This is about Martin McGraw II, or if you prefer, Martin McGraw, Jr. He is my 4th-great grandfather through my paternal great grandmother, Nora Belle Jacobs. In only one document that I have ever discovered is Martin distinguished from his father, Martin Sr; that is the Monroe County WV Tax List dated 24 May 1806, just days after Martin Jr had married Nancy Wood. It is believed that Martin McGraw Sr died this year because he is never again found in either the Monroe nor Greenbrier County tax lists.
Martin’s parents – Martin McGraw I and Margaret (surname unknown) – may have originally lived in Greenbrier County in an area near present-day Caldwell, WV. This is due to the proximity of his father and brothers in the tax lists of the county to one Benjamin Grigsby, second pastor of the Old Stone Presbyterian Church at Lewisburg. Martin Jr’s siblings Anthony, John, and Elender were married in Greenbrier County. However, Martin Sr may have moved to property that straddled the Greenbrier and Monroe County borders due to him being accounted in the tax lists first in one county then the other. Mary Ann, Samuel, and Martin married Wood siblings, all children of Bailey and Nancy Wood Sr and residents of the Wolf Creek vicinity of Monroe County. Martin Jr’s brothers William and Thomas married sisters, daughters of William Withrow Sr and Susannah Skaggs. What do the Wood and Skaggs families have in common? The Old Greenbrier Baptist Church at Alderson, WV.
Martin McGraw II married his first wife, Nancy Wood (daughter of Bailey Wood, Sr) on 3 May 1806 in Monroe County, WV “by banns.” In other words, the impending nuptials were published locally and most likely announced in Sunday church services three weeks prior to the wedding itself. None other than John Alderson, first pastor of the old Greenbrier Baptist Church, officiated the marriage. We then find through the Census records that Martin and Nancy are living in Monroe County in 1810. They are living in close proximity to William Withrow, Bailey Wood, and William Wood (brother-in-laws). In the household of the 1810 Census are one male and one female aged 26 to 44 years old; and two females under the age of 10 years old – Malinda Milby and Sarah Hayes.
Martin McGraw II served in the 5th Regiment of the Virginia Militia in the War of 1812. For his service, he was granted 100 acres of bounty land on Big Creek, a branch of the New River, in what was then Nicholas County but is now situated in Fayette County, more precisely Chimney Corner, WV if you’d like to look it up on a map. [Grant Title: McGraw, Martin. Publication: 8 September 1824. Other Format Available on microfilm. Virginia State Land Office. Grants A-Z, 1-124, reels 42-190; Virginia State Land Office. Grants 125- , reels 369-.] Therefore, we find the family of Martin McGraw Jr (or II) living in Nicholas County for the 1820 Federal Census.
The family had increased by leaps and bounds, if the census is to be taken at face value: Martin and Nancy are enumerated as between the ages of 26 and 44. They now have 6 children in their household. 2 males and 2 females under 10 years old; 1 male and 1 female between 10 and 15 years old. I am unable to account for the names of the males and it could be that they were the sons of other family members.
Martin is listed in the 1820 and 1830 federal censuses in Nicholas County but in 1831, the area in which Martin’s property was situated became part of the newly formed Fayette County. Subsequently, we find him in the 1840 federal census for Fayette County. It is important to note that his first wife, Nancy Wood, died at this location about 1833 according to the Widow’s Pension File application submitted by Sarah J. Johnson, Martin’s second wife, born – I reckon – about 1810. The two were joined in marriage on 12 April 1835 at Gauley Bridge, Fayette County by minister W. C. Legon, a pastor of the Kanawha Baptist Church, now situated at Pratt, WV.
Martin’s children by second wife, Sarah Jane Johnson begins with Lucretia McGraw and goes through Samuel Harvey McGraw. I am descended through their daughter Mary E. McGraw and her first husband William H. Jacobs.
Martin and Sarah left Fayette County sometime after 1840 but prior to May 1843 and moved to what would become Putnam County, West Virginia. Martin’s younger brother Thomas McGraw (also my 4th-Great grandfather) had moved to the area from Fayette County prior to 1840 where he took up residence on 18 Mile Creek (Midway, WV). Thomas McGraw appears in the 1840 Kanawha County tax list. Remember, this part of Kanawha became Putnam in 1848.
Named in the 1850 Putnam County Census are Nancy (daughter of Martin and Nancy Wood), Lucretia, Mary E, William H, George A, and granddaughters Minerva, and Martha P. Of note, however, is the marriage record of Ida B. McGraw, one of Martin’s daughters by Nancy Wood: She married James Duncan in Putnam County on 14 Jan 1855 “at the home of Thomas McGraw.” Her cousin James McGraw (son of Thomas) even provided permission for her to marry James Duncan. This permission is (or was) on file with the Putnam County Clerk.
Martin’s daughters Malinda (Richard Milby) and Sarah (Harrison Hayes) had married in Fayette County but had also moved and taken up residence in Kanawha>Putnam County where they were living in the areas between Buffalo and Poca, WV.
Sometime after the birth of son Samuel Harvey in 1851 but before March 22, 1853, Martin and Sarah moved back to Fayette County: March 22, 1853 is the date on which Martin was an affiant for Elizabeth Briant/Bryan Gill in a Widow’s Pension Claim. Martin stated that Anthony and Elizabeth were married in 1796 and he verified their children’s names. Further, his last child by Nancy Wood, daughter Nancy McGraw, married Theophilus O’Harrah in July 1855 in Fayette County. A few years later, Martin died in Fayette County in 1858. His daughter, Mary E. McGraw, married William H. Jacobs in Fayette County in 1859.
I have not established the date or timeframe of Sarah’s return but she did indeed go back to Putnam County. In the 1860 Census, her sons William, George, and Samuel are living with or near Malinda Milby near the Poca River in Putnam County, but Sarah may still be in Fayette County working as a Day Laborer for the Cole family. Mary E. and William Jacobs are nowhere to be found in that time frame. Finally Sarah is listed in the 1880 Census as well as the 1890 Veteran’s Schedule for Putnam. And Putnam County is where she died, most likely at the home of one of her younger sons, either William or Samuel Harvey. As you know, there is no 1890 Census to check this but the Veteran’s Schedule was taken around June 1890 and the last payment she received was 4 June 1890.
Here is the info I have about the children of Martin McGraw & Nancy Wood:
- Malinda McGraw, b. abt. 1810 Monroe County, WV; d. 1887 Putnam County, WV; m. Richard Milby 16 Feb 1836 Fayette County, WV.
- Sarah McGraw, b. 25 Dec 1811 Monroe County, WV; d 25 May 1886 Buffalo District, Putnam County, WV; m1. Harrison Hayes 19 Jan 1832 Fayette County, m. John Legg, Putnam.
- Elizabeth McGraw, b. abt. 1819/20 Nicholas County, WV;
- Susannah McGraw, b. 27 Jun 1821 Nicholas County, WV; d. 2 July 1891 Savannah, Andrew County, MO; m. Nathaniel Vaughn 3 Aug 1837 Fayette County, WV.
- Ida B. McGraw, b. abt. 1826 Nicholas County, WV; d. 2 Feb 1902 Buffalo, Putnam County, WV; m. James M. Duncan 14 Jan 1855 at the home of Uncle Thomas McGraw.
- Nancy McGraw, b. abt. 1833 Fayette County, WV; d. bef. 1900 Fayette County, WV; m. Theophilus O’Harra (changed to Harrah in later years) July 1855 Fayette County, WV.
Children of Martin McGraw, Jr. and Sarah Johnson:
- Lucretia A. McGraw, b. abt 1836 Fayette County, WV; d. abt 1873 Mason County, WV; m. David Smith 17 Feb 1864 Mason County, WV.
- Mary E. McGraw, b. abt. 1838 Fayette County, WV; d. abt 1900 Apple Grove, Mason County, WV; m1. William H. Jacobs 21 Feb 1859 Fayette County, WV; m2. John William Duncan 25 Nov 1864 Putnam County, WV.
- William H. McGrew, b. 15 May 1843 Fayette County, WV; d. 8 May 1930 Dunbar, Kanawha County, WV; m. Sarah Francis Duncan 31 Aug 1863 Putnam County, WV. *surname as shown on the death record and censuses during his lifetime*
- George Andrew McGraw, b. abt 1849 Putnam County, WV; d. abt. 1920 Madison County, OH; m. Maria J. Hedrick 31 Mar 1870 Mason County, WV.
- Samuel Harvey McGraw, b. 16 Nov 1851 Putnam County, WV; d. 29 Jan 1923 Charleston, Kanawha Co., WV; m. Alsonia C. Dodson 19 Nov 1874 Putnam County, WV.
**Updated 6 Jan 2024**
