Los Angeles County
Biographies
DAVID JAMES GRAHAM
GRAHAM, DAVID
JAMES, Oil Operator, Los Angeles, California,
was born in Birmingham, Schuyler
County, Illinois, August 22, 1858. He is the son of James Harrison Graham and
Francis Winnifred (Smith) Graham, both descended from
notable American families. His paternal
ancestors were Scotch, who settled in Virginia before
the Revolutionary War, and one, Joseph Graham, served under General Lincoln
with such distinction during that struggle that he was breveted
General at the fall of Yorktown. David Graham, great-grandfather of Mr.
Graham, was a Captain of Virginia Militia during the War of 1812. David Graham, grandfather of the subject of
this sketch, left Virginia in 1829 and settled in Illinois and there he and Mr.
Graham’s father became prominent in the development of that part of the
country, with the distinction of having established the first lumber and grist
mill seen there. William Graham, of the
same family, was Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President Fillmore,
from 1850 to 1852, at which time he resigned his portfolio to run for Vice
President of the United States
on the Whig ticket with Winfield Scott.
Mr. Graham’s great-grandmother on the paternal side was a cousin of
James Madison, third President of the United States, and a sister of Joel
Sturgeon, who was killed in the battle of the Alamo; his grandmother was a
niece of General Leslie Coombs, the famous Governor of Kentucky, and descended
from Frances Calloway, who, with her sister, Betsy, and Jemima Boone, was
captured by the Indians in 1776. His
mother was connected with the Moseleys, Lockets and Salles of Frankfort and Lexington,
families famous in Kentucky since
the days of Daniel Boone.
Mr. Graham
married Leolela Dodd of Floyd
County, Virginia, at Chicago,
Illinois, November 12, 1881, and they are the parents of
one child, Lillian Virginia Graham, born at Chicago
on Christmas Day, 1883.
Mr. Graham lived
on a farm in his youth, working the soil during the Summer
months and attending school in Winter.
He received his teaching in the public schools of Birmingham
and Plymouth, Illinois,
situated in Schuyler and Hancock counties, respectively. He left school when he was seventeen years of
age and in 1876 went to Sterling, Illinois,
to learn the printer’s trade. He worked
on the “Whiteside Times” there for approximately three years and in 1879 went
to Chicago, where he worked at his
trade. He remained there only a few
months, however, and then, in the same year, moved to Montague,
Texas, where he worked on the “Texas
Northwest,” the official paper of that vast farming and stock raising
country. Mr. Graham set up the first tax
list published in that county after the Civil War. He also engaged in farming and stock raising while there.
Returning to Chicago
in 1882, Mr. Graham entered the employ of the American Express Company, but
left there to go with the Chicago City Railway Company. He held this position until 1891 and at that
time went to California, locating at Bakersfield. For the next three years he was associated
with Charles N. Thurlow as bookkeeper and estimator
on contracting work and upon severing his connection with him, re-entered the
newspaper business with C. P. Fox. He
remained in that field only about a year, however, and then went to San
Jose, California, in newspaper
work. The next year he spent in that
place and San Francisco in
newspaper lines.
The three
following years, up until 1899, Mr. Graham was engaged in the printing business
in Oakland, California, and he then turned his attention to oil and mining, in
which industries he has been engaged down to date. He had examined the Sunset and McKittrick oil districts in California as early as 1892,
and when he finally embarked in the business he was one of the best equipped
men in the matter of oil formation and development in that part of the
country. His subsequent career attests
to that, for since the discovery of the product in what is known as the Kern
River District in California he
has been interested in its development.
During a greater
portion of his time he has been associated with E. J. Miley
and J. D. Johnston of Newport, Rhode
Island, the three having organized various oil
corporations and developed a large area of oil-bearing land. They organized the State Oil Company in 1908,
which had large holdings in the McKittrick District,
and the King-Alban Oil Company, which have recently been consolidated under the
name of the State Consolidated Oil Company, in which corporation Mr. Graham is
Secretary and Treasurer.
In 1905 Mr.
Graham and associates acquired the great Plumas-Eureka gold mine in Plumas
County, California, and he has
since been giving a large part of his time to mining interests. He is at the present time a Director of the
Johnston-Graham Mining Company, and also of the
Saratoga Mining and Development Company in California
and has valuable interests in Arizona and Colorado.
Mr. Graham is an
ardent supporter of the policies of the Democratic party. His family for generations has espoused the
Democratic party because its members believed in its
principles.
He has never been
a member of any fraternity, but holds membership in the Los Angeles Athletic
Club.
Transcribed 6-28-08
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 86,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2008 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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