BIO: James Hutchinson GRAHAM, LL.D., Cumberland County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson OCRed by Judy Banja Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/ _____________________________________________________________ >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 44-48 _____________________________________________________________ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/zeamer/ JAMES HUTCHINSON GRAHAM, LL. D. The subject of this sketch was of Scotch-Irish descent. His great-grandfather emigrated from the North of Ireland at an early day and located in Salisbury township, Lancaster county, Pa. There are no family records in the possession of his descendants which show the precise date of his coming to this country, but the earliest documentary evidence now in possession of his great-great-grandchildren of the settlement of their great-great-grandfather in Lancaster county is a deed from Thomas and Richard Penn, dated the 13th of March, 1734, to CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 45 Jared Graham, of Salisbury township, Lancaster county, for a tract of land in the manor of Maska, in what is now West Pennsboro township, Cumberland county. Jared Graham never resided on this purchase. He remained in Lancaster county until his death. Soon after its purchase, however, his son James, the grandfather of James H., removed from Salisbury township to this land and built his log cabin on the banks of the beautiful Conedoguinet, about thirty miles west from the Susquehanna. This property, then deep in the backwoods, was subsequently conveyed to him, and was his home and the home of his descendants through several generations. In those days clearings and neighbors were few and far between and to provide a refuge against the hostile Indians the settlers built a fort on a high limestone bluff within a few hundred rods of James Graham's dwelling. The place of this pioneer home is yet well known, but time has wrought a complete transformation in the locality. Instead of the dense primitive forest there are now to he seen only is, dated clumps and fringes of trees; the echo of the Redman's war whoop died out more than a hundred and thirty years ago, and only notes of peace fall upon the traveler's ear the log fort on the bluff gave way to a large stone mansion which in its turn has fallen into decay, and where once fled the hunted fugitive the husbandman unmolested now pursues his daily round of toil. James Graham died in 1808 at the advanced age of eighty-two years, leaving five sons, to wit: Jared, Thomas, Arthur, Isaiah and James. James Graham, the youngest son, was educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle. After graduating from college he studied divinity under the learned Dr. Robert Cooper, was ordained as a Presbyterian minister, and for thirty years was pastor of the church at Beulah, Allegheny county, Pa., where he died in 1844. Jared, the eldest, after the death of the father, moved to Ohio, and the paternal estate was apportioned among Thomas, Arthur and Isaiah. The part on which stood the cabin built by their father fell to Isaiah, the youngest of the three, and it was his home for a long time. Isaiah Graham received a rudimentary English education and then learned the tanning trade. Subsequently he established a tannery on the banks of the Conedoguinet, in the vicinity of his home, and engaged at that avocation through most of his lifetime. He was a man of indomitable will and more than ordinary powers of intellect. Possessed of an intuitive desire for knowledge he from early youth devoted much of his leisure to the acquisition of useful information. He became thoroughly versed in the history of our country and its affairs and ardently engaged in the heated political struggles which marked the early days of the republic. He was a participant in the great contest which resulted in the defeat of John Adams and the election of Thomas Jefferson. He was likewise an enthusiastic supporter of the administrations of Madison and Monroe. Naturally his activity in those exciting contests won for him political prominence, and in 1811 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate. At the expiration of his term he was re-elected, and a few years after the expiration of his second term, in 1819, he was appointed by Gov. Findlay associate judge of the courts of Cumberland county, which position he occupied till his death, in 1835. Although active in public affairs, Isaiah Graham did not permit the exciting subject of politics to divert his mind from the more important considerations of 46 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. religion. He early in life connected himself with the Presbyterian Church and thoroughly schooled himself in its tenets, which were peculiarly adapted to his vigorous and discriminating mind. His library contained most of the standard works of the great Presbyterian writers of that day, and he read them with much interest and avidity, and few laymen could more ably discuss and defend the doctrines of the Presbyterian faith. For more than twenty years before his death he was a ruling elder of the Big Spring Presbyterian congregation. Isaiah Graham, in 1793, married Nancy Lindsay, who also was of Scotch-Irish descent and whose ancestors also were among the first settlers of the Cumberland Valley. Isaiah and Nancy (Lindsay) Graham were the parents of the subject of this sketch, James Hutchinson Graham. He was born on the 10th of September, 1807, on the same domain which his great-grandfather bought from the Penns in 1734, and in the same cabin of unhewn logs which his grandfather built on the banks of the Conedoguinet when yet the pioneers of civilization in Cumberland county had more frequent visits from the Redman and wild animals than from the white man. After young James had passed the branches taught in the country schools of that day, he, at the age of fifteen, was placed under the tuition of Dr. David McConaughy, who then was pastor of the Presbyterian congregations of Gettysburg and Hunterstown, Adams county, and principal of the Gettysburg Academy. In the spring of 1825 young Graham returned to his native county and entered Dickinson College, as a member of the Junior class, from which institution he graduated in 1827, sharing the honors of a class which included in its membership students who afterward were some of the most eminent divines, statesmen and jurists of their generation. Upon completing his college course James H. Graham registered as a student at law with Andrew Carothers, Esq., and after reading the prescribed time was admitted to the Bar in November, 1829. He remained with his preceptor until the following April and then opened an office and began the practice of his profession. At that time the Carlisle Bar included talented and experienced lawyers like Andrew Carothers, Samuel Alexander, John D. Mahon, Charles B. Penrose, Frederick Watts and William M. Biddle, who in legal attainments and professional standing compared favorably with the foremost jurists of the land. To enter into competition with such an array of ability was a daring undertaking for a young lawyer, but by his energy, his assiduous application, his persistent research and characteristic accuracy, combined with a thorough preliminary training, young Graham soon secured a comfortable practice. When James H. Graham began practicing law the Carlisle Bar consisted mostly of Whigs, and as he from early youth had been an ardent Democrat this one-sided condition frequently involved him in the political contests of the day. He, however, never permitted political controversy to divert his mind from professional duty, nor the allurements of office to beguile him into the ways of the professional politician. Upon one occasion the nomination for Congress was tendered him unsolicited, but he declined the honor, although the district was strongly Democratic and a nomination was regarded as equivalent to an election. He frequently was a delegate to Democratic conventions and his opinion and advice always had great weight in the councils of his party. In 1839 Gov. Porter appointed Mr. Graham deputy attorney general for Cumberland county, CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 47 which position he filled for six years with marked efficiency, but he declined a re-appointment at the hands of Gov. Shunk, because of the demands of a large and increasing practice. In 1851, after the State constitution was amended so as to make judges elective, Mr. Graham received the unanimous nomination of the Democratic party for president judge of the district composed of Cumberland, Perry and Juniata counties, and was elected. Through long and earnest study, and the practice of his profession, he was peculiarly fitted for the duties of this position, and at the age of forty-four, in the prime of life and vigorous intellect; he willingly exchanged the drudgery of a heavy practice for the less arduous but not less honorable duties of a judgeship. In 1861 he was renominated and re-elected, and served another full term, but retired in 1871 after an honorable career of twenty years' continuous service upon the Bench. On retiring from the Bench he associated with him his son, Duncan M. Graham, and resumed the practice of the law, at which he continued till within a short time of his death, in the fall of 1882. Judge Graham was in many ways a useful man in the community in which he lived. He was one of the earliest members of the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, and for many years president of its board of trustees. He was director and president of the Carlisle Deposit Bank until his election to the Bench, and filled many other positions of trust and honor with scrupulous fidelity. In 1862 Dickinson College conferred on him the degree of LL. D. In his profession he was honored and respected by lawyers as well as laymen. At his death was held a meeting of the Carlisle Bar, which formally paid respect to his memory. Hon. Frederick Watts presided and W. F. Sadler acted as secretary. Judge Watts, Lemuel Todd, A. B. Sharpe and Judge M. C. Herman addressed the meeting, and paid the character and services of their deceased brother high tribute of praise. The meeting also resolved, "That during the fifty-three years Judge Graham practiced at the Bar and presided in our courts he exhibited and maintained an unspotted character for integrity and faithfulness in the discharge of duty that commanded our highest confidence and respect. "That the purity and consistency of his life, in all its relations, his firm and conscientious performance of all personal, professional and judicial obligations, and his modest and unpretentious conduct and deportment were so marked and real as to challenge and possess the respect and esteem of the bar and all who were associated with him. "That as a lawyer and judge he was learned and upright, firm and decided in his convictions, courageous and strong in executing them, and at all times governed by a high moral sense of private and public duty." In his domestic relations Judge Graham was very fortunate, and he found much of comfort and happiness in the quiet of his home. He was twice married and left a large family. His first wife was Nancy Davidson, of West Pennsboro township, by whom he had the following children: Isaiah H., late captain U. S. Volunteers, who died from the effects of wounds received in the service; Jane, deceased; and Laura, of Philadelphia, now deceased. His second wife was Mary Criswell, of Shippensburg, who bore him the following children: John C., who died at Evansville, Ind.; Agnes M., of Washington, D. C.; Samuel L., lieutenant U. S. Navy now stationed at Mare Island, California; James H., formerly of St. Louis, 48 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. Mo., now deceased; Mary, who married C. H. Watts, of Washington, D. C.; Alice P., of Carlisle, Pa.; Duncan M., of Carlisle, Pa.; Sarah, who married Rev. Rodgers Israel, D. D., of Scranton, Pa.; Lillian, of Scranton; and Frank Gordon, of Utica, New York.