Taylor County WV Archives Biographies.....McGraw, John Thomas January 12, 1856 - 
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Connie Burkett TaylorWVusgwarch@gmail.com November 1, 2008, 6:13 pm

Author: George Wesley Atkinson

Bench and Bar of West Virginia
edited by Geo. W. Atkinson, LL.B., LL.D., of the West Virginia Bar
Virginian Law Book Company, Charleston, W. Va., 1919
Pages 232-233

Hon. John Thomas McGraw, LL.B.
Among the middle-aged, brilliant and successful members of the legal profession
in central West Virginia is the subject of this sketch. He was born in the city
of Grafton, Taylor County, Virginia, January 12, 1856. He was educated at St.
Vincent's Academy at Wheeling in the prescribed classical course. Later he
graduated from the law department of Yale University with the degree of Bachelor
of Laws in the class of 1876. In the autumn of that year he was admitted as a
member of the Grafton Bar and has since successfully practiced his profession in
that city to the present time. Shortly after he opened his law office he was
made one of the principal attorneys for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company,
and as such legal adviser and attorney he is still employed. In 1880 he was
elected Prosecuting Attorney of Taylor County and served efficiently and
popularly for the term of four years. 

In 1882 he was appointed an Aide-de-Camp, with the rank of Colonel, on the staff
of Hon. J. B. Jackson, Governor of West Virginia. In the spring of 1886, after
his term of Prosecuting Attorney had expired, he was appointed by President
Cleveland Collector of Internal Revenue for the State of West Virginia, which
office he held for four years, and proved to be efficient and successful. In the
meantime his general practice as an attorney had grown to larger proportions.
While he was Internal Revenue Collector he was appointed Disbursing Agent for
the new Government buildings at Wheeling, Charleston and Clarksburg, which was
an additional responsibility, entirely independent of his duties of Revenue
Collector. All of his public duties were discharged efficiently and to the
entire satisfaction of all concerned therewith. All the while he never neglected
to give attention to his large and rapidly increasing law business.

Colonel McGraw, from early manhood, has been an ardent Democrat. He was for
years not only an active member of local Democratic committees, but for a score
or more of years he has been the West Virginia member of the Democratic National
Committee. He was, therefore, a powerful factor in local and national politics,
as well as in the practice of the law. He has been a candidate for Congress, and
because of the fact that he is one of the highest grade platform speakers in any
political party in this or any other State, he is the idol of the Democratic
party in West Virginia, and is admired by the people generally. 

Colonel McGraw is not only an active laywer and politician, but he is one of the
foremost public spirited citizens of the entire State. He is a developer and a
pusher in bringing to public notice the great natural advantages and resources
of his native State. No history of West Virginia can be truthfully written
without giving Colonel McGraw prominent mention in almost every chapter. He is a
brilliant lawyer, a prominent politician end a leading public spirited citizen.

In religion he is a Roman Catholic, and has never married. 


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