Biographical Sketch of Gen. J. H. Graham, Lafayette County, Missouri

>From "History of Lafayette County, Mo., carefully written and compiled
from the most authentic official and private sources" St. Louis, Mo.
Historical Company, 1881.
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Gen. J. H. Graham was born in Orange county, N. Y., December 5, 1798.
At the age of five, his parents moved to Logan county, Ky., where he
was raised to manhood.  When 22 he learned the hatter's trade.  At the
age of 24 he was united in marriage to Miss Melinda Harrelson, daughter
of Jeremiah Harrelson, who died in Jackson county, this state, some 
twenty years ago.  He carried on the manufacture of hats and farming in
Logan county, and then moved to Missouri and settled in Lexington, in
1830, where he followed his trade some ten years longer, after which he
moved to his farm, three miles south of town.  He lived there five years
and then moved to his present home in the southern part of Lexington.
Gen. Graham has been one of the county's most active business men and
one of its most useful citizens.  He was an acting magistrate a number
of years, and filled that office with ability and credit.  He was elec-
ted captain of the state militia about 1831.  In 1837 he was promoted
and made colonel of a regiment, and commanded in an expedition against
the Osage Indians.  In 1838 he was made a brigadier general, and 
commanded a brigade in the expulsion of the Mormons from the state.
Most of his time has been spent in this county in farming, though for
several years he was known as one of the early successful merchants of
Lexington.  He has been a consistent and devoted member of the Baptist
church for a third of a century, and has lived in all good conscience
before his Creator and fellow men.  He lost heavily as a consequence of
the late war, but has still a competency.  Though a union man he did not
take active part in the late war, being averse to bloodshed, and especi-
ally so in regard to the southern people, with whom he has always been
identified in feelings and interests.  His first wife dying, he was 
again married, the second lady being Miss Elizabeth Harrelson, who died
about fifteen years ago.  He has raised in all eleven children, and all
the survivors reside in this county, save a daughter who resides in
Jackson county.  There were three of the Graham brothers who came from
Scotland to the United States some time before the Revolutionary War.
One went to the Carolinas, one to Virginia, and one, the general's great
grandfather, in the State of New York.  Andrew, Mr. Graham's grand-
father, lived and died in Orange county, and was judge of the circuit
court twenty years in succession.  He was three times married:  His 
first wife was a Miss Cain, an English lady, and the last a Miss Hetty
Hardenbrook, sister to one of the early mayors of New York.  Charles
the General's father, was by the first wife.  He was married in Orange
county, to Miss Jane Beatty, of a prominent New York family.  He also
raised a large and respectable family, only one of whom, the General,
settled in Missouri.

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