Posted on: Des Moines County Iowa Queries Reply Here: http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/gc/USA/Ia/DesMoines/98 Surname: Graham ------------------------- My GRAHAM ancestors were early settlers of Iowa; they came from Ireland. My great-great-grandfather, their son John Graham, was born in 1820 and died in Iowa in August 1850, while building a mill on a river; he had pneumonia. In 1840, he left Iowa and came down to Union Co., Arkansas and married my GGGrandmother, Elizabeth Langley, daughter of Simon Langley, Sr. and Judith ?. Elizabeth was born April 23, 1823 in PA or KY and died Oct. 18, 1890 in Friendship, Bienville Parish, LA. She and John had 3 children to die young in Iowa: Wm, Bolen and Lucinda. Jasper Newton Graham was born in 1847. When John died, Elizabeth was expecting my great-grandfather, John Wesley Graham. The older Mr. and Mrs. Graham died and John's four brothers left Iowa on horseback. Two went one way and two went another. It is believed that possibly two of them went toward the Carolinas. Elizabeth came back to her parents' home in Ouachita Co., Ark., where John Wesley was born March 9, 1851. My great aunt, John Wesley's daughter, told me they lived in Plymouth, Iowa but I have never found a town or county even sounding like that. Maybe it was a town then. Why did she name her son Jasper Newton? Did they live in one of those counties?! After John died, Elizabeth and Jasper lived with her wealthy relatives in Iowa before coming back to Ark. There were two old-maids and a bachelor. If you have any information on this family, please email me. Thank you so much, Shirley Burks Wells