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- Eliza Lucinda Graham was the daughter of John Christopher and Rebecca Helen Stukes Graham. Of the ten children born to John Christopher and Rebecca H. Graham, three married directly into the Griffin family: Eliza married Dempsey Griffin, Milton Robert married Huldah Griffin, Dempsey's daughter; Caroline Letitia married Nelson Griffin, Dempsey's son. Eliza's grandfather was Narcissus Graham, who as a boy of 14 years, became a fifer for the Connecticut patriot troops in the Revolutionary War. After the war, he moved to what became Sumter District and married Unity Gayle. (Helen Graham Carpenter, "The Reverend John Graham of Woodbury, Connecticut and His Descendants", Chicago 1942).
The following excerpts are from a sketch of Eliza Lucinda Graham Griffin written by her daughter-in-law Lizzie Moore Griffin. The year written is not known.
"Her health was bad. She hired Mr. Jams Childers to oversee the farm and his wife to keep house. Her home and land was where the town of Pinewood is today. Many of her grandchildren still own parts of the land. She gave the land for the Methodist Church. She was confirmed with her husband in the Episcopal Church in May 1856. She was a great reader. She loved to read her Bible. She raised a granddaughter, Oneida Griffin, daughter of Joe Griffin and Virginia Parler. Her youngest son Wigfall lived with her in her old age. She loved to go to church and to entertain the preachers. Her funeral was conducted In the Pinewood Methodist Church by Rev. Hubert Noland and she was buried in the Pinewood Cemetery. Her childhood home was called the White House. It was first called the White House by the slaves as it was the only white house in the surrounding country. It was a big two story house. Her father John Graham was very rich and owned many slaves. The kitchen was in a separate building. Mr. Graham would have the servants line up from the kitchen door to the dining room in the White House and pass the dishes of cooked food from one to another until it reached the table. The White House burned in 1849 or 1850. The Santee Cooper project now occupies this spot."
During her last illness before her death, Eliza lived with her granddaughter Oneida Griffin Huggins, the granddaughter she had raised. Dempsey owned the land upon which the town of Pinewood was built; his home sat at the end of what became the main residential street. After Eliza gave the land and the Methodist Church was built, she could sit on her porch and look straight down the street at the church. (HFG).
Eliza and Dempsey had six children.
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1826 - 1906 (80 years)
d. 1865, Clarendon County, South Carolina 