Nancy Graves

Mrs. Nancy Graves, the widow of Thomas Graves, and the daughter of Nathan and Ann (Dixon) Cox, was born in Ross county, Ohio, in the year 1826. Her parents were respectively from Virginia and North Carolina. Their respective parents removing to Ohio, they became acquainted and were married. Some twenty-five years after their marriage they removed to Stark county, Ill., in 1836, and started to build the first mill in Stark county. It was on Indian creek, and was used for many years. In 1840, Mr. Cox, after a brief illness of but two weeks, passed from earth in his fifty-sixth year. For three years after her husband's death, Mrs. Cox remained at the old home, and there followed her husband to the last sleep, in her sixty-fourth year. They were both prominent among the pioneers of the county, and highly esteemed. Their family consisted of ten children, five still living, four of whom are in Stark county. Mrs. Graves remained with her father and mother until her father's death. In 1841 she was united in marriage to Thomas Graves, the son of John and Elizabeth Graves. He was born in Chatham county, N. C, in 1816. When eight years of age, his parents removed to Ohio, where he received a common school education, and in 1840 came to Stark county, where he met and married Miss Nancy Cox. Some eight years after their marriage they remained upon the farm of her father until 1850, when they removed to section 23, Essex township, where since then the family has resided. On the 12th of December, 1876, after several years of failing health, and but nine weeks confined to his bed, he died. He was a man prominent among the progressive and enterprising farmers of the township, and one who was known only to be held in high esteem by all, and it is to such men that the real progression of Stark county is owing. Since her husband's death, Mrs. Graves has remained on the homestead, where she still resides with five of her children. Her family consisted of ten children, William H., in Essex township; Martha L. (Mrs. Riner Duncan); Lorenzo D., Armourdale, Kan.; James H., in Essex; Mary A. (Mrs. J. H. Moran), widow at home; Franklin J., in Essex; Harriet E. (Mrs. A. J. Smith), Essex; Forney L., Essex; Hermie Augusta, Essex; and Archie L, Essex. Mrs. Graves has reared a family of useful citizens, and is considered one of the county's foremost women.