Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/314

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

beth Peery Witten, his wife. He is of Scotch descent in the paternal line ; his grandfather, Maj. Samuel Graham, was born while his parents were on their way to this country. He was a volunteer captain during the war of 1812, at which time he was in his early forties, and during his service at Norfolk, \irginia, he was appointed to the rank of major. He had been a member of the Vir- gmia legislature from Wythe couniy, 1806 and 1808, and died in Smyth county, Vir- ginia. He married Rachel, daughter of John Montgomery, and his wife. Nancy Agnes Montgomery. Thomas Witten, great-great- grandfather of Samuel Cecil Graham in the maternal line, came to Virginia in 1771 from the Maryland colony. With him came Sam- uel W. Cecil. Each of these men had ten children, five of each family intermarrying, and among these was Thomas Witten. great-grandfather of Samuel Cecil Graham, and father of the William Witten men- tioned above. Samuel Cecil Graham at- tended the log cabin schools of the moun- tains, and at the age of seventeen years he became a private in Company I, Sixteenth Virginia Cavalry, at that time under the command of his uncle, Lieut.-Col. William i Graham. He was wounded at "Hanging Rock," June. 1864, near Salem, Virginia; at Monocacy Junction, in July, 1864; and at Moorfield, in Hardy county, West Virgmia, in .\ugust, 1864, this last injury being a most serious one. At the close of the war he returned to his home, and after prepar- ing for college at the local schools, he en- tered Emory and Henry College in the fall of 1867, and after a two years' attendance read law in the office of Col. Andrew J. May, at JefTersonville, then the county seat of Tazewell county. He was admitted to the

Ijar in October, 1870. and in the folk)wing lanuary established himself in jjractice at Tazewell. Three years later he was elected judge of the Tazewell county court, filling this ofifice until 1880. He formed a law part- nership with Maj. Robert R. Henry in July, 1 88 1, the style of the firm being Henry & Graham, and this is still in existence. Since

1889 he has been a member of the Virginia State Bar Association ; was vice-president in

1890 and 1895; elected president in 1902, the following year delivering the president's address, entitled "Some Philosophy of the Law and of Lawyers," which was published in \'olume 16, Reports of the Virginia State Bar Association. "A Criticism of the Profes- sion Reviewed," was the title of a paper read before the same association in 1892. and this was published in \"olume 5 of its reports. Judge Graham married (first) October 16. 1872, Anna Elizabeth Spotts, who died Sep- tember 6, 1895, daughter of Washington Spotts. and his wife, Jane (Kelly) Spotts; ■ he married (second) June 2. 1898, Minnie Cox, of Richmond, \"irginia, daughter of Capt. Henry Cox and his wife, Martha

EUyson, J. Taylor, born in Richmond. \'irginia. May 20, 1847. son of Henry K. Ellyson and Elizabeth P. Barnes, his wife. He was trained in the private schools of Richmond, at Columbia College. Rich- mond College, and entered the Univer- sitv of \'irginia in 1867, graduating in a number of schools. He served during the war, and surn-ndi-red with his coni- ]);.ny at Appomattox. Immediately there- after he resumed his college duties ; was an active member of the Jefferson Literary So- ciety of the university, and represented that societv as one of the editors of the "Univer-