We are indebted to Mrs. Wynness L. Thomas for forwarding the following information from Seldon B. Hill, The St. James, Santee, Parish Historical Society, P. 0. Box 666, McCellanville, SC 29450.
Thomas William Graham was bom October 25, 1849, a son of William Isaiah Graham (1822-1864) and Margaret Dorcas Beaty (1825-1891). His father was sheriff of Horry County from 1851 to 1856. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Akin Beaty and Dorcas Chestnut Johnson.
On December 28, 1871, Thomas William Graham married Frances Jones Sessions, a daughter of Francis I. Sessions and Harriett Tillman Green. He operated a business on the Waccamaw River near Conwayborough which caused the area to be known as Grahamville.
Graham sold a considerable tract of land along the South Carolina coast near what is today Myrtle Beach before relocating with his family to their new Santee River home, Woodville Plantation.
Woodville was conveyed by the Master in Equity, John Adams Leland, to T. W. Graham on October 20, 1887. He later added Elmwood Plantation and other properties to his holdings. He became a successful rice planter and a manufacturer of naval stores.
T. W. Graham died at McCellanville on January 16, 1905.
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