Early Life
Christopher Columbus Graham was born at Fort Worthington, Kentucky (near Danville) on October 10, 1784. His father James Graham was pioneer and long rifle hunter who settled in Kentucky in 1778. He fought in the last conflict of the American Revolutionary war on August 18, 1782 known as the Battle of Blue Licks (Kentucky). The American force was defeated and James was captured and taken to Canada. After the war, he returned to serve as private under General George Rogers Clark.
Young Christopher was mostly self educated and trained as a silversmith. Like his father he was considered a good marksman. He guided about 20 flatboats down the Mississippi and was on the river near New Madrid, Missouri during the massive earthquake of December 1811.
During the War of 1812 he served in the infantry where he was wounded in battle and captured. After being released in a prisoner exchange he was captured again at Fort Malden in Canada but escaped. He discharged in 1814. After the war he became a teacher in New Orleans but left the city after a malaria outbreak. He was also a soldier in the Black Hawk war where he served with Jefferson Davis (later president of the Confederacy) and the Texan war for independence.
He attended Transylvania University in Lexington Kentucky and studied medicine under Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley (1785-1870).
Career
After graduating from Transylvania University, he practiced medicine for 5 years in Harrodsburg, Kentucky with Dr. Henry Miller. He left the practice of medicine and made his fortune in creating resorts around natural springs around Kentucky.
He married Theresa Sutton (1804-1859) on October 8, 1820 and they had four children: James Sutton Graham (1824-1862), Sarah Graham Akin (1825-1890), Mary E. Graham Bramlette (1832-1886), and Terese Graham Blackburn (1839-1899).
In 1832-1833 C.C. Graham had an ownership stake in Galena lead mines.
Abraham Lincoln
What might be most fascinating fact about Dr. Graham is his connections to Abraham Lincoln's family. In the book, The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln by Ida M. Tarbell and published in 1896, which contains an appendix with Christopher Columbus Graham's reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln's parents in the excerpt below. Note: infare is a a wedding reception for a newly married couple.
"The marriage took place at the home of Richard Berry,
near Beechland in Washington County, Kentucky. It was
celebrated in the boisterous style of one hundred years ago,
and was followed by an infare , given by the bride's guardian.
To this celebration came all the neighbors, and, according
to an entertaining Kentucky centenarian, Dr. Christopher
Columbus Graham, even those who happened in the neigh
borhood were made welcome. He tells how he heard of the
wedding while " out hunting for roots, " and went “ just to
get a good supper. I saw Nancy Hanks Lincoln at her wed
ding," continues Mr. Graham, " a fresh looking girl, I should
say over twenty. I was at the infare, too, given by John H.
Parrott, her guardian-and only girls with money had
guardians appointed by the court. We had bear meat ;
venison ; wild turkey and ducks ; eggs, wild and tame, so
common that you could buy them at two bits a bushel ; maple
sugar, swung on a string, to bite off for coffee or whiskey ;
syrup in big gourds ; peach-and- honey ; a sheep that the two
families barbecued whole over coals of wood burned in a
pit, and covered with green boughs to keep the juice in ; and
a race for the whiskey bottle. "
In April 1933, The Filson Club History Quarterly published and article about Dr. C.C. Graham's life entitled "C.C. Graham, M.D., 1784-1885 Historian, Antiquarian, Rifle Expert, Centenarian" by Brent Altsheler. On pages 84-85 Dr. William Thornwall Davis (1877-1944) of Washington, D.C. wrote this reminiscence of his great-grandfather on May 1932 while visiting Louisville:
"He was very fond of the boy Lincoln and in Grandfather's younger days, equipped with his hammer and specimen sack, he took Abe with him over the Lincoln farm, searching for interesting geological and ethnological specimens and in this way the young Lincoln mind was turned away from lowly home influence into the realms of history, natural and political."
Below is an image of a historical limestone panel carved by E.H. Daniels (in the early 1940s?) located at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana. It portrays Abraham Lincoln's childhood in Kentucky. The people shown from left to right are: Jesse Lafollet [Lafollette], Thomas Lincoln, Christopher C. Graham, Abraham Lincoln, Nancy Lincoln, Sarah Lincoln, and Caleb Hazel. It was described in February 7, 1943 article as "dated about 1816 when Lincoln was but seven years old, Sculptor Daniels said. The site is that of Knob Creek cabin, about eight miles from Hodgenville, Ky., on the main route between Louisville and Nashville. Lincoln, the boy, is of course the central figure. He leans on a hoe as he listens to a story by Christopher Columbus Graham, a traveling philosopher. It's Lincoln's first contact with the outside world."
It would be amazing if Graham and Lincoln collected fossils and minerals together but I cannot find any references of President Lincoln mentioning that he spent time with Christopher C. Graham.
Graham Springs Resort
He founded a resort called Graham Springs in Harrodsburg, Kentucky and was known in ante-bellum times as the "Saratoga of the South" (referencing famous springs in New York state). Before Dr. Graham purchased the property it was known as Greenville Springs which a property record from 1807 shows a 227 acre tract selling from $2,500. A later record on June 4, 1827 shows Christopher C. Graham purchasing 207 acres embracing the Greenville spring. Two springs existed and one he acquired when he married Theresa Sutton which her family owned. He opened the "Harrodsburg Springs" after his marriage in a partnership with is father-in-law.
Graham relied on slaves to build the grounds and serve the guests. The 1830 and 1840 census shows he owed 26 slaves and by 1850 53 slaves. Three slave musicians named George, Reuben, and Henry escaped by steamboat Pike from Louisville to Cincinnati then on to Canada. Graham sued the steamboat company in Strader v. Graham in 1851 and won $3,000 for aiding in their escape. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court and the judgement was upheld citing the Ordinance of 1787. The following from the case record:
It appeared in evidence that the negroes were the slaves of Graham, and that they were musicians; that for their improvement in music two of them were placed under the care of one Williams, who was a skillful performer and leader of a band, and were permitted to go with him to Louisville and other places and play with him at public entertainments. The following permit was filed as an exhibit, and proved.Learn more about this at Explore Kentucky History web site.
"Harrodsburg, August 30, 1837"
"This is to give liberty to my boys, Henry and Reuben, to go to Louisville, with Williams and to play with him till I may wish to call them home. Should Williams find it his interest to take them to Cincinnati, New Albany, or any part of the South, even so far as New Orleans, he is at liberty to do so. I receive no compensation for their services except that he is to board and clothe them."
"My object is to have them well trained in music. They are young, one 17 and the other 19 years of age. They are both of good disposition and strictly honest, and such is my confidence in them that I have no fear that they will ever [act] knowingly wrong, or put me to trouble. They are slaves for life, and I paid for them an unusual sum; they have been faithful, hard-working servants, and I have no fear but that they will always be true to their duty, no matter in what situation they may be placed."
"C. GRAHAM, M.D."
"P.S. Should they not attend properly to their music, or disobey Williams, he is not only at liberty, but requested, to bring them directly home."
"C. GRAHAM"
Under this permission, Williams, in the year 1837, made several excursions with his band, including the slaves Reuben and Henry, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and New Albany and Madison, Indiana, for the purpose of playing at balls or public entertainments, after which he returned to Louisville, his place of residence, said slaves returning with him, from which time to the time of their escape in 1841 they had remained within the State of Kentucky.
The resort remained in operation for 33 years until 1853 when it was sold U.S. government for $100,000 to used as a military asylum for aged and invalid soldiers. The facility was closed in 1858 after the large hotel building burned down and the operation was moved to Washington, D.C. The grounds then became pastures for milk cows. The cottages and ballroom building would later be used during the American Civil War in October 1862 to care for the wounded from the Battle of Perryville. The ballroom burned in 1864 and the remaining cottages burned down by the early 1880s.
Charles Darwin Communications
The University of Cambridge's Darwin Correspondence Project has three letters C.C. Graham sent to Charles Darwin in its system. The first is dated January 30, 1877. In this letter Graham was wanting a letter from Darwin about his scientific theories to counter religious fundamentalism. Part of letter he writes, "Should you write, and I hope you may, let it be on one side only, of about the size of the smaller sheet, here enclosed, so that it can be framed. I have one of the finest collections in the United States, the product of seventy years search throughout America, north and south, mostly fossils to which we have added the great Troost Cabinet of minerals, (at the cost of twenty five thousand dollars) said to be superior to Humboldts in Germany." He writes that once he has the Darwin letter, he will put it "in a large splendid frame, for our Museum and cabinet of Natural History, where I hope it may remain for centuries to come, by which time science will have gained the victory over ignorance and superstition."
The Gerard Troost (1776-1850) mineral collection that $25,000 was paid for as of 2024 has been shipped to the Indiana State Museum from the Kentucky Science Center except for the meteorite collection which was sent to Harvard University museum after Dr. John Lawrence Smith (1818-1883) died. The letters Graham talks about appear to have been lost along with his collection of curios that were in the the museum.
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Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10821,” accessed on 30 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10821.xmlImages of original letters from the Cambridge University Library collections are courtesy of Cambridge University Digital Library (cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk). |
The second is from March 28, 1880 which Graham has his grand-daughter to write as the shaking in his hands make his writing less legible. He confirms receiving Darwin's letter and it will be framed and hung in the Kentucky State House. In a follow up letter on April 17, 1880 he tells Darwin the letter will be placed in a fireproof area. In 2024, it appears Darwin's letter has been lost.
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Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12581,” accessed on 29 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12581.xml Images of original letters from the Cambridge University Library collections are courtesy of Cambridge University Digital Library (cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk). |
Paleontology
Late in life, a 93 year old Dr. Graham embarked on a fossil dig project at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky. He organized a dig with 10 local area men to dig fossils. They were paid a dollar a day for their work. Graham published a report in the newspaper The Louisville Journal in 1877 at the request of Professor Fredric Ward Putnam (1839-1915) of the Peabody Academy of Science in Salem, Massachusetts. Here is an excerpt:
I dug upon these grounds for thirty days, with ten men, and brought off seven barrels of bones, a number of buffalo heads, and both mammoth and mastodon molars, but found no very large bones or tusks (but had nine feet of a fourteen-foot tusk given me by Mr. McLaughlin, proprietor), and left upon the ground a cart load of bones of various animals. The bone-bed is from ten to twelve feet beneath the present surface of the ground. I say present, because the valley, having recently sunk, is annually inundated, till there is a deposit of several feet over the original earth. In sinking one of our pits, we came to a regularly built furnace, six feet under ground, and took up the pipes, partly decayed, that conducted the water from the main spring to the furnace, where salt was made nearly a hundred years ago. I will say of those who may wish to search for those ancient remains that, when they come to a head, rib, or any other bone of an animal, they cannot expect to find, as I did, to find the entire skeleton; and my reason for the fact is that the wolves, bears and wild-cats (the remains of which I found) dragged the dislocated parts about, and that the deposits, as above named, covered them where they lay.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bone_Lick_State_Park
It is assumed the material collected was deposited in the Free Museum of Kentucky housed in Louisville. Where the fossils are today is unknown to the author.
The newspaper Interior Journal of Stanford, Kentucky wrote on February 6, 1885 in his obituary "In his latter years he made almost a hobby of his favorite pastime, "specimen" hunting, and there is scarcely a house in this county that he has not visited in search of curious geological formations, Indian relics of every variety, which he deposited in his Louisville museum."
Turning 100
Louisville, KY., Oct. 1, 1884 - Dear Sir: At a meeting of citizens convened for the purpose of considering some becoming way of recognizing the centennial anniversary of the venerable Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham, whose one hundredth birthday occurs o the 10th of this month, it was agreed to tender him a complimentary dinner in commemoration of the event. It was deemed appropriate that 100 guests, one for each year of his long and exemplary life, should dine with him on this occasion You are invited to make one of this number, and it is hoped that you can be present; but if not an answer to that effect will open the way to filling your seat with another, as it is not desirable to have a vacant chair at the table. The dinner, more of a pioneer repast of 100 years ago that a banquet of modern times, will be given at the Louisville Hotel., in this city, Friday, October 10, 1884 at 5 o'clock P.M. James Trabue, Richard H. Collins, R. A. Robinson, Wm. F. Bullock, Geo. W. Morris, T.S. Bell, Jas. S. Lithgow, D. W. Yandell, James Bridgeford, R. T. Durrett
The Courier-Journal on Saturday, October 11, 1884 published an article describing the event that more than a full page of the newspaper. They wrote, "The centennial celebration of the birth of Christopher Columbus Graham, M. D., was one of the most remarkable events in the history of Louisville. Not only the exceeding rarity of the event made it remarkable, but the company that gathered to celebrate it was the most noteworthy that ever assembled in Kentucky."
The menu of the dinner was also published:
YE OLDE FOLKS DINNER
Chicken soup with rice; baked Ohio-river salmon; bacon, cabbage & beans; barbecued lamb; roast duck in apple sauce; roast turkey with cranberry sauce; roast beef; broiled squirrel; leg of bear; baked opossum with sweet potatoes; roasting ears; hominy; boiled potatoes; baked sweet potatoes; stewed tomatoes; hoe cake; corn dodgers; buttermilk; plum pudding with rum sauce; pumpkin pie; log cabin pie; sliced apple pie, old style; assorted cakes; fruits; vanilla ice-cream; coffee
LET US SMILE: cider; tansy bitters; apple jack; peach and honey; old bourbon
WE SMILE AGAIN: claret; port wine; sherry; champagne
Death & Legacy
Dr. Graham died on February 3, 1885 and is buried at Bellevue Cemetery in Danville, Boyle County Kentucky USA. A simple limestone marker with initials on it mark is burial spot and is accompanied by larger stone. His first wife Theresa Sutton (1804-1859) and two of their daughters are buried near him Sarah Graham Akin (1825-1890) and Mary E. Graham Bramlette (1832-1886) [she was married to the 23rd Governor of Kentucky Thomas Elliott Bramlette (1817-1875)].
In the 1872 book A History of Kentucky by William B. Allen, the author dedicated his book:
ΤΟ DR. CHRISTOPHER GRAHAM, M. D. ,
WHO WAS BORN IN THE WILDWOODS OF KENTUCKY FIVE YEARS BEFORE IT BECAME A STATE; WHO IS HIMSELF A LIVING HISTORY OF KENTUCKY, AND ONE OF THE FEW LINKS NOW LEFT IN THE LONG CHAIN THAT BINDS THE PRESENT GENERATION TO THE FIRST SETTLERS OF THE "DARK AND BLOODY GROUND"; "WHO IS THE BEST RIFLE SHOT IN AMERICA, AND UNEQUALED AS A TARGET-SHOOTER; AND WHILE ALREADY NUMBERED AMONG THE MOST MUNIFICENT BENEFACTORS OF THE STATE HAS ONCE MORE EVINCED HIS LIBERALITY BY THE CONTRIBUTION OF HIS EXTENSIVE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF KENTUCKY, ESTIMATED TO BE WORTH $25,000-TO THIS MAN SO WORTHY OF OUR HIGHEST ESTEEM IS THIS BOOK DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR
On August 10, 1919, The Lexington Herald newspaper published and article "Noted Scientist Among Distinguished Summer Visitors at Crab Orchard" about his son Dr. John Bufard Graham of Atlanta Georgia. In the article, John Graham recounts the story of how he and Peter Dodge saved 21 sailors from the wrecked ship Mary E. Chapman of Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia using a row boat in a 75 mph winds during a gale. They were awarded medals from the United States and Canada for this heroic action.
The author as notes another story John Graham told her of a ring he received from his grandfather. He "showed her a thumb ring which is father had unearthed in Egypt, and which he had taken off of the finger of one of the Pharoahs whom historians think lived 5,000 years before Christ. The ring is made of four kinds of mined gold which shade from bright yellow to dull red. The signs of the Zodiac are exquisitely carved in the ring. It is one of two in the world, the other being in the north corridor of the room of Egyptology in the British Museum in London."
It would be interesting if that ring could be found today.
Sources:
William B. Allen, A History of Kentucky, 1872, [NOTE: Graham birth date is listed in error as 1787 instead of 1784].
Brent Altsheler, C.C. Graham, M.D., 1784-1885 Historian, Antiquarian, Rifle Expert, Centenarian, The Filson Club History Quarterly, April 1933, pp.67-87.
James Duvall, Christopher Columbus Graham: Kentucky Man of Science, Journal of Kentucky Academy of Science, 2004, 65(2):pp.140-153.
"Our Oldest Citizen", The Courier-Journal: Louisville, Saturday Morning, October 11, 1884, pp. 6-7
Richard H. Collins, "America and England Dr. Christopher C. Graham and Sir Moses Montefiore", The Courier-Journal: Louisville, Wednesday Morning, October 8, 1884, p. 8.
W. O. McIntyre, "Memories of Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham" (letter to editor), The Courier-Journal: Louisville, 1931, p.
Martha Stephenson, "Old Graham Springs", Register of Kentucky State Historical Society, Vol. 12, No. 34 (JANUARY, 1914), pp. 25, 27-35
Brian M. Trump, “Marker #551 "Harrodsburg Springs" and #1297 "Graham Springs",” ExploreKYHistory, accessed May 4, 2024, https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/990.
Christopher Columbus Graham, "The Mammoth's Graveyard", LINK
Ida M. Tarbell, The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln, New York, S.S. McClure, Limited, 1896
