BIOGRAPHIES:    Eau Claire County, WI

====================================================================
USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information 
on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as 
this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may 
NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other 
persons or organizations.

Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes 
other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file 
contributor, or the legal representative of the contributor, and contact 
the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent.   The submitter 
has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently 
for free access.

This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:  
Nance Sampson, Eau Claire Co. WIGenWeb coordinator  10 September 2003
====================================================================

**Posted for informational purposes only -- Poster is not related to the
subject of this biography and has no further information.

Hon. Hiram P. Graham, manufacturer, Eau Claire.  The Graham ancestors were of Scotch descent and settled in the north of Ireland during the religious persecutions in their native country.  They finally immigrated to America and settled in Buckland, Mass., in which state Samuel Graham, grandfather, and Charles Graham, father of our subject were born.

Hiram P. Graham was born March 29, 1820, in Windham, N. Y., and received his early education in the common and select schools of his native town.  After he left school he took up the trade of a mill-wright.  In 1844 he went to Canada where he followed the same occupation for about eight years.  Eventually he returned to Allegany county, N. Y., where he bought a mill and was engaged in lumbering for four years.  In 1856 he was induced to come to Eau Claire, by the Eau Claire Lumber Company, and was in their employ for three or four years.  He brought his family here in the fall of 1857.  He became desirous, ultimately, of going into business for himself, and in company with his brother-in-law, Robert Tolles, bought a planing mill, which they operated under the firm name of Graham, White & Co., until it was destroyed by fire in 1875.  In connection with this plant they had a foundry and machine shop.  In the autumn of the same year they rebuilt their factory, shops, etc., which have been in operation ever since.  The concern was organized into a stock company known as the Phoenix Manufacturing Company, and as such has earned a name that is well known throughout the northwest.  The officers of this concern are:  Hiram P. Graham, pres.; William Dean, vice-pres.; C. B. Daniel, sec.; and F. H. Graham, treas.

Mr. Graham was for many years connected with the Dells Lumber Company, of which he was president.  The high esteem in which he is held by the citizens of Eau Claire proves that his life work is appreciated.  Financially, he has been quite successful, and although past the allotted three-score and ten years is still enabled to enjoy, with his excellent wife, the good things of this world.  His fellow citizens in Eau Claire and in the state of Wisconsin have shown their confidence in him and their appreciation of his worth by electing him to various offices.  He was appointed sheriff in 1862 by the governor, to finish the term of his predecessor, who had enlisted.  When the village of Eau Claire was organized he was made a trustee, and on its becoming a city he was elected its first mayor.  President Grover Cleveland appointed him postmaster, and he filled that position in 1888 and 1889.  February 1, 1848, in Canada he married Miss Mary J. Cowen, who was born March 2, 1826, in Troy, N. Y.  Their two surviving children are Mrs. Julia Thompson and Frederick H. Graham.

--Transcribed from "Historical and Biographical Album of the Chippewa Valley
Wisconsin" Including A General Historical Sketch of the Chippewa Valley;
Ancestral Records of Leading Families; Biographies of Representative 
Citizens, Past and Present; and Portraits of Prominent Men.  Edited by
George Forrester.  Chicago, Illinois: A. Warner, Publisher.  1891-92
Page 427-428