First Generation

1. James Franklin DURHAM was born about 1830 in Bell County, Kentucky.^1,2,3,4,5
Information provided by Wilbur Gaines:

As far as I know, no one knows why James Franklin Durham migrated to Owen County. There were other Durhams there, but no one knows for sure if they were cousins. In the 1840 census of Harlan County, Durham is in house #111, with his mother, Nancy Durham, and his grandmother. In 1840, his two older brothers and his sister were married and gone. In the 1850 census of Owen Co., KY, Durham is listed in the household of his mother-in-law, the widow Nancy Lee Gaines. Durham served in the home militia of Owen County, but he didn't fight in the Civil War, probably because his family in Bell County was fighting for the North, while Owen County was solid for the South. In fact, Owen County had the distinction of being the Kentucky county that suffered the most during and after the war. After the war ended, Durham and Nancy divorced, and he took the three boys back to Bell County in Southeastern Kentucky. The three children grew to adulthood and raised their families there. James worked as a lumberman. Both parties eventually remarried, but no more children were born to either union. -from Wilbur Gaines.

James Franklin Durham married his daughter-in-law Mary Catherine Asher Durham's mother, Euphemia Horn Asher, and became Mary Catherine's step-father. -from Wilbur Gaines

In the 1860 census, James Franklin Durham's family still lives in Rock Dale in Owen Co., KY, but his net worth is zero. They live next-door to Joseph and Barbara Lee, who had a total worth of $5,360, and N. W. and Francis Lee, who had a total worth of $5,082.

James was originally buried on the right fork of Straight Creek at Kettle Island, Bell, KY, on one side of his second wife, Euphemia Horn Asher Durham. Euphemia's third husband, a Pickering, was on her other side. Euphemia had a headstone, and her husbands did not. Eventually, the Durhams had James exhumed and moved beside the other Durhams in the Pineville Cemetery in Pineville, Bell, KY.
-from Wilbur Gaines

James Franklin DURHAM and Nancy Lee Ann GAINES were married about 1849 in Kentucky.⁶ They were divorced before 1876 in Kentucky.⁶ Nancy Lee Ann GAINES (daughter of William GAINES and Nancy LEE) was born in Aug 1834 in Owen County, Kentucky.^1,3,4,5,7 James Franklin DURHAM and Nancy Lee Ann GAINES had the following children:

2	i.	Margaret DURHAM was born about 1857 in Kentucky.3
+3	ii.	William Nelson DURHAM.
4	iii.	James J. DURHAM was born about 1863 in Kentucky.1,2
+5	iv.	Christopher Columbus DURHAM.
6	v.	Isaac DURHAM was born about 1868 in Kentucky.2
7	vi.	Bell DURHAM was born about 1872 in Kentucky.2

James Franklin DURHAM and Euphemia Horn "Ephemy" ASHER were married on 10 Aug 1876 in Bell County, Kentucky.² Euphemia Horn "Ephemy" ASHER was born about 1844 in Kentucky.²