Joseph John Siegel Robson Graham

FROM: GRAND RAPIDS AND KENT COUNTY, MICHIGAN HISTORY Dated 1900

Joseph Graham - the subject of this sketch is no longer numbered with the living. After a long and useful life, during which he nobly did his part in making the world wiser and better, he fearlessly responded to the summons which must soon or late come to all of earth’s children. Mr. Graham was a native of England, born in Lincolnshire on the 20th day of July, 1828. He entered into the marriage relation December 27, 1852, with Miss Mary Robinson who was also born in Lincolnshire, October 24, 1824.

The April following their marriage [April, 1853], Mr. and Mrs. Graham came to the United States and located first in Wayne county, Michigan where for ten years he worked at his trade of shoe-making. In 1855, in partnership with his brother, he purchased 160 acres of land in the township of Lowell, Kent county, Michigan and immediately went to work to make a home by erecting a small log cabin, which answered the purpose of shelter until a more comfortable structure could be built. In connection with the labor necessary to clear and fit the land for cultivation he worked at his trade and later with his brother engaged in the boot and shoe business in the town of Lowell, Michigan. He was thus engaged for about fifteen years, living the meantime on the farm, the whole of which he afterwards purchased. He improved the place greatly, erected a substantial residence, and in time became one of the most prosperous business men and successful agriculturists of the township.

Mr. Graham was a gentleman of strong powers of mind, and he always took an active interest in public matters, especially those having a direct bearing upon the internal improvement of the township and county. For a period of eight years he filled the office of justice of the peace, and was also called to the important office of drainage commissioner, the duties of which he discharged in a highly satisfactory manner.

He gave loyal and unswerving support to the Democratic Party and was ever ready to express well formed opinions relative to questions of public policy. Reared in the Church of England, he never affiliated with any religious body after coming to this country. Liberal in all the term implies, he never intruded his opinions upon others, but was never known to shrink from a controversy, in which the tenets of religious faith was the subject of discussion. As a neighbor, no one was more popular, and he endeared himself to a large circle of friends by always exemplifying the principle of the Golden Rule in his daily walk and conversation.

For many years he was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity and at the time of his death was probably the oldest member of the craft in Lowell. Mr. Graham died as he lived, an honest, upright man, possessing in full measure the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens, and his death which occurred on the 27th of May, 1890 was not only a sad bereavement to his immediate family but a great loss to the community as well.

The family of Mr. and Mrs. Graham consisted of the following children: · Thomas Robert · William Henry · Frances Catherine, wife of David Wilson · Sarah Ellen, wife of Stephen Wallace · Joseph J. and Mary A. who died in infancy

Besides the above there is an adopted daughter, Effie May, taken into the family at the age of fourteen and who married Joseph Easterly.