General Notes

Was the first Ruling Elder of the Philadelphia Presbyterian Church.Charter member of Philadelphus Presbyterian Church in Wayne County, Mississippi on March 31, 1821. Elected Ruling Elder of the new Church.
Copy from Bobbye Davis.
MISSISSIPPI-L Archives

From: "Bobbye Davis" <bobbye@@microsped.com>
Subject: [MISSISSIPPI] Grahams in Ms. from Graham List
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 09:31:30 -0600


I was very interested in your recent post to the Graham Message Board.
I am researching my Graham family roots.
On 31 March 1821 The Philadelphus Presbyterian Church was established in
Wayne County Mississippi, said to be the oldest Presbyterian Church west of
the Alleghanies.  The charter members were John Keahey and his wife Martha
(Jackson), James Keahey, John MacFarland and his wife Mary (Keahey), William
Keahey and wife Jane (Clark) Robert Graham and his wife Christian (Keahey)
and finally George Keahey and his wife Margaret.  John MacFarland was
elected ruling elder of the new church.  These elders of the Presbyterian
Church spoke and wrote Gaelic and previously belonged to the Scottish
Caravan of emigrants that arrived in Mississippi about 1815 from Moore
County, North Carolina. It is known that the MacKeachey clan only spoke
Gaelic while in North Carolina....so the marriage between Robert Graham and
Christian indicates Grandfather Robert Graham spoke Gaelic also....not until
the family immigrated to Mississippi do we find English usage( Mississippi
Archives tell us that the fi!
rst schools of this community were taught in Gaelic).  and it was only after
Mississippi became a state that the Scottish people became thoroughtly
Anglicized.   My Graham family then migrated to Texas.  Christian Keahey
(MacKeachey - name shortened) was born 1780 in Richmond County, North
Carolina.  She married Robert Graham, he was born before 1775 in perhaps
Moore County, North Carolina and died in February 1825 in Hinds County,
Mississippi.  Robert Graham and Christian Keahey (MacKeachey) had the
following children:  1)John Graham married Demarious Chapman 2) Charles
Graham married Susannah McLendon 3) Anthony Graham married Nancy Barnes 4)
Lorenzo Daniel Graham 5) Reuben Graham
6) Sarah Graham 7) Archibald Graham 8) Christian Graham 9) George Jackson
Graham 10) Robert Graham married Charlotte Pennington
The MacKeachey family is a sept of the MacDonalds that lived on Graham
Bridge Road where Richmond and Moore counties join.  It is suspected that
the Graham family had taken the Tory oath as they immigrated from Ireland.
At the time of the American Revolution there were only three Gaelic colonies
in America.  There was a small one in Northern New York on the banks of the
Hudson and the Mohawk; there was another small one in Georgia centered
around the Wrighsboro, Darien area; but by far the largest colony was the
one in Northern Carolina extending from Cape Fear to the Pee Dee in South
Carolina.  I am very interested in your research.  I know that my Graham
family was Scotch-Irish.  The My Graham Clan left Scotland for Ulser
Ireland....  I don't know when my family left Scotland and I don't know how
long they stayed in Ireland before coming to America.  Please keep me
posted, and let me know if I can be of further help.
BROOKSLA@@uvsc.edu



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[MISSISSIPPI] Grahams in Ms. from Graham List by "Bobbye Davis" <bobbye@@microsped.com>