LOWELL W.Va. (Hinton News) – Editor’s Note: Each week, local history collector William Jones discusses items from his collection and their historical significance. In this edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past, Jones is talking about the historic Graham House in Lowell West Virginia.
This photo of the Graham House you see here is from ca. 1950. It was taken prior to The Graham House Preservation Society taking over the property in 1988 and then began to historically refurbish the 1770 structure to resemble how it originally looked in its day.
It is technically a three-story structure of hand-hewn log construction. It was the original home to one of Summers County’s first settlers, James Graham, and his family. To place some emphasis on the age of this structure, it was constructed 19 years before George Washington became this country’s first president, the Civil War commenced 95 years after this house was completed, and 97 years before West Virginia became a state.
The house remained in the Graham family for many decades. It was later purchased by someone from Charleston to use as a summer home. Until a group of Summers County residents recognized its historic value, formed The Graham House Preservation Society, bought it and restored it to its original state.
The home compared to other homes of that time is very elaborate. It features massive logs, wide beautiful plank flooring and two enormous stone fireplaces on both sides of the living room. The stones are believed to have been brought from a mile down the Greenbrier River by canoe from a place that came to be known as “The Narrows.”
Sometime during the private ownership from a person in Kanawha County my Grandfather Bernard Thompson had a chance to purchase what would later become known as “The Graham House” for a trivial amount of $12,000. I loved to tease him and say; “see what you missed out on granddad?” He would then make a “ughhh huh” sound and walk off.
The large room that was added to the back of the house is a dining hall that can be rented for weddings, reunions, birthday parties and other events. It is also used for the annual Graham House Christmas dinner that I recently went to. The work and love for this historic property these volunteers do to keep up the property and its history is unmatched.
I had looked for this rare little book you can see here for years. Its title is “History of the Graham Family”. I was scrolling through listings on eBay in 2018 and just came across it. It was written by David Graham, a grandson of Colonel James Graham in 1899 in Clayton, West Virginia. He wrote this history based on the memories of relatives, court records and other family documents.
It tells of the Indian attack that occurred on the Graham family. About how the Indians kidnapped Colonel James Graham’s daughter Elizabeth and the 8 years he spent looking for her. It lists other prominent names from Summers County such as Guinn, Kincaid and Flint. I have never been into genealogy as much as local history but have always found it to be very interesting that my Thomas/Flint side of my family has ties to the Graham’s and indirect ties to The Graham House.
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