Rev. 9 July 1996, Gen. 358

 

DESCENDANTS OF JOHN THOMAS GRAVES AND MARTHA BELFER

OF SCOTLAND, CANADA & IN

 

 

GENERATION 1

 

John Thomas Graves (1) was born in Scotland, and died about 1856 in Canada. He married Martha Belfer. They emigrated to Canada in 1854 or before. After John died, Martha married as her second husband Josiah Jenkins. In Nov. 1865, the whole family moved to Noble Co., IN, and settled in Rome City. Mr. Jenkins was in the employ of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad Company. (R-1, R-2)

Children - Graves

+2. John Thomas Graves, Jr., b. 3 Dec. 1854, m. Janette Victoria Beymer, 18 March 1880, d. 26 Nov. 1931.

 

 

GENERATION 2

 

CHILDREN OF JOHN T. GRAVES (1) AND MARTHA BELFER

John Thomas Graves, Jr. (2) was born 3 Dec. 1854 in Toronto, Canada, died 26 Nov. 1931 in Roundup, MT, and was buried in Nov. 1931 in Roundup. He married Janette (or Jeanette) ("Janettie") Victoria Beymer, daughter of Thomas Beymer and Jane L. Harvey, about 18 March 1880 in Jefferson Twp., Noble Co., IN. She was born 29 Oct. 1857 in Jefferson Twp., Noble Co., IN, died in 1908 in Jefferson Twp., Albion, Noble Co., IN, and was buried in 1908 in Sweet Cem., Jefferson Twp., IN.

At the early age of 13, John Thomas Graves left home and went to work as a day laborer on a farm. So thoroughly had he mastered the intricacies of farming that by the time he was nineteen years of age he rented a farm in Jefferson township.

Five years later, in 1879, by careful saving and attention to details, he had accumulated enough to buy for himself a farm of eighty acres on section 4 in Jefferson township. This was not land that had been worked by others and had been bereft of a part of its fertility. It was virgin soil on the heart of a wilderness. Slowly Mr. Graves cleared this land, and with his savings bought more till at the present time [the date of this biographical sketch] he owns 280 acres, all in an excellent state of cultivation. The farm is dotted by several neat, tasty and pretty buildings.

But Mr. Graves has not confined his attention entirely to farming. He has dealt largely in stock and in buying and shipping hay.

Mr. Graves is interested in the political questions of the day and studies carefully the movements of the two principal political parties of the country. Though not a politician in any sense in which the word is generally used, he nevertheless is sufficiently interested in local affairs to be willing to be one of the ditch commissioners of Noble county, a position of considerable responsibility and of very little emoluments. Mr. Graves cast his first presidential vote for R. B. Hayes, and has always upheld the Republican banner.

Mrs. Graves was educated in the common schools, crude at that time, and also for a term in the high school at Rome City, IN. Regarding her parents, Thomas Beymer was born 9 Aug. 1823 in Huron Co., OH, and was reared to farming. He moved to Noble Co. Oct. 11, 1851, and began life in a log cabin home, but had very little cash. Mr. Beymer's father came from Germany. My Beymer cast his first vote for the first Republican candidate, Gen. John C. Fremont, and was an admirer of McKinley. Mrs. Beymer was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, March 10, 1813. She was a little girl of 5 years when she came with her family of America, and was educated in Ohio. (R-1, R-2)

Children - Graves

+3. Thaddeus Sherman Graves, b. 27 Feb. 1884 (?), m. Edith May Boughey, 18 March 1909, d. 1 Oct. 1920.

4. George Thomas Graves, b. 16 March 1881. Graduated from Albion high school in the class of 1901, and then studied pharmacy at Purdue Univ.

5. Clarence Beymer Graves, b. 5 Nov. 1883.

 

 

GENERATION 3

 

CHILDREN OF JOHN T. GRAVES, JR. (2) AND JANETTE V. BEYMER

Thaddeus Sherman Graves (3) was born 27 Feb. 1884 (?) in Jefferson Twp., Noble Co., IN, died 1 Oct. 1920 in Roundup, MT, and was buried in Oct. 1920 in Roundup, MT. He married Edith May Boughey, daughter of John Elmer Boughey and Eliza Amedia Rogers, on 18 March 1909 in Noble Co., IN. She was born 28 Dec. 1889 in Good Harbor, MI, died 9 Jan. 1988 in Kendallville, IN, and was buried in Jan. 1988 in Albion, IN. (R-1)

Children - Graves

6. Jeanetta Elmo Graves

7. Bryon Elwood Graves

+8. Dean Thaddeus Graves, b. 25 Sept. 1920, m. Betty Laraine Ross, 17 Aug. 1940, d. 20 April 1993.

 

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