Graham (Rev) William - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

From the Lafayette Courier we clip the following sketch of a former pastor of the First M. E. Church of Crawfordsville, and former Presiding Elder of the Crawfordsville district:

“Rev. William Graham died on last Saturday evening at 10 o’clock at his home on Littleton Street, West Lafayette, aged seventy five years. On last Saturday morning he had an attack of apoplexy and did not recover consciousness from that time, dying peacefully at the hour mentioned.

Dr. Graham was born in York County, Pennsylvania, November 9, 1821, and the York County Academy was the highest grade of schooling he received. His early life was spent on the farm, where he toiled faithfully until manhood’s years were attained. For three years he followed the carpenter’s trade, and was then licensed to preach the gospel, responding to a call from missionaries in the southwest. In the fall of 1844 he joined the Arkansas Conference at Little Rock and spent three years among the Choctaw Indians, teaching at Fort Coffee Academy and preaching throughout the entire section. It was not until 1847 that he began his gospel work in Indiana, but this state was the field of his labors ever afterward. In 1851 and 1852, he was stationed here, the old Ninth Street M. E. Church being built during his pastorate. From 1860 to 1862 he preached in what is now the Christian Church, but which was then a Methodist place of worship. The Lafayette district had him as its presiding elder between 1868 and 1872, and it was during this time that he laid the corner stone for Trinity Church and managed the erection of the Methodist Church in West Lafayette. Dr. Graham lived in West Lafayette after 1880, and has held pastorates at Dayton, West Lafayette, in Trinity and in the Ninth Street churches. For six years he was secretary of the conference, for thirteen years a presiding elder and for nine years a trustee of DePauw University.

No eulogy can pay fit tribute to this good man, and none will be here attempted. Everybody in the Methodist Church and in the conference finds in his own heart the eulogy which best speaks the honor due the Rev. Dr. Graham.

The funeral services will be held on Tuesday afternoon at 2 o’clock in the West Lafayette M. E. Church, and will be conducted by Rev. James W. Greene, D. D., of Crawfordsville, and Rev. H. A. Gobin, D. D., of Greencastle, assisted by many other members of the Northwest Indiana Conference. The interment will be in Springvale Cemetery.” -s