James Graham

GRAHAM ALLAN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 8/27/2010 at 22:37:28

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

James Graham
By Mary Frances Graham Cloney

James Graham, 1867-1947, was Editor and owner of The Moville Mail, Moville, Iowa for nearly fifty years.

He was born in Rothesay, Isle of Bute, Scotland. He remained in Scotland where he completed his education in music in Paisley and Glasgow. He played at the jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887 as a member of the Second Volunteer Battalion, Argyle and Southern Highlanders.

Coming to the United States in 1889, Mr Graham located first in Chicago and then moved westward to Iowa. He taught county schools, conducted singing schools and directed bands.

At the start of the 1890’s he took a business course at the Sioux City Commercial College and in 1892-93 he served as billing clerk for the Sioux City Seed and Nursery Company. During this period of his life he played cornet in the Stratton Military Band, a contemporary of Mose Reed’s K.P. Band.

In 1894, Mr Graham bought the Moville Mail, and in 1898, married Mattie M Allan in the house on the farm wehre the Moville postoffice was established twenty years before the town of Moville was founded.

He directed the Congregational Church choir for twenty-five years, as well as the Moville town band for a number of years, and was Secretary of the Moville School Board for years.

Mr Graham wrote a History of Woodbury County and published a book of his poems entitnted Graham Gems.

A daughter, Mary Frances Graham Cloney, divides her time between her homes in Moville and Florida.