Gen. G. Mason Graham, Rapides Parish Louisiana
Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker

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Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

     GEN. G. MASON GRAHAM is a well known and highly successful planter of
Rapides Parish, and as a man and citizen has not his superior throughout
this section of the country.  He was born in Fairfax County, Va., on August
21, 1807, to George and Elizabeth (Hooe) Graham, the former born in Prince
William, and the latter in King George County, Va., in 1791 and 1759,
respectively.  The father graduated from Columbia College, New York, and
after leaving college practiced law in Prince William County, Va., until
his marriage, after which he devoted his whole time to his farm in Fairfax
County.  In the War of 1812, he was captain of the Fairfax Light Horse
Company of State Militia, on the close of which James Monroe, Secretary of
State, and acting Secretary of War under James Madison, called him to his
assistance in the War Department as chief clerk, in which capacity he
served with the principal burden of the War Department on his hands until
the inauguration of Monroe as President.  He was then made acting Secretary
of War under a special act of Congress for that purpose, and served until
succeeded by John C. Calhoun.  In 1818 Monroe appointed him a commissioner
to wait upon Gen. Lallemand, who had a French colony armed and under the
French flag in Texas, to ascertain his reasons for such actions.  Mr.
Graham started upon this journey accompanied by a single servant in June of
the same year, from Washington City, and reached the Saline River, where he
learned that Gen. Lallemand had removed to Galveston Island.  At the
Calcasieu River he met with two men in command of a small schooner engaged
in smuggling supplies from Lafitte into Louisiana.  He engaged them to take
him to Galveston Island, where he negotiated with both Gen. Lallimand and
Lafitte, inducing them to break up their respective establishments and
retire from the territory within a reasonable length of time, during which
they were each, and their respective followers, to be granted the
protection of the United States Government.  He returned to Washington in
the autumn of the same year, and was made president of the branch of the
United States Bank in Washington City, and in 1823 was appointed by
President Monroe, commissioner of general land office, and while in this
position he died on August 10, 1830.  Gen. G. Mason Graham, the immediate
subject of this sketch, attended school in Washington City, until 1823,
when Mr. Calhoun, Secretary of War, gave him a warrant as cadet at West
Point, where he remained until April, 1826, when he resigned to attend the
University of Virginia, remaining in this institution till January, 1828,
when he removed to Rapides Parish, La., to take charge of a cotton
plantation owned by his father, in partnership with Judge Josiah Johnston,
on the Bayou Boeuf at the mouth of Bayou La Mourie, now the property of
Mrs. Snowden, daughter of Ex-Gov. Madison Wells.  Gen. Graham was in
control of the farm, as partner with Judge Johnston, as his father's
administrator until 1833, when the Judge lost his life by the blowing up of
the steamboat "Lioness," on Red River, after which the former existing
partnership was dissolved, and the property divided.  Mr. Graham sold his
portion of land the same year purchased a farm on the river below Boyce,
about two miles.  October 2, 1834, he was married to Miss Esther B., eldest
daughter of Richard Smith, cashier of the branch of the United States Bank
at Washington, and after his marriage resided on the farm until the death
of his wife in December, 1835, when he sold out, and the following six
years were spent in traveling around.  In 1842, in partnership with the
late Gen. Horatio S. Sprigg, he purchased 1,500 acres of land where he now
resides, and in 1847 was married to the eldest daughter of Capt. Nathaniel
and Georgiana (Blanchard) Wilkinson, of Rapides Parish.  Mr. Graham was so
unfortunate as to lose this wife also, her death occurring in 1855, and
Oct. 2, 1867, he was married to Mrs. Stich, of King George's County, Va.,
who is living on her farm in that State and county.  Gen. Graham was in
command of Company E, Third Louisiana Regiment, in the Mexican War, but
when this regiment was disbanded, after three months, he was invited to
join a brigade of the regular army, as volunteer aide-decamp on the staff
of Col. John Garland, and with this command was in the battle of Monterey.
Mr. Graham's cousin, Richard Graham, who in the Fourth United States
Infantry as first lieutenant, received a mortal wound in this battle, and
Gen. Graham remained with him till after his death, when he returned home
to look after his interests on his farm.  This calling received his
attention until the war between the States which resulted in a complete
wreck of his property, since which time he has not been engaged in any
business.  In 1866 he was appointed adjutant-general of the State by Gov.
Wells, holding this position until the fall of 1868, when, being partially
paralyzed form injuries received from a fall of his horse, he resigned the
position, and has since lived a retired life.  He is the father of four
children:  Duncan J. (who is engaged in farming in Rapides Parish, with
whom the General makes his home), Fergus R. (clerk in a wholesale and
retail agricultural and mining machinery and hardware store in Durango,
Colo.), Amy B. (wife of David T. Stafford, present sheriff of Rapides
Parish), and Caroline H. (who resides with her father and brother in
Rapides Parish).  In 1853 Gov. Herbert appointed Gen. Graham a member of
the board to superintend the building of a seminary of learning and
military academy opposite Alexandria, provisions for which had been made by
the United States Congress, and of this board he was elected
vice-president, Gov. Wells being president ex-officio.  After the building
of the institution, a board of supervisors for the purpose of putting the
school in operation, and for its general government was appointed, and of
this Gen. Graham was also made vice-president, and through his influence
the present Gen. W. T. Sherman was made its superintendent.  The General
continued a member of the board until July, 1883, when, feeling the
encroachments of age and its attending disabling effects, he resigned.  His
efforts for the advancement of learning in his State while holding this
position were manifest, and he considers this the most beneficial work of
his useful public life.  Being a man of indomitable willpower and splendid
physique, he bore the hardships and privations of war well, and no braver
soldier or officer ever trod the crimson turf of a battlefield.  His many
admirable qualities of heart and head have endeared him to many, while his
brilliant mind, and many other superior natural endowments, ranked him as
the peer of the majority with whom he came in contact.  He at once
impressed one as a man of great strength, depth and grasp of mind, and his
leading characteristics are extreme frankness, honesty of purpose,
indomitable will and integrity.  Such men as Gen. Graham are model American
citizens.