(See Grant and Adair)-Joseph Martin Lynch, born July 30, 1881, educated in Male Seminary and Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, graduating from the Law Department of the latter, but refused to take the Tennessee bar examination because Negroes were included in the class. Elected Register of Deeds of Adair County, September 17, 1807.
He married Hazel Capitola Mason.
He served for several years as attorney for the Interior Department and on November 8, 1919, refused the appointment of Register of the United States Treasury, because it would be impossible for him to take his aged father from his home and friends and he would not leave him. Mr. Lynch’s great-great-grandfather, Joseph Martin, a native of Albermarle County, Virginia, was elected Major in the Revolutionary Army, February 17, 1779, and promoted to a Lieutenant Colonelcy in March, 1781. He was elected Brigadier General of the North Carolina militia, December 15, 1787, and was commissioned Brigadier General of the 20th Brigade of Virginia militia by Governor “Light Horse Harry” Lee on December 11, 1793. His son John Martin, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1827, and was the first Chief Justice and first treasurer of the Cherokee Nation.
Mr. Lynch’s grandfather, Joseph Martin Lynch, was a delegate from the Cherokee Nation to Washington in 1839, and was elected Senator from Delaware District August 2, 1842. Mr. Lynch’s father, Cicero Leonidas Lynch, was elected sheriff of Flint District August 2, 1875, and August 5 1877, elected senator from the same district August 1, 1881. Elected Circuit Judge August 6, 1883, and August 1, 1887, the terms being for four years. He was elected Associate Justice of the Cherokee Nation, November 13, 1897.