James F. Graham Biography

James F. GRAHAM was born in Marshall County, Tenn., October 28, 1823. His father, James Graham, was born near Charlotte, Mecklenberg County, N. C., in the year 1771, and his father, William Graham, married his cousin, Margaret Graham, by whom he had nine sons. James, his second son, emigrated to Tennessee about the year 1804, and in 1822 married Elizabeth Sasnett, by whom he had one child, James F.

William Graham, the grandfather of James F., served six years as a soldier and Quartermaster in the Revolutionary War of 1776, against Great Britain. He was possessed of quite a number of slaves, and had considerable landed property both in North Carolina and Tennessee. James Graham, the father of James F., was opposed to slavery, hence would not have any of the slaves that he inherited from his father's estate. He served under Gen. Jackson in the Indian War, and in the second war with Great Britain, in 1812 and 1815.

James F. Graham, the subject of this sketch, was married to Elizabeth Ann Brummett on the 31st of August, 1852, and to them were born ten children, seven of whom are deceased, viz: Franklin Pearce, Sarah Elizabeth, Emiliza Catharine, Flora Smith, Florence Beil, James Washington and Marcia Mahala Graham. Those living are: Mary Alice, who married J. S. King, a Kentuckian, and a railroad man; Constantine William, who is in the employ of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company; and Fourthie Ann Graham, called Fourthie because she was born on the 4th of July, thus commemorating the 4th of July, 1776, and American independence from under the yoke of Great Britain.

James F. Graham had a fair knowledge of the elementary branches of an English education, and taught for many years both in Tennessee and Illinois, and was regarded as the best penman
in his younger days in Johnson County, Ill., in which he lived. He held various offices, at different times being School Director, School Trustee, Township Treasurer, Circuit Clerk, Master
in Chancery, and Recorder of Deeds and Mortgages. During the War of the Rebellion for the preservation of the Union, he was Enrolling Officer of the Militia and Collector of Internal
Revenue for Johnson County. The last two offices were given him on account of his loyalty to the Union, and without his asking.

In religion, he believes in, and belongs to, the Christian Church. He denies the right of any man, or set of men, to write out what he must believe in order to get to Heaven, hence discards
all books of discipline or confessions of faith written by men, and clings to the New Testament Scriptures as his only guide for a blessed Immortality beyond the grave.