EDMUND A. GRAHAM
Edmund Augustus Graham, son of Levi Pawling and Elizabeth (Banks) Graham and grandson of Lieut. Daniel and Catherine (Decker) Graham, was born in New York City in October, 1802, and died in Utica, N.
Y., January 27, 1889. He was of mingled Scotch and Huguenot descent, and inherited those sturdy characteristics which made his ancestors conspicuous as loyal and honored citizens. Daniel Graham was a
lieutenant in an Ulster county regiment in the Revolutionary war. Levi P. was educated in Columbia College and began the study of law with the famous Samuel Jones in New York. but his health failed
and he gave himself to business as commercial agent in Havana and elsewhere in the West Indies for New York merchants. He finally returned to his home in Newburg, Orange county, afterwards removing
to Western New York and died at the age of ninety-four.
Edmund A. Graham spent the first five or six years of his life in the metropolis. The family then removed to Newburg, where he received an academic education until twelve years of age. Afterward for about two years he mingled farm work with attendance at school. His father was a friend of such men as De Witt Clinton, Daniel D. Tompkins, and Aaron Burr, and the lad became acquainted with all these. He was invited by Burr to go to New York and enter his office for the study of law, but Mrs. Graham objected, and he went instead at the age of fifteen to Ogdensburgh, N. Y., under the care of his uncle, Louis Hasbrouck, who was a prominent lawyer in partnership with Judge Fine and also postmaster. Mr. Graham entered the post-office and soon had full charge of the mails, and during his leisure read law in the office of Hasbrouck & Fine, where he had a fellow student named Preston King, who was destined to become politically famous. Young Graham had a natural preference for the law and in due time was admitted to the bar. He at once began a profitable law practice in Ogdensburg, having clients in New York, Albany, and Troy as well as at home. He was made the attorney of the Bank of Ogdensburg, of which he was a director, and also became agent for David B. Ogden to manage and sell large tracts of land in the town of Oswegatchie. He was clerk of the village in 1826, 1831, 1833, and 1834, and in 1830 was one of the originators and a director of the company which ran the first line of American steamers on the River St. Lawrence and the lakes. This enterprise was for a long time maintained in no small part by such Utica capitalists as Alfred T Samuel Farwell, John Butterfield, and Harvey Barnard, whom Mr. Graham enlisted with himself, and it is a tradition worthy of record that the first steamer of the line was built from his designs. While in Ogdensburg he was prominently connected with the old State militia and became division judge advocate with the rank of colonel.
In 1838, owing to the dangerous illness of his father-in-law, Judge Apollos Cooper, Mr. Graham removed to Utica to manage the judge's large estate, which task he combined with his law practice. Judge Cooper's farm, which Mr. Graham laid out in streets and lots, extended from the Mohawk River to Cornelia street and from Genesee street quite a distance west. The homestead still stands, somewhat altered, in Whitesboro street. The present generation can scarcely appreciate the services rendered by Mr. Graham and his assistants, who, in 1845, entered upon an investigation of the feasibility of introducing manufactures by steam into the city of Utica. The lack of water-power was keenly recognized. The statutes then forbade corporations with a larger capital than $100,000, while the use of steam required greater investments The city's population had decreased from 12,000 to 10,000, and increase of manufacturing was relied upon to turn the tide. At a public meeting Spencer Kellogg, Andrew S. Pond and Mr. Graham were appointed a committee to visit New England and report on the subject. Their report started both the woolen and cotton factories within the city. Mr. Pond favored the organization of a company for woolen manufacture and the Utica woolen mills were built, but were not successful. Messrs. Graham and Kellogg recommended investments in cotton in preference and the Utica Steam Cotton Mills have for nearly fifty years confirmed the wisdom of their choice. In order to permit the use of capital to the amount necessary, and to get rid of full liability on the part of the stockholders, Mr. Graham drafted what became the general manufacturing law of 1848, but hard labor at Albany during two legislative sessions was required to secure its passage. The chief work of raising the capital for starting the cotton mills devolved upon Alfred Munson, Theodore S. Faxton, Silas D. Childs, and Edmund A. Graham, all of whom met with many difficulties before success was assured, Mr. Munson was elected president of the company and Mr. Graham was chosen secretary as well a director. Upon the latter fell the task of drawing the contracts and making many of the purchases. He continued to give attention to the mills, became one of the largest stockholders, and for many years prior to his death was president of the company.
Mr. Graham was one of the most zealous and influential promoters of the original movement in behalf of the Black River and Utica Railroad. His acquaintance with Northern New York enabled him to see the need of the line, and to render important service in its organization and construction. The struggle between Rome and Utica for the northern alliance constitutes an interesting chapter of local history, in which a compromise was offered by Rome to the effect that the railroad project be abandoned by both cities. Mr. Graham, in co-operation with other citizens, devoted much time to the enterprise in behalf of Utica, and subscribed $5,000 to the stock, which was all lost. He was attorney and counsel for and a director in the original company until the foreclosure of the mortgage, and he held the same positions until 1884 in the corporation which bought the property. For a long period he was vice-president of Utica and Black River Railroad Company and acted as president for three or four seasons while Mr. Thom was abroad. He gave personal attention to the building of the road from Lyons Falls to Carthage and Philadelphia. For several years he owned and conducted in Sauquoit the mill for the manufacture of white paper previously operated by Savage & Moore, but the introduction of wood pulp brought changes which finally closed that establishment.
During the fifty years of his residence in Utica Mr. Graham's career was one of honor and continuous business success. The number of positions of trust to which he was called was many, and he was faithful in all of them. He was one of a committee to prepare amendments to the city charter, and at his suggestion a provision to make aldermen personally liable for excessive expenditure was enacted. He was one of four commissioners appointed to secure the site and build the city hall. In 184'7 he was elected a director of the Oneida Bank (afterward the Oneida National Bank) and survived every one of his associates of that time. From 1853 to 1872 he was one of the managers of the Utica State Hospital and gave to that institution great care and attention. He was long a director and for some time vice-president of the Utica Gas Light Company. Confirmed in St. John's church, Ogdensburg, he was an earnest and consistent churchman, and was one of the organizers of Grace church, Utica, which he served for many years as vestryman and warden. As chairman of the committee he superintended the enlargement of the old church and was one of the building committee for the present edifice. Later he was a member of the vestry of the mother church, Trinity. He was often a delegate to diocesan conventions and a trustee of the fund for the support of the episcopate. Politically he was first a Democrat, but after the Charleston convention of 1860 became an ardent supporter of Mr. Lincoln, and ever afterward was a zealous and steadfast Republican In 1848 he was nominated by the Democrats for the Assembly, but was defeated owing to divisions in the party and his refusal to give pledges on the excise question.
As a lawyer Mr. Graham was well grounded in the principles of his profession. He was careful in his preparation and accurate and persistent in his work. He was connected with several great litigations. In the long contested Bradstreet cases, which involved a large amount of property, he was the attorney who studied out the law and dug out the facts, and was instrumental in carrying the cases to a successful end. His business was largely in chancery, in the equity side of the Supreme Courts, at general terms, and in the Court of Appeals, and his railroad cases were important and numerous. Mr. Graham won an. unquestioned reputation for integrity. He was an excellent neighbor, a faithful friend, and a useful and enterprising citizen. Unostentatious and patriotic he was diligent in business and scrupulously honored all obligations. The record of such a life as his is its own best commentary, and the community in which he lived for half a century reveres and honors his memory. Mr. Graham was married in 1835 to Miss Cornelia, only daughter of Judge Apollos Cooper, of Utica, who survives him. They had two children; Louise Cooper (Mrs. Samuel E. Schantz), and Edmund Banks, who died in 1885. [Judge Apollos Cooper was a lineal descendant of John Cooper, who sailed in the Hopewell for America in 1635, first settled in Lynn, Mass., was made a freeman in Boston in 1636, soon removed to Southampton, L. L, and was one of the twenty heads of families who formed the association for the settlers of Southampton in 1657. Southampton was the first town settled by the English in the State of New York. John Cooper was also one of the founders of the New England States. In 1794 Judge Apollos Cooper purchased from James S. Kipp 115 acres of land, being a part of Cosby's Manor, now a part of the city of Utica. A small house was on the land, but the judge. added to it, and the dwelling that is still standing on Whitesboro street, near Liberty, presents as to the building the same appearance as when judge Cooper resided there, which he continued to do until his death in 1839. It was never as pretentious as many others, but partook something of the stern simplicity of its Puritan founder. The old orchard which surrounded the house until quite recently has disappeared, but for many years, in its time of flower and fruitage, it was a thing of beauty as well as a landmark. The Cooper farm extended from the river on the north to Genesee street at its junction with Cornelia on the southeast, which street the judge named for his only daughter. The farm covered most of the city now comprised in the Third ward. Judge Cooper was one of the enterprising pioneers of Central New York. In 1793 he left, his birthplace in Southampton, L. I, "poled" up the Mohawk River and Fish Creek to Oneida county, and in 1784 settled "at old Fort Schuyler." He was judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and held many offices of public trust. A former resident of Utica recently spoke of him as follows: " Of the men who one hundred years ago, in 1794, came from the east and drove their stakes at Old Fort Schuyler, there was one among them--Apollos Cooper--whose influence through himself and his posterity has been sovereign all through your history, and even to the present day is benignly felt. To Apollos Cooper we owe the life and fame of one of the brilliant lawyers for whom Utica has been renowned." Mrs. Graham, the judge's only daughter, is believed to be the oldest native born resident of Utica. From early youth she was one of the chief promoters of that noble charity, the Utica Orphan Asylum, and for nearly forty years its first directress, resigning that position but a few years ago.]
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