U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: --------------------------------------------------------------------- McGraw, John Thomas (b. 1856) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Prominent Men of West Virginia By George Wesley Atkinson, LL.D., and Alvaro F. Gibbens, A.M. Published by W. L. Callin, Wheeling, W.Va 1890 Pages 567-568 JOHN THOMAS McGRAW. No branch of the United States service is more important in its bearings upon the people than that which regulates the amount they directly, or indirectly, pay toward the public treasury. Hence the position of Internal Revenue Collector, in a State even so small as West Virginia, is a responsible and coveted trust. To fill its various duties well, between the Government and the governed, requires tact as well as executive ability. The recent incumbent, and appointee of four years ago to that office, will be recognized in the portrait facing this sketch. He is the son of Thomas McGraw, the pioneer merchant and grocer of Grafton, in Taylor county. There was born on the 12th day of January, 1856, the son, John T. McGraw. His ancestors were Thomas McGraw, who was one of the first settlers of the town of Grafton, and Mary B. Luley, both having emigrated from Ireland at a very early age. Mr. McGraw was educated primarily at the excellent college of St. Vincent, in Wheeling, of this State, and afterwards in the celebrated Yale University, at New Haven, Connecticut, graduating from the Law Department of the latter institution in the class of 1876. He was admitted to the Taylor county Bar in the same Centennial year, and has practiced his profession, with office at the county seat thereof since that time. Shortly after coming to the Bar he was appointed one of the West Virginia counsel for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and has since continued as such legal adviser and attorney. In the fall of 1880 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Taylor county, and served efficiently and popularly in that capacity until the spring of 1885. In 1882 he was appointed an aide-de-camp, with the rank of Colonel, on the Staff of Hon. Jacob B. Jackson, Governor of West Virginia. He held such semi-civil and military position during that administration of four years. In the spring of 1886, upon the expiration of his term of service as Prosecuting Attorney, he was appointed by President Cleveland, during the vacation of the Senate, Collector of Internal Revenue for the collection district including all the counties of the State of West Virginia, and at the following session of the Senate was nominated and confirmed as such Collector. An ardent Democrat in his political faith, and believing that each National Administration should have its responsible and important offices in the hands of those in sympathy with its policy, on the 18th of May, 1889, he surrendered his commission and voluntarily resigned his office, to take effect at the end of the fiscal year, June 30, on which date the office was promptly, and in excellent shape, transferred to Albert B. White, of Parkersburg, who was appointed by President Harrison to succeed to the office upon the acceptance of the resignation of Col. McGraw. In his management of the collections through his jurisdiction of our fifty-four counties, he was satisfactory to the people who had business duties and relations with the Collector, and eminently so to the Government over him. During the administration of President Cleveland he was appointed the United States Disbursing Agent for the public buildings at Clarksburg, Charleston and Wheeling, and as such disbursed the funds appropriated by Congress for the construction and enlargement of these buildings. He has resumed the practice of law at Grafton; is unmarried; comparatively young in years and features, and with a promising future before him. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Second Source: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Bench and Bar of West Virginia edited by Geo. W. Atkinson, LL.B., LL.D., of the West Virginia Bar Virginian Law Book Company, Charleston, W. Va., 1919 Pages 232-233 Hon. John Thomas McGraw, LL.B. Among the middle-aged, brilliant and successful members of the legal profession in central West Virginia is the subject of this sketch. He was born in the city of Grafton, Taylor County, Virginia, January 12, 1856. He waa educated at St. Vincent's Academy at Wheeling in the prescribed classical course. Later he graduated from the law department of Yale University with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in the class of 1876. In the autumn of that year he was admitted as a member of the Grafton Bar and has since successfully practiced his profession in that city to the present time. Shortly after he opened his law office he was made one of the principal attorneys for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and as such legal adviser and attorney he is still employed. In 1880 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Taylor County and served efficiently and popularly for the term of four years. In 1882 he was appointed an Aide-de-Camp, with the rank of Colonel, on the staff of Hon. J. B. Jackson, Governor of West Virginia. In the spring of 1886, after his term of Prosecuting Attorney had expired, he was appointed by President Cleveland Collector of Internal Revenue for the State of West Virginia, which office he held for four years, and proved to be efficient and successful. In the meantime his general practice as an attorney had grown to larger proportions. While he was Internal Revenue Collector he was appointed Disbursing Agent for the new Government buildings at Wheeling, Charleston and Clarksburg, which was an additional responsibility, entirely independent of his duties of Revenue Collector. All of his public duties were discharged efficiently and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned therewith. All the while he never neglected to give attention to his large and rapidly increasing law business. Colonel McGraw, from early manhood, has been an ardent Democrat. He was for years not only an active member of local Democratic committees, but for a score or more of years he has been the West Virginia member of the Democratic National Committee. He was, therefore, a powerful factor in local and national politics, as well as in the practice of the law. He has been a candidate for Congress, and because of the fact that he is one of the highest grade platform speakers in any political party in this or any other State, he is the idol of the Democratic party in West Virginia, and is admired by the people generally. Colonel McGraw is not only an active laywer and politician, but he is one of the foremost public spirited citizens of the entire State. He is a developer and a pusher in bringing to public notice the great natural advantages and resources of his native State. No history of West Virginia can be truthfully written without giving Colonel McGraw prominent mention in almost every chapter. He is a brilliant lawyer, a prominent politician end a leading public spirited citizen. In religion he is a Roman Catholic, and has never married. ---------------------------------------------------------------------