Graham Family

Graham Family

There are a great number of people in Coryell County who are descendants of Elder Jessie and Martha Jane Fannin Graham. Elder Jessie was the son of John and Mary Graham of Surry County. North Carolina. Martha Janes' parents, Middleton and Delphia Ann Moore Fannin were from Franklin County, Tennessee.

Harrison Graham and his wife, Martha Ann Hubbard Smith GrahamHarrison Graham and his wife, Martha Ann Hubbard Smith Graham

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The Graham family first moved to Jackson County, Alabama. It was here in 1827 that Elder Jessie met and married Martha Jane. They had eleven children, and all but two of these were born in Alabama. In 1849 the family moved to Rusk County, Texas.

Curtis Beason Graham was the third son of Elder Jessie. In 1855 he met and married Elizabeth Thornton, daughter of Harrison Thornton of Alabama, and that same year they moved to Coryell County. along with his parents. Elder Jessie established the first Primitive Baptist Church in Coryell County. In later years his son, Curtis Beason, also became a Primitive Baptist minister.

Curtis Beason and Elizabeth had nine children and their second child was my great-grandfather, Harrison M. Graham. He married Martha Ann Hubbard Smith (She had been married to a Jim Smith and had two children by him.) Harrison and Martha Ann had 12 children, but only seven of these survived. One of these children was John Henry Graham, my grandfather. He grew up in the part of Coryell County that is now a part of the army camp.

In 1917 he married Una Mae Hopson in New Hope. Because my grandmother had infantile paralysis as a child, she was only able to have one child, William Lee Graham, my father. He went to the Antelope schools and spent his early years in the communities that were to become the army camp. In 1939 he met and married Doris Eva Mierzwik of Killeen. They spent their honeymoon with my father's uncle, C.C. Graham. The house that he lived in at that time is one of the few that remains today on the army post. It is used today as quarters for one of the commanders.

After moving around for several years, in 1954 my parents bought a farm in the Harmon Community where they raised their children: Theda Ray, Jimmy Don, and myself.

-- Patsy Lee Graham Gibbs

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This page was last updated on 03/31/01.