Edmon A. Graham

As printed in 1906

EDMON ALFRED GRAHAM. The name of Graham figures prominently in connection with steamboat navigation on the Great Lakes, and with the development and successful conduct of this business the name of Edmon Alfred Graham was associated. A man of marked business enterprise and keen discernment he carefully directed his labors and won success and a position of prominence that made him one of the foremost representative citizens of Berrien county. A native of Laporte county, Indiana, he was born November 14, 1841. His parents, John and Lucinda (Nichols) Graham, were natives of the state of New York, and were of English descent. The father with his family crossed the country in a large covered wagon from New York to Indiana, and for the first time heard a car whistle in the Maumee valley. They met many Indians while making the long journey and they established their home in a pioneer district, aiding in reclaiming that region for the purposes of civilization. The death of the father occurred March 26, 1875.

Edmon A. Graham's boyhood days were passed without event of special importance to vary the routine of life for him. He attended school at Elkhart, Indiana, and pursued a general course at Benton City, Iowa. In 1864 he engaged in the lumber business, which he conducted along practical, enterprising lines. His father had owned and operated a sawmill, the first plant of its kind in possession of the family being in Lincoln township and known as Graham Mill. The father had also become owner of timber land, which was purchased by the son, who thus came into possession of five hundred acres, from which he cut the timber, sawing it in his mill and converting it into a marketable product for the lumberyards of the cities. Subsequently he sold a portion of his land to German emigrants who became residents of this part of the state. For a considerable period Mr. Graham continued the operation of his sawmill and the manu-

. facture of lumber. He was a over of good horses and he also kept good stock. In the meantime he became connected with the steamboat business, his first boat being the Union, of which he became owner in 1870. In 1879 he built the steamer May Graham,

which is still used on the St. Joseph river. In 1882 he removed to St. Joseph and purchased dock property of A. H. Morrison. His property holdings make him the heaviest taxpayer in Berrien county. In addition to his dock property, of which he is sole owner, he also had many residences and business blocks and other real-estate in St. Joseph and elsewhere. He owned the Postoffice Block, the Evening Press Block, called the Preston and Stock Block, an eighty-acre timber tract near Berrien and what is known as the Ox Bow Bend on the river. He was also a stockholder and director in the Union Bank. His business career was marked by consecutive advancement and steady progress. In early manhood, entering actively into connection with the lumber interests, a leading industry of Michigan, he was ever

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4yy watchful of opportunities for enlarging the scope of his business and extended his efforts into various departments of industrial and commercial activity, wherein his sound judgment and keen business discrimination were continually demonstrated in the success which he has achieved. He was seldom if ever at error in matters of business judgment, readily solved complex problems and with determined purpose carried forward to successful completion whatever he undertook. He early displayed conspicuously the traits of character which made his life brilliantly successful, and. from the beginning of his business career until its close a splendid prosperity was steadily his.

Neglectful of none of the duties relative to good citizenship, Mr. Graham labored effectively and earnestly for the welfare and upbuilding of his adopted city, and in 1884 was elected to serve as alderman of St. Joseph. He was a devoted adherent of the Republican Club and a warm admirer of the party leaders. He presented to the Commercial Club a magnificent picture of President McKinley. He held membership in this club and with Burnett Lodge No. 19, I. O. O. F.

On the 20th of June, 1869, Mr. Graham was married to Edwina C. Bunker, of Hagar township, a daughter of Nathaniel and Mary Bunker. Her father was a soldier of the Civil war, and was supposed to have been taken to Libby prison, and perhaps died there, for he was never heard from again. Mrs. Graham was born September 17, 1848, in a house at Royalton Heights which has since fallen into the St. Joseph river. Her mother died when she was only seven years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Graham have but one child, May Belle, who was born August 5, 1873, and was married November 7, 1804 to William H. Hull.

Without extraordinary pecuniary or family advantages to aid him at the outset of his career E. A. Graham gained for himself a place among the prominent business men of Michigan. It is true, that like other business men, he may not have found all the days equally bright. Indeed in his commercial experience he saw the gathering clouds that threatened disastrous storms, but his rich inheritance of energy and pluck enabled him to turn defeat into victory and promised failures into brilliant successes. His strict integrity, business conservatism and judgment were always so universally recognized that he enjoyed public confidence to an enviable degree and naturally this brought to him a success that made a steady increase in his business. His investments were so judiciously placed that his property holdings easily placed him among the heaviest in Berrien county. While it is true that his chief life work was that of a remarkably successful business man, the range of his activities and the scope of his influence reached far beyond this special field. He belonged to that class who field a power which is all the more potent from the fact that it is moral rather than political and is exercised for the public weal rather than for personal ends. He passed away at his home in St. Joseph, June 2, 1904.

As printed in A twentieth century history of Berrien County, Michigan (1906). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.