ight worthily is his
name bestowed upon one of the most fertile counties of our State, and
upon a seat of learning, located near the scene of his death, which
will perpetuate his fame as long as liberty has a votary throughout
all succeeding time.

GENERAL GEORGE GRAHAM.

General George Graham was born in Pennsylvania in 1758, and came with
his widowed mother and four others to North Carolina, when about six
years old. He was chiefly educated at "Queen's Museum," in Charlotte,
and was distinguished for his assiduity, manly behaviour and
kindliness of disposition. He was early devoted to the cause of
liberty, and was ever its untiring defender. There was no duty too
perilous, no service too dangerous, that he was not ready to undertake
for the welfare and independence of his country.

In 1775, when it was reported in Charlotte that two Tory lawyers, Dunn
and Boothe, had proposed the detention of Capt. Jack on his way to
Philadelphia, and had pronounced the patriotic resolutions with which
he was entrusted, as "treasonable," George Graham was one of the
gallant spirits who rode all night to Salisbury, seized said offending
lawyers, and brought them to Mecklenburg for trial. Here, after being
found guilty of conduct "inimical to the cause of American freedom,"
they were transported to Camden, S.C., and afterward to Charleston,
and imprisoned.

Such were the open manifestations of liberty and independence in
different portions of North Carolina in 1775!

When Cornwallis lay at Charlotte in 1780, Graham took an active part
in attacking his foraging parties, making it extremely difficult and
hazardous for them to procure their necessary supplies. He was one of
the thirteen brave spirits, under Capt. James Thompson, who dared to
attack a foraging party of four hundred British troops at McIntire's
Branch, seven miles northwest of Charlotte, on the Beattie's Ford
road, compelling them to retreat, with a considerable loss of men and
a small amount of forage, fearing, as they said, an ambuscade was
prepared for their capture.

After the war, he was elected Major General of the North Carolina
militia. For many years, he was clerk of the court of Mecklenburg
county, and frequently a member of the State Legislature. He was the
people's friend, not their flatterer, and uniformly enjoyed the
confidence and high esteem of his fellow-citizens. He lived more than
half a century on his farm, two miles from Charlotte. He died on the