Graham, John W. bio

Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County, Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States, and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890; page 232-235; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
John W. Graham. The principal feature of interest in the history of a Nation, State and county is necessarily the people, who by their own success and enterprise have added to the renown of the place in which they live. In view of this fact a history of this county would be decidedly incomplete without a description of the life, surroundings and successes of John W. Graham, a prosperous and well-known resident of Canton. His birth occurred at this place Jun 16, 1850, he being the son of John G. and Lydia (Wills) Graham.
The father of our subject was born in Saratoga County, N. Y. November 17, 1817, and was the son of John Graham, a native of the Green Mountain State. He became a teacher in one of the leading colleges in his native State, and later as a civil engineer surveyed the roadbed for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. For his services he was paid in State script which he exchanged in Chicago for the merchandise with which he first stocked his store in this county. He was a wide-awake, enterprising merchant and real-estate dealer, was also engaged in speculating and to a considerable extent interested in agriculture. He was a man of unusual prominence and served as Legislator through several terms and was Chairman of the Constitutional Convention of the State. He died at his home in this county in January, 1869.
The mother of our subject was born in Cumberland County, Pa., February 10, 1814, and died in Canton, March 30, 1886. She was a daughter of McKinney Wills and was highly connected, being closely related to some of the most prominent men the country has ever known. Maj. Charles W. Wills, a gallant soldier who achieved fame in the Illinois troops, is a nephew of hers, and her brother James Wills, an early pioneer of this county, is well remembered by the old citizens. She was also connected with several residents of Chicago, among whom are James and Washington Wills, who figure prominently in mercantile circles and are members of the Board of Trade in that city. She was a member of one of the oldest and most aristocratic families in the State of Pennsylvania, her ancestors having resided there for over one hundred years. The Wills family came originally from Scotland; on the maternal side she was of Irish descent.
The gentleman whose name introduces these paragraphs received his education training in his native place, where he has continued to make his home. In the early years he received most excellent attention from his mother, who was universally recognized as a woman of singularly noble character. His education has been very thorough and indeed the family one and all, have devoted an unusual amount of attention to belles-lettres and educational matters and are cultured and refined. Mr. Graham inherited a large fortune from his father and has added to it until at the present writing he is a very wealthy man. His father had entered ten thousand acres of land in Illinois and about fifteen thousand in Iowa and six or eight thousand acres are not in possession of the son. He has retired from active business, simply attending to the letting out of his money and the supervision of his estates and those of his sisters. He and his sisters rank very high in the esteem of their numerous acquaintances and friends.