BIOGRAPHY: Captain Patrick GRAHAM, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 86-8
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CAPTAIN PATRICK GRAHAM. -- No memories are so lovingly enshrined in the loyal 
hears of the North as those of the men who fought and suffered in the War of the 
Great Rebellion. Towards these men our most generous impulses go forth; to them 
our kindest acts are calculated. Although those gallant veterans may win fame in 
other fields, we remember them chiefly for the unselfish service rendered our 
country in a time of direst need.
     Capt. Patrick Graham, an alderman of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is one of 
those men who are distinguished among their fellows as gallant soldiers. He 
mustered a company in Johnstown in 1861, and being appointed its captain, 
started for the war. From that time until May 15, 1864, he was in active 
service, but in the battle of New Market, Virginia, he received a wound which 
nearly proved fatal. At that time he was left on the field for dead, but was 
picked up by the rebels, and after much suffering recovered. They, however, held 
him for nine months and a half as a prisoner at Harrisonburg, Virginia, and he 
was afterwards taken to Macon, Georgia, Charlestown, South Carolina, Columbus, 
South Carolina, and Goldsborough, North Carolina, when he was released. He then 
came home to Johnstown, where he has remained ever since, and filled for one 
term the office of justice of the peace, and at present is serving his second 
term as alderman. It is meet to say that in his civil service Captain Graham 
shows the same faithfulness and efficiency which characterized his military 
life.
     He is a son of Daniel and Liddie (Idding) Graham, and was born November 15, 
1817. His great-grandfather Graham was a native of Scotland, and married a lady 
from County Tyrone, Ireland, where Patrick Graham, grandfather, was born. The 
grandfather ran away from home in boyhood and came to America, where he followed 
the occupation of farming during the remainder of his life. He took no active 
part in politics, but was a staunch democrat. He married Elizabeth McKee, a 
descendant in direct line from the McKee family which settled in Jamestown under 
Capt. John Smith. Mr. Graham's maternal grandparents were of German extraction.
     Daniel Graham, father of our subject, was born in Westmoreland county, 
Pennsylvania, and was a farmer the greater part of his life. About four years of 
his early life were spent in the manufacture of salt near Freeport, 
Pennsylvania. He was a republican, and for fifteen years was justice of the 
peace in Butler county, Pennsylvania. He had thirteen children, five of whom 
served in the Civil War.
     Captain Patrick Graham is principally a self-educated man, having built a 
small room in which he spent his evenings in the study of the common branches. 
Previous to his enlistment as a soldier, he had various occupations and a busy 
life. He was timekeeper during the building of the Pennsylvania canal, and 
followed this occupation until about 1832. He then learned the tailor trade, 
which constituted his employment until 1844, and at intervals until 1852. After 
that he was employed by the Brady's Bend Iron company, of Brady's Bend, 
Pennsylvania, for about three years, in the capacity of heater. At the 
expiration of this time he was elected justice of the peace of that place and 
served four years. He resigned this office and came to Johnstown, entering the 
service of Wood, Morrell & Co., as heater, in which occupation he continued for 
six years. At this point his war history begins.
     Captain Graham has been twice married. March 24, 1837, he married Miss 
Magdalene C. Hamble, who died December 15, 1868. She was the mother of seven 
children, four sons and three daughters. Given in the order of their birth they 
are as follows: Jane, married to Stephen B. Gregory, at present living in 
Johnstown; Martha W., wife of Robert Bennett, a resident of Braddock, 
Pennsylvania; May E., married to John Hutzen, residing in Braddock, 
Pennsylvania; John T., married to Eliza Moore, died in Johnstown; Robert Smiley, 
who married Jennie Iler, and lives in Braddock, Pennsylvania; Holmes S., a 
resident of Braddock also, married Emilia Behm, now dead; Thomas H., who lives 
in Lorain, Ohio, and whose wife was Dolly Walters.
     The second wife of Captain Graham was Miss Ethelinda Benshoff, of 
Johnstown, Pennsylvania.