Maryland, graduating from the medical college in 1849, and immediately commenced his practice in Baltimore. He was afterward appointed as physician in the Baltimore Dispensary, but prior to this was a resident and practitioner in the Baltimore City and County Almshouse, where he received a nine months' clinical practice and study, which admirably fitted him for his chosen profession. After practicing in Baltimore for about four years, he was appointed physician to the quarantine hospital for the city of Baltimore, a position he held for two years. This position was of first importance in the gift of the city, and was filled by the Doctor at the early age of twenty-five years, an honor conferred upon very few men so young in years. Later he came west looking for a suitable place in which to locate, and visited the principal cities of Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, and at Dubuque he stopped to hear Hon. Stephen A. Douglas make his wonderful railroad speech. From there he went to St. Paul, Minn., thence to Des Moines, and finally found himself in Story County, where he met a Mr. Chandler, with whom he formed a partnership in the erection of the Cambridge Steam Flouring Mills. He located permanently in Story County, Iowa, in 1856, and commenced the practice of his profession in the hamlet of Cambridge. The county at that time was an overflown region, wet and boggy, and did not offer a very favorable prospect to settlers. Skunk River bottom was a terror to emigrants. The Doctor very graphically tells how several families—thirty-one persons in all—lived (or sojourned) for the winter in the only house then in Cambridge, and belonging to its founder, Josiah Chandler. The Doctor has seen this region converted into one of the most productive regions of Iowa, and has done his share in bringing about this desirable result. His life has been a varied one, but in every pursuit in which lie has engaged he has shown wonderful activity, strength and perseverance. In 1860 he was taken with the Pike's Peak fever, and started across the plains, reaching Denver, Colo., in the spring of that year, thence to Nevada City in the mountains to the gold diggings, where he practiced medicine successfully for two years. While in Nevada, Colo., the town was destroyed by fire, but was afterward rebuilt. The Doctor returned East in 1862, and July 1, 1862, was married at Harrisburg, Penn., to Miss Julia Bombaugh, who died in Denver in 1864, leaving a son who died in infancy. Mrs. Grafton was a refined and cultivated lady, having graduated at the Harrisburg Female College. After their marriage they returned to the mountains, and thence removed to Denver in 1863, where the Doctor continued the practice of his profession till his wife's death, when he returned to Baltimore. In 1874 he was married to Miss Sarah B. Livingston, a native of Ohio, and to their union six children have been born: William D. (aged fifteen years), Francis McH. (aged thirteen), Edward L. (aged twelve), Albert Kurtz (aged ten), Eugene Hill (aged seven) and Mary (the baby of the home, aged five years). Dr. Grafton was in the late war as an acting assistant surgeon for about two years, serving in common with about twenty other physicians at the Annapolis Hospital, from which he was sent to Lincoln Hospital in Washington, thence to Douglas Hospital, and from there to a local hospital. Here he resigned, and after a short stay in the State of Georgia he returned home to Baltimore, and was again offered a position in the Post Hospital at Washington, D. C., which goes to prove that he had been signally successful in the practice of his profession. He has always identified himself with the Democratic party and supported Jeffersonian