Colonel William Graham
Colonel William Graham was the son of Archibald Graham of Scotland. He was born in Augusta County, Va., in 1742. He emigrated to North Carolina several years before the Revolutionary War, owned much valuable land, and finally settled on First Broad River, then Tryon County, but now in Cleaveland. His patriotic principles soon became known, and he entered into active service at the commencement of the Revolution. As the commanding officer, he had the general superintendence of several Forts erected on and near the frontier settlements as protections against the hostile Cherokee Indians. While in command of Fort McFadden, near the present town of Rutherfordton, he formed the acquaintance of Mrs. Susan Twitty, widow of William Twitty, and, as the darts of Cupid are often irresistible, he married her, and the union proved to be a happy one.In the Provincial Congress, which met at Halifax on the 12th of November, 1776, Colonel Graham was one of the delegates from Lincoln County, his colleagues being Joseph Hardin, Robert Abernathy, William Alston, and John Barber.
In the expedition that marched in 1776, under General Rutherford, against the Cherokee Indians, Colonel Graham commanded the regiment from Lincoln and Rutherford counties. This expedition, as is well known, was ultimately successful and caused the Indians to sue for peace.
In the expedition that marched for the relief of Charleston in the spring of 1780 from Charlotte, the place of rendezvous for several counties, Colonel Graham led the regiment from Lincoln County. On the arrival of the several forces at Charleston, they found the city so completely invested by the British army that they could not assist the American garrison.
Soon after his return home, Colonel Graham again marched with his regiment, General Rutherford commanding, against a large body of Tories assembled at Ramsours Mill under Lieutenant Colonel John Moore (son of Moses Moore) near the present town of Lincolnton. With some Mecklenburg troops, General Rutherford crossed the Catawba River at Tuckaseege Ford on the evening of the 19th of June, 1780, and camped at Colonel Joseph Dickson's plantation, three miles northwest of the Ford. On the morning of the 20th, General Rutherford marched, at an early hour, with the expectation of co-operating with Colonel Locke of Rowan County in making a combined attack against the Tories, but failed to reach the battleground until about two hours after the close of the engagement.
When a call was made upon the commanding officers of the militia of Lincoln County (under its old limits) in September 1780 for troops to oppose the boasting Ferguson, Colonel Graham marched with his regiment and joined Colonels Campbell, Sevier, Shelby, and others at the Cowpens, where, a little more than three months afterward, General Morgan gained a brilliant victory; but, it is known, in consequence of severe sickness in his family, Colonel Graham did not participate in the battle which took place on King's Mountain Mountain on the afternoon of the 7th of October, 1780, and which resulted so gloriously for the American arms.
During 1775, the Province of North Carolina, ever in the van of early patriotic movements, formed an Association throughout her territory, mainly as tests of patriotism. The County of Cumberland formed an Association on the 20th of June, 1775. The County of Tryon (embracing Lincoln and Rutherford) created a similar Association on the 14th of August, which was signed by the Committee of Safety and ordered to be signed by every freeholder in the County. Among the forty-eight signatures may be conspicuously noticed those of William Graham, Charles McLean (who at one time commanded the Lincoln regiment), Frederick Hambright, John Walker, Jacob Forney (father of Gen. Peter Forney), Thomas Espey (brother of Capt. Samuel Espey, severely wounded at the battle of King's Mountain Mountain), Andrew Neal, Joseph Neal, John Dellinger, George Dellinger, Joseph Hardin, Jacob Costner, Valentine Mauney, Peter Sides, Joseph Kuykendall, James Coburn, James Miller and others. One of the signers, Peter Sides (properly Seitz) belonged to a family from Switzerland-all true Whigs and worthy representatives of the land of William Tell.
Colonel William Graham died in April 1835, in the eighty-seventh year of his age.