of John Graham, Sr. [ The
descendants of Lanty Kincaid ] [ Betsy,
daughter of John Graham, Sr. ] Florence
Graham married House
of James Graham, Sr., at Lowell Early
settlement of Lowell [ The
descendants of Samuel and James Guinn ] [ Other
Early Settlers ] James
and Florence Graham's Family Joseph
and Rebecca Graham Joseph
and Rebecca Graham's children More
concerning early settlement of Lowell Elizabeth
Graham captured by the Indians Col.
Graham rescues Elizabeth from Indians Elizabeth
Stodghill, nee Graham Civil
jurisdiction of Lowell James
Graham's estate John
Graham, Joseph's brother Robert
Graham of Fort Chiswell Michael
Graham's family Slaves
of James Graham, Sr. Clayton's
balloon ascension |
The house is a two-story
one, built of hewn logs, chinqued with stone, and is about 24x30 feet.
The sills are of walnut, and, though near the ground, are in a good state
of preservation to this day. There are two large stone chimneys. The fireplace
in the front room is six feet wide and has a wooden arch five feet high.
The chim- [42] ney
at the east end has two fireplaces downstairs and one upstairs. There are
three room downstairs, the front one being large and roomy. The rear is
separated by a cross partition, making two rooms with a fireplace in each.
There are also three rooms upstairs. The most notable part of this building
is in the architecture of its roof. There are three principal pairs of
rafters, one in the center and one at each end of the house, which are
about seven inches square with a purlin running lengthwise of the house
of the same size, framed together at the middle principal rafter. This
frame serves as a support of the regular rafters, which are of themselves
very large and strong. We do not hesitate to believe that the framework
of this roof, properly protected from the weather, will stand the storms
of centuries to come. This house was built before the days of cut or factory
made nails and all the nails used in its construction were made in the
blacksmith shop and called wrought nails. Likewise, was all the lumber
sawed by hand [43] with
the old-fashioned whipsaw. Tradition further tells us that the stone in
the chimneys were boated in canoes from a point about a mile down the river
called the “Narrows”. This house, at the time of its construction, was
considered the best, if not the “finest” in all that section.
At the time that Graham first settled at this place, it does not appear that there was a previous settlement in this immediate locality. it will be remembered that, after the breaking up of the white settlement on Muddy Creek and Big Levels by the Indians in 1763, at which time all the white settlers were either killed, captured or fled for their lives beyond the eastern slopes of the Alleghany, no further attempt was made toward again settling the Greenbrier country until the year 1769. Even then those who saw fit to hazzard their lives by thus venturing into the wilderness, which had previously been made red by the blood of their friends, took the precaution to first occupy that portion of the coun- [44] try nearest the eastern settlement from which they came. Thus was the locality around Fort Union, now Lewisburg, and Donnally’s Fort farther to the northwest, settled before any attempt was made to venture farther down the river. Neither the pages of history nor the dim lines of tradition tell us of the order in which all the settlers occupied land or secured for themselves homes, as the tide of immigration pressed itself down the Greenbrier Valley, but sufficient is known that such valuable land lying up the river from Lowell, as the Riffe Bottom, Wolf Creek Bottom, Lanes Bottom and the bottoms on which the town of Alderson now stands, were not occupied until after the Lowell settlement; hence we conclude that Col. Graham and those who settled near him, were not only the first to occupy this territory, but that they passed by the then known limits of all white settlers on the Greenbrier and made their homes in this, then remote, wilderness. |