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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
Armstrong County, Pennsylvania
Her People, Past and Present
in two volumes Illustrated
Vol. II
Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914
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HON. EDMUND D.
GRAFF, late of Worthington, was a man of large
business interests, political prominence and individual
character. He was born at Worthington in 1846, son of
Peter and Susan (Lobingier) Graff, and always
maintained his home in Armstrong county.
John Graff, his grandfather, was born in 1763,
in Germany, and grown to manhood when he emigrated to the
United States. For a time he lived in Lancaster
county, Pa., and then moved to Westmoreland county, where
the remainder of his life was passed. He owned a farm
and also a distillery and was a man of some consequence in
his community. His wife, Barbara Bouns, who was
born in Crawford County, Pa., was captured by a wandering
band of Indians and carried into the forest by them, when
eight years old, and probably would never have succeeded in
escaping had it not been because of the gratitude of another
Indian, who had been previously befriended by her people.
The story is one of great interest. She lived to old
age amid peaceful surroundings.
Peter Graff, son of John and father of
Edmund D., was born May 27, 1808, and died Apr. 9, 1890.
His earliest recollections were of soldiers marching home
from the war of 1812 and of their tales of prowess. He
had but limited educational advantages and when sixteen
years old became a clerk in his brother Henry's store
at Pleasant Unity, Westmoreland Co., Pa. Later
he entered into partnership with E. G. Dutihl & Co.,
commission merchants of Philadelphia, and also became a
partner in the firm of J. Painter & Co., Pittsburgh,
Pa., in the wholesale grocery trade, and in addition he was
extensively interested in the iron trade in Armstrong,
Venango and Clarion counties. In 1844, he moved his
place of residence to Buffalo Mills, Armstrong county, where
he continued to live until his death. In 1840 he
became a member of the Lutheran Church, in whose work he was
active for half a century, and for fifty yeas served as
superintendent of the Sunday school. He married
Susan Lobingier, and they had the following children:
Joseph; Susan L., who married Andrew C. Baily; Anna,
who died Mar. 24, 1842; Charles H.; Sarah Jane,
who married C. B. Linton; J. Frank; Edmund D.; Philip M.,
and Peter.
Edmund D. Graff secured an excellent district
school education which prepared him to enter the Western
University at Pittsburgh, where he was graduated with his
degree of B. Ph. in 1868. For some time afterward he
was occupied in the office of Graff, McDivitt &
Co., manufacturers, at Pittsburgh, and later succeeded
to his father's interests in the woolen mills at
Worthington. In 1880 he became interested at Duluth,
Minn., in lumber manufacturing, as senior member of the firm
of Graff, Little & Co., and ever afterward continued
to be the actual as well as the nominal head of that large
concern. In 1889 the business was incorporated as the
Scott-Graff Lumber Company, of which he was
president of the main stockholders. This company's
plant is on the oldest sawmill site at Duluth, the mill
having been rebuilt and remodeled at different times in
order to accommodate the increasing demands of the business,
which have been phenomenal and in accord with the growth of
the city of Duluth. Mr. Graff had a
multiplicity of business interests, and he was either
officially or financially, and generally in both ways,
connected with various large industrial enterprises.
He was interested in the Howe Lumber Company, of Tower,
Minn., which he helped to organize, and of which he was
president until the burning of the company's mill caused a
cessation of activity there for a time. In 1900 the
Tower Lumber Company was incorporated and he became the
largest stockholder and a member of the board of directors.
He was also a stockholder in the First National Bank of
Duluth, and a director of the First State Bank of Tower,
Minn. At Worthington, Pa., he was a director and
stockholder in several banks, the senior partner of the firm
operating the Buffalo Woolen Mills.
In 1901 Mr. Graff was married to Melvina
Wolfe, of Adrian, Pa., a daughter of Jacob Wolfe,
and they resided at Worthington, Pa. He was a member
of the Lutheran Church and served several years as a member
of its board of trustees. In memory of the late Dr.
C. H. Graff, a brother of Edmund D. Graff, a man
of brilliant parts, the father, Peter Graff, endowed
a professorship in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, Pa.
From 1900 Edmund D. Graff served on its board
of trustees and at the time of his death was president of
his body.
As a public man Mr. Graff was well known to his
fellow citizens of Pennsylvania. Politically a
Democrat, he was one of the tree members of his family who
have served in the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, and was
a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, in 1884,
that nominated Hon. Grover Cleveland for the
presidency. He died June 3, 1912.
Source: Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People, Past and Present
in two volumes Illustrated -
Vol. II - Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914 - Page 614 |
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