James Graham Ramsay

Background

James was born on March 1, 1823, in Iredell County, North Carolina, United States. His parents were David and Margaret Foster Graham Ramsay. The Ramsays had emigrated in 1695 to Pennsylvania, and Dr. Ramsay's grandfather had moved to the Coddle Creek community in Iredell in 1766.

Education

James graduated from Davidson College in 1838, studied medicine at Jefferson Medical College (now Thomas Jefferson University) in Philadelphia, and graduated in 1848.

Career

James Ramsay was a farmer and a doctor in Mt. Vernon, Rowan County, North Carolina, before the war. From 1856 to 1862, he served in the state Senate.

He claimed that his unionism kept him from being elected to the first Confederate House of Representatives. However, through the efforts of William W. Holden's newspaper and the peace party of his district, he was elected to the second Confederate House, where he served on the Medical Department and Naval Affairs Committees. In the House, Ramsay favored raising the pay of Confederate officials.

In March 1865, he was reported as absent without leave from Richmond. Later that year, he returned to Charlotte to practice medicine with J.M.K. Henderson. He was a candidate for the state constitutional convention in June 1865 but was disqualified from taking the oath because he had not been pardoned.

He became a Republican and served in the state Senate in 1883. President Rutherford B. Hayes offered him a diplomatic post in South America, but he declined the honor.

Achievements

• James Graham Ramsay was known as a member of the North Carolina state legislature for eight years. He was also remembered for his service from 1864 to 1865 in the Confederate Congress as a Representative from North Carolina.

Works

More photos

• book

  • An Address Delivered by Hon. James G. Ramsay, M. D., Before the Young Ladies of Concord Female College, at Statesville, May 29th, 1863 1863
  • A Historical Sketch of Third Creek Church, in Rowan County, N. C: Read at the Centennial, May 13th, 1892 1892
  • The Education of the Masses of the People: An Address Delivered at the Request of the Athenaean Society Before the Literary Societies of Catawba ... 16th Day of November, 1854 1854

Religion

In the cemetery of the Third Creek Presbyterian Church, near Cleveland, James was a ruling elder for forty-nine years.

Politics

Ramsay was one of the more politically active men of his district. An excellent public speaker, he campaigned vigorously and faithfully for the Whig party and its candidates at each election.

He seldom offered legislation of his own, but he voted so consistently to place state and individual rights over the needs of the Confederate war effort that his loyalty was suspect. He opposed higher taxes, extending conscription or limiting exemptions from military service, suspending the writ of habeas corpus, the impressment of farm produce for army use, and all other major administration measures. He worked consistently to force President Jefferson Davis to seek peace terms from the United States, and by April 1865 he favored a state convention to return North Carolina to the Union.

After the war, Ramsay became an active Republican.

Personality

The tall, spare James Ramsay was one of the best-read men of his community, and his contemporaries considered him "polished in his manners, precise but not still in his address,... of fine conversational ability."

Connections

In 1846 James married Sarah Jane Foster. Their children were Margaret, Florence May, David, James, Edgar, William, Robert, and Claude.

Father:

David Ramsay

1792-1857

Mother:

Margaret Foster Graham Ramsay

1795-1840

Sister:

Martha Jane Ramsay Rosebrough

1824-1874

Brother:

Robert Zenas Ramsay

1827-1834

Sister:

Sarah Matilda Ramsay

1832-1844

Wife:

Sarah Jane Foster Ramsay

1828-1895

Daughter:

Margaret Foster Ramsay Nelson

1849-1909

Daughter:

Florence May Ramsay

1850-1861

Son:

David Allan Ramsay

1852-1891

Son:

James Hill Ramsay

1855-1930

Son:

Claude Clinton Ramsay

1865-1930

Son:

Edgar Ramsay

Son:

William Ramsay

Son:

Robert Ramsay

Friend:

Francis Burton Craige

References

• Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress
  1975
• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1977