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The
History of Lee County Pleasant Ridge Township Graham, Benj., farmer, Section 32; P.O. West Point; born in the Province of Upper Canada, near the Falls of Niagara, 1808; left an orphan at the age of 4; at the age of 16, he went to Ashtabula Co., O., where he learned the trade of brickmason, an occupation which he followed for fifteen years. In 1834, he married Mary Large, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1814; in the spring of 1837, they were among the pioneers of Lee Co., and settled where he now resides and owns 215 acres of land, now valued at $50 per acre, where he turned his attention to farming; in 1840, his wife died, leaving three children - David, Jacob and John; in 1841, he married Nancy Randolph, who was born in Illinois in 1824, and died in 1845, leaving three children - Mary, Henry and George, all deceased; in 1851, he married Catharine Jeffers, who was born in West Virginia, in 1824; they have had ten children, seven of whom are living - Abram, Benjamin F., Serena, Hannah, Dennis, Joseph, Charles, Ada, Lincoln and Melvin; Mr. Graham has identified himself in the improvement and educational interests of the county by starting the first school in his township, started by subscription at Peckanne Point; he also made the first farm between West Point and Salem. |