Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of Grant GRAHAM This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 330-331 GRANT GRAHAM for over twenty years has conducted a place of business as a druggist that is a source of pride to all the people of Belington. He is a licensed pharma- cist, thoroughly knows the business as well as the profes- sion, and has found most congenial associations in this thriving town of Barbour County. The census shows that more than four-fifths of the population of West Virginia is native born, and Mr. Graham is no exception. His family have lived in the limits of the present state for considerably more than a century. He was born near Kingwood in Preston County, May 31, 1867. His grandfather, Samuel Graham, was probably a native of Preston County, spent his active life as a farmer, and died about 1880, when past four score years. His children were: James; David, who was a farmer in Preston County; John, who died while a Union soldier in the Civil war; Rosanna, who married Nicholas Posten; Lucinda, whose husband was Richard Field; Jemimah, whose last husband was Peter Hartlet; and Mrs. Groves. James Graham, father of the Belington business man, was born in Preston County, August 8, 1825, and died at Reedsville November 16, 1910. He acquired a liberal education for his day, and for some years was a teacher. During the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army, in Company B of the Fourteenth West Virginia Regiment, and served until the close of the struggle, participating in many of the engagements and skirmishes of Old Vir- ginia. One wound received in battle afflicted him all through his subsequent life. He manifested no interest in soldiers' organizations, and did not even become a mem- ber of the G. A. R. He was a Presbyterian, a staunch republican and served on the local School Board and in other capacities in his community. James Graham mar- ried Miss Nancy Field, who was born in Preston County, October 10, 1823, and died January 19, 1910. Her father, Hiram Field, was of English ancestry and a fanner. James Graham and wife reared three sons and two daugh- ters: Joseph, a fanner in Preston County; Sanford, cashier of the Traders National Bank of Buckhannon; Grant; Rebecca, who died as Mrs. A. J. DeBerry; and Jennie, wife of A. J. Barker, of Morgantown, West Virginia. Grant Graham grew up on his father's farm, and his best advantages were acquired in the common schools and in the school of "hard knocks." Being the youngest son, he failed to acquire as good an education as his older brothers. At the age of sixteen he was earning wages as a farm hand, and subsequently worked on a saw mill and for two years with a drilling outfit, drilling water wells. With a moderate capital acquired through a number of years of industry, he established a drug business at Kingwood, and while hiring a pharmacist he diligently studied the profession and passed the State Board exami- nation January 24, 1899. With his license as a pharmacist he came to Belington the same year and took over the only business of that kind in the little city. Since then two efforts have been made to share in the drug trade of this locality, but the competition soon faded out, and ulti- mately he occupied the whole field. He conducted his early stores in some of the old buildings of the town, but in 1913 erected a two-story brick building, which is now the home of his Rexall Store. He carries the drug equipment of the Rexall system, itself the highest guaranty of ex- cellence and quality, and in addition he has store equip- ment and facilities that would do credit to a city much larger than Belington. He keeps his store in a spotless condition and in perfect order and system. Mr. Graham has served as a member of the City Council at Belington. He is a director of the Citizens National Bank. and has voted at every National election for a republican candidate for president since first support- ing Benjamin Harrison. He is a Presbyterian, while Mrs. Graham is a Methodist, and fraternally is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge, Scottish Rite Consistory and Shrine, has filled the chairs in the Subordinate and En- campment Degrees of Odd Fellowship and has sat in the Grand Lodge many times. At Buckhannon June 28, 1899, Mr. Graham married Miss Etta Hinkle, a native of Upshur County and daugh- ter of Arch and Columbia Hinkle. She was educated in the common schools. Her oldest sister, Ida, was the late Mrs. I. R. Post, of Buckhannon. Mr. and Mrs. Graham had no children of their own, but they took as a child Mrs. Graham's niece, Pearl Post, who has grown up under their care and in their companionship and finished her education in the Wesleyan College at Buckhannon, graduat- ing in 1919. This training was supplemented by study elsewhere, and she is one of the very successful teachers in the state.