HON. CHARLES E. GRAHAM

Hon. Charles E. Graham, whose life record reflects credit and honor upon the people who have honored him by choosing him for high official preferment, has, unlike many capable business men, felt that he owed something to his city and his state besides conformity to its laws and has rendered active service in shaping its legislation and promoting its public affairs in other ways. At the same time he is connected with some of the most extensive commercial, industrial and financial interests of Connecticut, which demand the highest possible business efficiency, executive force and administrative direction. Oliver Wendell Holmes once replied to the question. "Where should a boy's education begin," by answering, "Two Hundred years before he was born." In other words he recognized the force of ancestry in inherited tendency as well as in inherited physical and mental strength.

The ancestry of the Graham family is an honorable and distinguished one. As early as 1150 the family was represented in Forfarshire, Perthshire, Stirlingshire and Dumfriesshire, Scotland. It is believed that the name was spelled originally Graeme and some of the representatives of the family have used the. form of Grimes. The family possesses or possessed the dukedom, marquisate and earldom of Montrose; the marquisate of Graham and Buchanan; the earldoms of Avith Kincardine, Monteith and Strathearn; "the viscouncies of Dundas, Dundee and Preston; the lordships of Aberuthven. Kilpoint, etc., and the barony of Esk, etc. It is believed that the family is of Norman origin and that the first ancestor in Great Britain crossed from Normandy with William the Conqueror.

The branch of the family to which Charles E. Graham belongs is descended from James Graham, marquis of Montrose, who was a distinguished royalist and fought on the side of Charles I in the first civil war of England. John Graham, great-grandfather of C. E. Graham, was a native of Scotland, where he conducted business as a planter, and he was also a soldier in the British army, in which he won a commission. His son and namesake was likewise of Scotch birth, although he became a loyal American by adoption, becoming the founder of the family in the new world. Reared in Scotland, he afterward spent several years in Dublin, Ireland, and then came to the United States, establishing his home in Albany, New York, where he died before the birth of his son James. He wedded Mary Ann Fair, a daughter of Sir John Fair, and they became the parents of five children. Both Mr. and Mrs. John Graham were members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Their son, James Graham, was born in Albany, New York. January 23, 1831, and at the age of seventeen became an apprentice to the trade of brass founder, in which he rapidly gained expert knowledge. In 1852 he was offered the position of foreman in the Branford (Conn.) Lock Works and for nearly ten years occupied that responsible position, directing the labors of many men who were much his senior. In 1861 he established business on his own account by opening a foundry in New Haven and for thirty-nine years he was one of the prominent brass founders of this section of New England, conducting his manufacturing interests most profitably. He had a large three story brick factory at No. 293 Worchester street, which was erected in 1874. There he employed a large force of workmen and con-ducted an extensive business that contributed much to the material development of the city. He has been spoken of as a man of unassailable probity, of sound business judgment and of genial temperament and as one who took an active part in the religious and political interests of his community. He was a devoted member of the Congregational church and in politics was a republican, casting his first presidential vote for John C. Fremont in 1856. He was again and again chosen to serve as a delegate to the state conventions of his party and in 1896 was a delegate to the republican national convention at St. Louis which nominated President McKinley. He was in the same year on the Connecticut presidential electoral ticket and was "elected to carry the vote of the state to the electoral college at Washington. He was called upon to fill many public offices, the duties of which he discharged in a manner that reflected credit upon himself and his constituents. In 1870 he represented his district in the state legislature and was reelected in 1885 and again in 1886, while in 1887 he was chosen a member of the state senate, to which he was returned in 1889. While serving in the lower house he was thrice made chairman of the committee on railroads and filled the same important position for two terms in the senate. He was also chairman of the committee on military affairs, on fisheries and on license. He belonged to the Union League Club and to the Young Men's Republican Club of New Haven and was at one time a member of the Samosett Club. His activities along all these lines were in addition to most extensive and important business interests, for not only was he identified with brass manufacturing, but was also connected with many important business concerns having to do with the commercial, industrial and financial development of city, county and state.

James Graham was twice married. He first wedded Maria Foote, of Branford. She passed away in 1893, leaving a son, while one other son of that marriage died in infancy. In 1899 James Graham married Estella M. Wagner, of Litchfield, and on the 19th of March, 1900, he passed away.

Charles E. Graham, the only surviving child of James Graham, was born in Branford, Connecticut, February 9, 1858, and in the Webster School of New Haven and Union school of West Haven pursued his education until 1872, when he was enrolled as a pupil in the Russell Military School, where he studied for four years. He became a student in the Williston Seminary at Easthampton, Massachusetts, in 1876. The following year he became actively identified with manufacturing interests by entering the employ of the firm of Graham & Corey, a business which had been established by his father in 1861, while in 1867 Mr. Corey was admitted to a partnership under the style of James Graham & Company. That association was maintained until 1880, when Mr. Corey withdrew and was succeeded by Charles E. Graham. Ambitious to follow in his father's footsteps, he thoroughly acquainted himself with the business in every phase and thus gained broad knowledge and experience which enabled him to take up the work of his father upon the latter's death. He is now the surviving partner of James Graham & Company and has managed the business with notable success, bringing to bear strong administrative powers and executive force. Other extensive and important interests have also profited by his control, by his keen sagacity and by his powers of organization. He was one of the founders of the West Haven Manufacturing Company for the manufacture of hardware specialties and from the first lie has been its president and treasurer. He was formerly the, vice president of the Utah & Eastern Copper Company now merged into the Utah Southern Copper Company, is the president of the Wire Novelty Company, being one of the founders, and was treasurer of the Mayo Radiator Company, which he aided in organizing. He became a director of the Evening Leader Company, publishing the New Haven Leader, and he is also vice president of J. H. Bunnell & Company, manufacturers of telegraph instruments, of New York. He has also figured prominently in railway circles. He is the treasurer of the Central Railway of Oregon and is a director of the Milford & Uxbridge Street Railway Company. He is likewise a director of the Peoples Bank & Trust Company of New Haven of which he was a charter member.

On the 19th of October, 1881, in New Haven, Mr. Graham was married to Miss Hattie Augusta Marsh, of West Haven, who was born in August, 1859, and is a daughter of Esteves E. Marsh, of West Haven. They have one child, Marguerite Marsh, born March13, 1887.

Mr. Graham is one of the recognized leaders of the republican party in Connecticut. In 1897 he represented the town of Orange in the state legislature and was made a member of the committee on insurance. In 1903 he was state senator from the seventh district and was made chairman of the committee on claims, of the committee on executive nominations and on forfeited rights. He most carefully and earnestly considered the vital questions which came up for settlement and his support of any measure was an indication of his firm belief in its efficacy as a factor in good government or in upholding the best interests of the commonwealth. In the public affairs of the town of Orange he participates as a member on its important board of finance.

Mr. Graham frequently turns to yachting for pleasure and recreation and is well known among the yachtsmen on Long Island Sound. He is a Mason, belonging to Anawon Lodge, No. 115, F. & A. M., of West Haven; also to Franklin Chapter, R. A. M., of New Haven, to the Knight Templar Commandery and to the Scottish Rite Consistory. He also has membership in the Union League Club and in the Phoenix Club, while his religious faith is evidenced in his membership in the Congregational church. He is a member of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.

Whether working for business interests or public welfare, lie has the ability of marshalling his forces so that the greatest strength accrues and the limits of possibility in the attainment of results are reached. While his ancestors figured on the pages of history in connection with many tragic and picturesque events, in a less spectacular but no less potent way Charles E. Graham is aiding in writing the history of New Haven and of Connecticut in its commercial, financial and political interests.