Memorials › Dr Henry Lee Graves
Dr Henry Lee Graves
22 Feb 1813 – 4 Nov 1881
| Birth | 22 Feb 1813 |
| Death | 4 Nov 1881 |
| Cemetery | Prairie Lea Cemetery Brenham , Washington County , Texas , USA |
| Added by | Lowell Herzog on 08 May 2023 |
| FaG | https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46514432 |
Bio
GRAVES, HENRY LEE (1813-1881). Henry Lee Graves, Baptist minister and educational leader, was born in Yanceyville, North Carolina, on February 22, 1813, the son of Thomas Graves. He attended the University of North Carolina from 1831 to 1835 and taught math at Wake Forest College from 1835 to 1837. After his ordination to the Baptist ministry in 1837, he attended Hamilton Literary and Theological Institute in New York from 1840 to 1842. He taught in Covington, Georgia, in 1843, and in 1845 he was a delegate from that state to the organizational meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Augusta, Georgia. Dr. Henry L. Graves was selected president of the Fairfield Female College which was chartered on Feb. 8, 1860. Graves had previously served as president of Baylor University at Independence and of the Baptist State Convention. He taught ancient languages and moral and intellectual philosophy. Other courses offered included mathematics, English literature, music, and ornamental art. In addition to the college curriculum, a graded preparatory department was offered. The length of each session was twenty weeks, and tuition was fifteen to twenty dollars for prep school and twenty-five dollars for college classes. The students, faculty, and Graves and his family lived in the school building and were attended by nine slaves, who did maintenance, housework, cooking, and serving. February 1861, the same week that the Secession Convention in Austin passed the Ordinance of Secession, the college property was put on sale at public auction. Graves bought all the property, including ten acres of land on which the buildings were situated, for $5,000. Assisted by three women teachers, he operated the school until it closed. Attendance was good in 1861, and during the war a number of refugees descended on the area, bringing enrollment to its highest levels at about 200, but also causing a housing shortage. The war continued and attendance dropped. In December 1869, Graves and the other owners of the college and property sold their interest to Alice M. Adams for $1,500 and the assumption of $5,000 indebtedness against the school. In the following years the Fairfield Masons annually appointed a school committee to provide education for the children of deceased master Masons living in the jurisdiction of the lodge. The college was closed in 1889. In 1936 the state of Texas erected a marker at the site. Graves was married to Rebecca W. Graves, a cousin, in 1836 and had four daughters and two sons. Rebecca died in 1865, and he married a widow, Myra Lusk Crumpler, in 1872. Graves was a master Mason. He died at Brenham on November 4, 1881, and is buried there. information provided by: Linda Mullen member#47245894
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Family
Parents
Spouse
Siblings
- Leannah Herndon Graves Haralson 1803–1848 FaG
- John Herndon Graves 1807–1889 FaG
- Dr George Washington "G.W." Graves 1811–1877 FaG
- Mary Ann Graves 1815–1837 FaG
- Thomas Augustus Graves 1821–1861 FaG
Children
- Mary Anna "Mollie" Graves Kirksey 1838–1894
- Bettie Williams Graves Jones 1840–1935
- Charles Henry Graves 1844–1922
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