Merced-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Graham, John R. 1869 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 6, 2006, 11:36 pm Author: John Outcalt (1925) JOHN R. GRAHAM Few if any families have been more intimately associated with the development of Merced County, and especially with the progress of Merced, than the one which is represented by John R. Graham, who is in every respect worthy of the name he bears, and of the esteem of the entire community. Coming to Merced County in 1892, he has since made this county his home and has been actively identified with numerous activities toward its local progress and the development of its material resources. In San Francisco, Cal., John R. Graham was born on January 1, 1869, a son of John and Elizabeth (Gardner) Graham. The father was born in Pennsylvania and came via Panama to California in 1851. In 1855 Miss Elizabeth Gardner crossed the plains with her parents; later she was united in marriage with John Graham. The father taught school in Tuolumne County and became superintendent of schools of that county in the late fifties. Later the family moved to San Francisco and there he engaged in the grocery and butcher business; then for a time he was in the dairy business. In 1890 he removed to Merced County, where he homesteaded a tract of land, but it was not until 1892 that he established a permanent residence in the county. While on a visit to his old home in Pennsylvania he passed away; the mother is also deceased. John R. Graham attended the public schools in San Francisco and his first money was earned in the employ of the American Tract Society, beginning when he was thirteen years old. From that company he went into the Bank of British Columbia and was with them for three years; then for two and a half years he was employed by the Los Gatos Ice Company of San Francisco. In 1888 he began working for the National. Ice Company in San Francisco and three years later he got his chance, when the company sent him on a two-weeks trip through the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys and told him to choose the town he thought had a future where an agency could be successfully established. "I found irrigation in Merced," says Mr. Graham today; "and the town looked good to me, it still looks good to me." In 1892 Mr. Graham opened an agency in this bustling town, having a small ice house from which natural ice from Truckee was dispensed, with the aid of one helper. The sale of fuel was added in 1894, and in 1910 the present ice manufacturing plant was erected through Mr. Graham's effort in convincing the ice company of the strategic position of Merced in relation to a large agricultural area and to the Yosemite Valley. The company has never regretted the investment here, which is in the neighborhood of $75,000. This large business employs from twenty to twenty-five persons in summer and fourteen in winter. The average payroll is $3000 monthly. The production of ice is twenty-five tons every twenty-four hours, the storage capacity being 2000 tons; the surplus ice is stored away early in the year, until about July, when the storeroom is full and the demand reaches a point when more than the daily capacity is taken out. From this peakpoint on until the end of the season the surplus ice is gradually removed from the storage room. At the present Mr. Graham also handles crude oil, road oil, and fuel oil, gasoline, kerosene and distillate and is the representative of the Grant Rock & Gravel Company, and the Old Mission Portland Cement Company of San Juan. The marriage of Mr. Graham united him with Miss Mable Farnell, born in Merced and a daughter of a pioneer family. Two sons have been born of this union, John R., Jr., and Donald R.; and there are two grandchildren, Robertson Bruce and Elaine. John R., Jr., enlisted in May, 1.917, in the signal corps, went over seas with the 28th Aerial Squadron and served fourteen months. The record of Captain Graham, as he is familiarly known, is one of unselfish public service. In May, 1893, when Company H, 6th Infantry, N. G. C, was organized by him in Merced, his popularity was attested to by his being elected company commander and he served as such for six years. Later he was attached to Colonel W. R. Johnson's regimental staff, then to the Third Brigade staff of General M. W. Muller of California. Company H served actively under Captain Graham for thirty-one days during the railroad strike of 1894. Mr. Graham was a supervisor of Merced County during 1921, having been appointed a member of the board by Governor Stephens to fill the unexpired term of T. H. Scandrett. For twenty years Mr. Graham was an active member of the El Capitan Hose Company, and for two years was president of the Yosemite-to-the-Sea Good Roads Association which was organized in 1911 for the purpose of securing an all-the-year-round road from Yosemite Valley to the sea. This road costing $11,000,000 will be completed in 1925. Fraternally, Mr. Graham is a member of La Grange, now Yosemite, Lodge No. 99, F. & A. M.; Fresno Consistory of the Scottish Rite; Merced Chapter No. 12 R. A. M.; and Islam Temple A. A. O. N. M. S. of San Francisco. He belongs to Merced Lodge No. 1240, B. P. O. Elks and Yosemite Parlor No. 24, N. S. G. W., and is a member of the Rotary Club of Merced. He has been a member and a director of the Merced Chamber of Commerce for many years, and a director in the California State Automobile Association since 1914. He was one of the organizers who formed the Merced Irrigation District. During the World War Mr. Graham served as chief of the Merced County section of the American Protective League, this being a secret-service body under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice; he was the local secretary of the Merced Y. M. C. A., and directed its activities during the war; was also a member of the Merced County Council of Defense under the direction of the National Council of Defense; and was district chairman of the Highways Transport Committee, Council of National Defense, of Division Three, comprising thirteen counties in Central California. Mr. and Mrs. Graham conducted a canteen for the benefit of the aviation section of the United States that was training at Mather Field, and took a very active part in Red Cross work. Mr. Graham served on every committee in each of the bond drives, giving his entire time to the national defense during the war. Additional Comments: From: HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY CALIFORNIA WITH A Biographical Review OF The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified with Its Growth and Development from the Early Days to the Present HISTORY BY JOHN OUTCALT ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 1925 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/merced/bios/graham447bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 7.2 Kb