William Jordon Graves (1804 - 1848)

Born 8 Jul 1804 in New Castle, Henry County, Kentucky

Ancestors

Husband of Emily (Henderson) Graves — married Jul 1825 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Descendants

Died 27 Sep 1848 at age 44 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

Biography

• U.S. Member of Congress censured (but not expelled) for dueling with Jonathan Cilley 24.II.1838 resulting in Cilley's death. Whig.

William Jordan Graves was a U. S. Representative from Kentucky. He was born in New Castle, Kentucky. He is the son of William Graves and Lydia Williams. Graves pursued an academic education; subsequently, he studied law, and he was admitted to the bar. Graves practiced law, and was elected as a member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives in 1834. He was elected to Kentucky's eighth congressional district as an Anti-Jacksonian, to the Twenty-fourth Congress, and reelected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1835-March 3, 1841).

Graves is best remembered for his involvement in an infamous duel in which he fought in 1838. A dispute arose in the U. S. House between Graves and Jonathan Longfellow Cilley after Cilley, on the floor of the House, criticized James Watson Webb, a Whig newspaper editor, who was a friend of Graves. Notes were passed between the two congressmen, becoming vitriolic, resulting in Graves challenging Cilley to a duel. Cilley, although from Maine, was obliged to accept. The duel was held on the Marlboro Road in Blandensburg, Maryland, outside the District of Columbia, on 24 February 1838. Rifles were used instead of the customary pistols. Against the customary rules of dueling, one of Graves' seconds, Representative Henry Wise, insisted that firing continue after the initial shots. On the third shot, Cilley was killed. It was the first and only death of a sitting member of congress by dueling. This duel sparked a furor over the practice of dueling, and resulted in the passage of an anti-dueling law on February 20, 1839, prohibiting the giving or accepting, within the District of Columbia, of challenges to a duel. Censure was recommended, but not enforced on the participants. Graves was not a candidate for re-nomination in 1840, but was elected once again as a member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives in 1843.

William Jordan Graves died in Louisville, KY, on 27 September 1848. He is interred in Cave Hill National Cemetery, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.

Sources

• www.libbygraves.me/Graves_files/Gen_270.pdf

Find a Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com/memorial/19479409/william-jordan-graves : accessed 01 August 2021), memorial page for William Jordan Graves (1805–27 Sep 1848), Find a Grave Memorial ID 19479409, citing Cave Hill National Cemetery, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave.

United States Congress. "William J. Graves (id: G000392)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Spaulding, Myra L. "Dueling in the District of Columbia." Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 29-30 (1928): 186-201. (The article contains a detailed account of the duel, with pertinent congressional documents.)

Allen, William B. A History of Kentucky: Embracing Gleanings, Reminiscences, Antiquities, Natural Curiosities, Statistics, and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers, Soldiers, Jurists, Lawyers, Statesmen, Divines, Mechanics, Farmers, Merchants, and Other Leading Men, of All Occupations and Pursuits. Bradley & Gilbert, 1872. p. 285.

United States Congress, "Three Pamphlets about the Duel of February 24, 1838, Between Jonathan Cilley of Maine and William J. Graves of Kentucky" (1838). Books and Publications. 363. https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs/363

"Remembering Jonathan Cilley, the Reluctant Maine Duelist." https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/remembering-jonathan-cilley-the-reluctant-maine-duelist/

"The Unhappy and Bloody Duel - Jonathan Cilley and William Graves." (Baltimore, MD) The Sun. Monday, 24 February 1838, p. 2.