BIO: Robert M. Graham, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2011.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

                               CHAPTER LX.

                       WEST PENNSBOROUGH TOWNSHIP.

579  WEST PENNSBOROUGH TOWNSHIP.

  ROBERT M. GRAHAM, farmer, P. O. Plainfield.  The Graham family is one 
of the oldest and most reputable in the county.  Four of its members 
have been associated with the legal profession for more than three-
quarters of a century, serving also continually in official positions.  
William Graham (father of subject) was born in 1811, in Frankford 
Township, this county, son of Arthur and Nancy (McClure) Graham, and 
was married, in 1836, to Nancy Davidson, who bore him six sons:  Robert 
M., John D., James M., William F., Arthur H. and Alfred M.  All the 
sons, excepting Alfred M. (deceased), married and reside in Cumberland 
County.  The eldest son, Robert M., was born November 12, 1837, and, 
from eleven years of age, resided with his uncle, Robert M. Graham.  He 
received a liberal education in the schools of his township, and when 
twenty-one commenced teaching school and for seven years followed this 
profession in Frankford Township, this county (F. K. Ployer was one of 
his pupils).  Having been raised on a farm, and preferring agriculture 
to a professional life, he subsequently took charge of his uncle's 
farm.  In 1868 he was married to Rebecca J. McKeehan, whose ancestry 
dates back more than a century.  She is a daughter of Joseph and Jane 
M. (Skiles) McKeehan.  The married life of Robert and his young wife 
was commenced on his uncle's homestead, which has descended from father 
to son since the days of William Penn, from whom they have the original 
grant.  On this farm were born their children, Joseph M., William F. 
and Clemens McFarland.  Our subject's present home was the paternal 
homestead of Mrs. Graham, to whom it descended by inheritance.  The 
first official term served by Robert M. Graham was commenced in the 
autumn of 1878, when he was elected prothonotary and retained as deputy 
by his successor and still continues in this office.  In 1884 he was 
elected justice of the peace in this township, and as a conscientious 
official, public-spirited citizen and good business man, he has few 
equals, and his neighbors unite in saying of him that "truly he is a 
man of the times."