San Joaquin County
Biographies
ROBERT L. GRAHAM
ROBERT L. GRAHAM, of Elkhorn
Township, was born in Logan County, Kentucky, December 27, 1826, his parents
being Levy and Mary (Tatum) Graham, both natives of North Carolina. Grandfather
Thomas Tatum was a teamster in the Revolutionary war and the subject can
remember him well and can relate many an anecdote as they were told to the
children who gathered around him. Levy Graham was a farmer by occupation and
emigrated from North Carolina to Kentucky with his father, when a small boy,
remained there owning land until about 1860, when his wife died and he became
discontented, sold out and went to Missouri; there he remained but a short
time, when he went to Sharp County, Arkansas, where he died in 1881 at the age
of eighty-six years. There were eight children in the family, namely: Seth,
Lucy, Robert L., Mary, Peyton, Martha, Volney and Elizabeth; of whom the
subject is the only one in California.
He remained at home with his parents until
twenty-four years of age, then, February 22, 1852, he left for Missouri, where
he remained until 1853, when he crossed the plains to California, arriving in
San Joaquin valley September 2, 1853. He at once purchased a claim of a man
named Adams. It was situated nine and one-half miles from Stockton and five
miles from Lodi. He sold the place in 1857 and went down to the Lower
Sacramento telegraph road, where he purchased 200 acres. He remained there
until the fall of 1862, when he came back and purchased again near the old
place. Not long after he traded that for his present property of 300 acres, ten
miles from Stockton and five miles from Lodi, on the Cherokee lane road. He has
been indeed a pioneer in agriculture, there being only three farms under plow
before he came here. He says he has never had a failure in crops since he came.
Mr. Graham was married in 1847 to Miss
Carolina Roe Stokes, a native of Kentucky. Her grandfather was a fifer in the
Revolutionary war. They have four children, two boys and two girls, namely:
Robert L., Jr.; Surelda, wife of A. M. Hale, of Amador County; Della, wife of
C. Hull; Eugene D., farming near Oakdale, Stanislaus County, California.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Page 483-484. Lewis Pub. Co.
Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
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