Biographical Sketch of Allan Graham
The following biographical information was excerpted from Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania, Vol. 3, John W. Jordan (ed.), 1915:
"Allan Graham, son of Orin P. and Mary (Allan) Graham, was born near Evans City, Butler County, Pennsylvania, March 31, 1873. When he was 16 years of age he was graduated from the public schools, and he completed his education in the Slippery Rock State Normal School, and was graduated from that institution in the class of 1900 with the degree of A.M. Prior to his entrance at the Slippery Rock State Normal School he had for five years taught school, and after his graduation he accepted a position with the Stirling Steel Company, with which concern he remained for two years, at the same time attending the Douglass Business College, completing his course there in 1902. The following six years he passed in the employ of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, and in 1908 he assumed charge of the Long Run School in Versailles township, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, retaining this position for three years. He then became associated with the school at East McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and holds his place there to the present time. Mr. Graham is an instructor of experience and ability and has met with favorable success in each position he has been called to fill. He is popular with his pupils, his fair, open treatment compelling respect, and his teaching, combining scientific methods with the realities impressed by experience, is forceful and effective.
"He has been a resident of East McKeesport since 1896, the houses of East McKeesport then numbering less than a dozen, and he has been closely connected with the growth it has experienced in that time. Active in the organization of the borough, he served for six years as a member of the council, and the two years that he passed as a member of the school board extended over the period in which the commodious new building was erected. Mr. Graham's familiarity with the methods of procedure in the school board, and his appreciation of the difficulties under which such a board must always labor, have lent a new value to his connection with the school as a teacher, insuring a degree of co-operation that is most desirable. He is a Republican in affairs of national import, but in matters of local politics acts independently of such affiliation. He is a communicant of the Presbyterian church, and fraternizes with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Order of Independent Americans.
"Mr. Graham married (first) September 10, 1900, Mary Russell; (second) January 25, 1904, Sarah Holler, daughter of John M. and Mary (May) Holler, of Bedford county, Pennsylvania. John M. Holler was a son of George Washington and Louisa (Metzgar) Holler, natives of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, George Washington Holler was a farmer, and with his son, John M., was a soldier in the Union army in the Civil War. Harry, one of the sons of John M. and Mary (May) Holler, was a soldier in the Spanish-American war, serving a three-year enlistment in the Philippine Islands, surviving his service, as did his father and grandfather in the Civil War. Mary (May) Holler was a daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Woolford) May, natives of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, members of families long resident in that region. By his first marriage Allan Graham was the father of one son, Orin Russell. By his second he has six children: John Holler, Floyd Fleming, Reba May, Ruth Leota, Grace Leona, Oliver Perry."
NOTE: This excerpt was retyped exactly as it appeared in the reference book cited. Please note that Allan Graham's year of birth and year of marriage to Sarah Holler are both incorrect. Allan Graham was born in 1872 and was married to Sarah Holler in 1905.
ELN 2002