Ancestors

Robert Alexander McGraw

Robert Alexander McGraw was born on 11 April 1860 at McMinnville, Warren County, Tennessee. He went by Alexander in most records. His parents were James McGraw and Sarah Hale, as his death certificate and his memorial both give them. James served as a private in the Confederate Army and died of illness, not wounds, at Columbus, Kentucky, during the Civil War.

His mother married again, to a Tennessee farmer named Craven McGowin, and the family moved to Jackson County, Alabama. In June 1880 the census taker found Alexander McGraw, 20, at the foot of the McGowin household near Stevenson, written as Craven's stepson and working on the farm, with his mother Sarah, 46, and ten McGowin children.

On 16 October 1882 he married Emma Luona Shirley at Stevenson, Jackson County, Alabama. J. Boyd Foster, a justice of the peace for Jackson County, performed the ceremony. The couple had eleven children. Among them were Leonard P. McGraw (1883-1938), Albert Franklin McGraw, John Calvin McGraw (1887-1949), Minnie Mae McGraw (1890-1984), James A. McGraw (born 1894), Floyd William McGraw (1896-1980), Jesse Shirley McGraw (1899-1905), Emma McGraw (1902-1983), Lloyd Castle McGraw (1904-1986), Ola McGraw (1905-1950) and Robert Tate McGraw (1908-1934). The compiled sources disagree on Albert's death year. Albert and John Calvin were born in Arkansas, which fits the family's years at Fort Smith.

Robert was a farmer and a member of the Church of Christ. In 1900 he was farming in Tupelo precinct, Jackson County, with nine children at home, and in 1910 at Fackler, where his daughter Emma, then 7, was among the children in the house. By 1930 he and Emma were living at South Pittsburg, Tennessee, with Loyd, Ola and Tate. A compiled profile also places him at various times in McMinnville, Tennessee, and at Pikeville, Alabama. His wife Emma died in 1932. His eldest son Leonard died at Murfreesboro in June 1938; the death record named his parents as R. A. McGraw and Emma Shirley. In August 1938 he fell ill with cancer of the stomach. He died that November, on 3 November 1938, at his home at 518 Magnolia Avenue, South Pittsburg, Marion County, Tennessee, aged 78. He was a widower and had worked as a gardener until 1937. His son-in-law C. A. Duggar gave the particulars for the certificate, naming his parents as James McGraw and Sarah Hale. He was buried on 6 November 1938 in Cumberland View Cemetery at Kimball, Marion County.

If Robert Alexander McGraw is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Robert Alexander McGraw (1860-1938)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/robert-alexander-mcgraw-1860-1938-28c563.