Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904,
pp 726-727 [Graves]

     JEREMIAH T. WILLINGHAM, one of the well known men of Graves
county, is a native of this county and has lived in the state all
his life, so that he is an out and out Kentuckian in all that term
implies in the way of business shrewdness, generous hospitableness
and ability to enjoy life in all phases and under all conditions. 
Mr. Willingham has followed both mercantile and agricultural
pursuits, and is denominated as a hustler in whatever he undertakes. 
He is a thorough business man in demeanor and action, makes his
efforts count in every direction, and handles his affairs with an
independent energy that brings returns.  He has also been a citizen
of the highest reliability and public spirit, and he has the honor
of being one of the youngest veterans of the Civil war in the state.
     Mr. Willingham is of English ancestry, and his parents and
grandparents on both sides were of Virginia birth.  He was born in
Graves county, Kentucky, July 11, 1849, and is a son of John C. and
Elizabeth J. (Shelton) Willingham, the former a son of Isaac
Willingham, and the father of the latter was a Baptist minister. 
Mr. Willingham was reared in Graves and Calloway counties, receiving
his education in the latter, and as soon as he reached the proper
age he engaged in farming on his own account, having been used to
that line of work from childhood.  On January 2, 1863, when he was
not yet fourteen years old, he enlisted in the Union army as a
member of Company D, Sixteenth Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry.  This
company was afterwards consolidated and became Company M, Sixteenth
Kentucky Cavalry, and in this Mr. Willingham served till the close
of the war, when he returned home with all the honors and privileges
of a veteran, although he was still a boy.  Mr. Willingham after a
time gave up farming and embarked in the mercantile business at
Jordan Station, Fulton county, Kentucky, where he carried a general
line of dry goods, groceries, etc., and conducted a successful trade
for twelve years.  In 1892 he located on a farm in Fulton county,
and was there until 1899, at which date he returned to his native
county of Graves, and has since resided on a beautiful farm of one
hundred and sixty acres four and one-half miles from Mayfield.  This
is a valuable piece of property, and his progressive methods of
cultivation it make it profitable and one of the model farms of the
vicinity.
     Mr. Willingham follows the political trend of the state, and
has always voted the Democratic ticket.  In 1870 he was united in
marriage to Miss Lucy Scearce, who was born in Fulton county,
Kentucky.  Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Willingham,
as follows: Margaret E., Ester May, Edward E., Mand, John E.,
Myrtle, Robert F. and David W.  Mr. and Mrs. Willingham are noted
for their generous hospitality among a people who possess this
virtue in a marked degree, and they are held in high esteem by all
who have the pleasure of their acquaintance. 

Willingham Shelton Scearce
=
VA Calloway-KY Fulton-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/graves/willingham.jt.txt