James Graham, Sr., the sketch of whose descendants we have given, died January 15, 1813, [105] in his seventy-third year, he leaving been born Jan. 3rd, 1741. Considering the fact that he was one of the first settlers of his locality, and he was encumbered with all the hardships and disadvantages incident to pioneer life, he succeeded in securing quite a competency of this world’s goods. Much of the bottom lands on Greenbrier river was owned by him and his family for some ten miles along the river, amounting to several thousand acres, and were occupied by them as has been previously stated. He also owned other real estate in various places, among which were town lots in the town of Union, Monroe county, and in Point Pleasant, Mason county.

While on his various trips to the Shawnee towns to secure the release of his daughter from captivity, his line of travel lay through the state of Kentucky, the fertile hills and valleys of which claimed no small part of his attention; and in after life he made one or two tours prospecting the different localities ill that state, with the view of locating lands and moving thither. Indeed, it [106] was immediately after his return home from one of these trips that he became ill and never again recovered. He was accompanied on one of these tours by his son, David, who was a surveyor and located or, at least, made a preliminary survey of a large tract of land.

In a partial diary kept by David, now in possession of the writer, it is shown that David made a visit to Kentucky in the year 1815, two years after the death of his father and that the land which he seems to have been trying to recognize lay near Frankfort, in what is now a very wealthy and influential part of the state. This diary speaks of his finding, after considerable research, a corner marked “D.G.” (David Graham). From other notes in the diary we learn that he visited Frankfort, the capital, and many other places in Kentucky during this trip.

Colonel Graham seems to have been a man of more than ordinary ability and possessed with a large amount of energy, push and vim, and was a leader of men rather than a follower.

[107] As previously stated, the tradition of the branch of the family to which Col. James Graham belonged is incomplete, but from all the facts gathered, James was born in Ireland in county Donegal. His father was a brother of John Graham, Sr., who settled on the Calf Pasture river. Whether or not the father of James Graham, Sr., ever moved to this country is not now known. Neither are all of his brothers and sisters known. It is, however, known satisfactorily that he had two brothers in this country, namely: David, who settled in Bath county, Va., before 1766, and Robert, who settled at Fort Chiswell in Wythe county, Va., before the time of the Revolutionary War. John Graham, Sr., of the Calf Pasture was an uncle to these three brothers and whether they all came to America together, or whether John Graham preceded his nephews is not known.

David, who settled in Bath county, married Jane Armstrong, of Augusta county, and had born to him two children, John and Joseph. Joseph, [108] as already stated, married Rebecca, daughter of Colonel James Graham, and his descendants have been fully referred to.

David Graham's History of the Graham Family (1899) James Graham's estate

David Graham's
History of the Graham Family (1899)
James Graham's estate