JAMES N. McGRANAHAN was born in Salem, Mercer Co., Penn., Dec. 15, 1841. Ten years later, his parents, A. J. and R. J. McGranahan, came to Iowa Co., Wis.; lived three years on a farm near Mineral Point, and a year in the Wyoming Valley. Owing to ill health, the father returned with his family to Pennsylvania, and stayed there three years. The family then returned, and lived for a time near Gratiot and Red Rock; then went to Fennimore, and, four years later, settled on the farm in Lancaster, where the old couple now reside. In January, 1865, J. N. McGranahan enlisted in Co. K, 47th W. V. I.; served nine months, and was honorably discharged with his regiment. He then spent two years with his parents, and, in 1867, married Mary Orton. She was born on the Strand, in London, and was the daughter of a business man of that metropolis, who made a voyage to Australia, and around the globe, taking his family with him. After a somewhat brief experience on rented farms, Mr. McGranahan came to Platteville, and, after a winter at mining, he entered the employ of the Laflin & Rand Powder Co. Mr. McGranahan seems to bear a charmed life as a brief recital of his many close and almost miraculous escapes will show. In his younger life, while in La Fayette Co., Wis., he was nearly crushed to death by a runaway steer, the brute so managing his stampede as to drag the boy after him, and finally fell upon him. His second accident overtook him while he was crossing some slippery timbers in constructing a dam. He was a powerful young fellow, and was carrying a very heavy beam, the end of which struck him full in the face as he went down, and, of course, drove him to the bottom of the deep stream. During his six years' service with the powder company, he was thrice in imminent danger. At the first explosion, Feb. 16, 1877, he sprang from one of the buildings just as the roof was blown from the "corning" works, yet escaped the hail of falling missiles. In September of the next year, the packing works exploded. He, at the time, was washing himself in a building prepared for the use of the employers. He was entirely nude, and when found was under a mass of debris with his shoulders and lower limbs literally stuck full of bits of glass. He now bears the scars of innumberable wounds and cuts. The roof of the wash-house and the broken windows did the business for him. When the press works exploded, in November, 1877, he jumped into the creek, and thus extinguished his blazing and most inflammable garments, which had caught from the explosion. Few men would have had the presence of mind he displayed in closing eyes and mouth, and making the plunge as he did. The surface of the water was strewn with broken timbers, etc., yet he was not hit, and, in spite of his many adventures and "close calls," he is to-day a sound man. In the spring of 1880, he was elected Town Treasurer, and, in the fall following, was appointed Janitor of the Normal School building. Mr. and Mrs. McGranahan have a son Ralph, born in Platteville. Mr McGranahan has a house and lot in the city, though living in the school building, in order that his duties may be fulfilled.

This biography generously submitted by Roxanne Munns.