Henry Graham, father of Andrew F. Graham, was born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, and in early life learned the plasterer's trade, which he afterward followed along the Mississippi river for sometime. On going through the sounth and witnessing the abuse of slavery he became a very stanch abolitionist and because of this intense feeling against the custom of holding the negroes in bondage he awakened the antagonism of southern people, and for this reason was obliged to return to the north. He then settled in Rockton, Winnebago county, where he engaged in plastering, taking the contract to plaster the church in the village. He afterward removed to Rockton township, where he purchased the eighty acres of land on which his son Henry now resides. He had lived previously for a short period in Beloit, Wisconsin, but after coming to Winnebago county spent his remaining days here, and for quite a long period was actively and successfully identified with its agricultural interests. He married Ellen Foster, a native of Ohio, and his death occurred in Rockton, in 1895, when he was seventy-one years of age. They were the parents of eight children, of whom seven are living: Andrew F., Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, Mrs. Margaret Ruhl, Mrs. Rachel Keagle, Mrs. Jennie Haughey, Henry and Mrs. Lucy File.
