My Genealogy Home Page:Information about William Andrew Graham
William Andrew Graham (b. July 06, 1875, d. March 22, 1952)
Notes for William Andrew Graham:
William Andrew Graham was a pillar of the community in Rock Hill, SC.He was a member of the 1st Presbyterian Church in Rock Hill and served as a deacon & elder.He also served one year as a member of the Rock Hill City Council - 1945-46, filling unexpired term of J. L. Phillips.
He was also a Mason and a Shriner.
To friends and relatives he was called "Will", but widely known as "Captain Graham", in reference to his employment as a railroad conductor.He had only a rudimentary education and I'm not sure he finished high school.At the age of 17 on March 1893, after the death of his father, he went to work for the Chicago, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad known as "The Three C's" Railroad ("Chicago, Cincinnati, Charleston Railroad" became the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railroad or C. C. & O. Railroad), on the line as a brakeman.This was done to help support his mother, five sisters and younger brother.In two years he was a conductor.In 1902, the Southern Railroad took over the line.Five years later Capt. Graham was promoted to passenger conductor from Kingsville to Marion, NC.He had the official title of train master of the Rock Hill division, but he liked his job as just "conductor" best of all and that is where he spent most of his years.He had a record enviable of all railroad men.He never had a passenger hurt and no serious accidents.Of course, he said, he did hit a couple of cows with the inevitable cow catcher with his train and met a few trespassers on the track.Carrying a revolver was regulation equipment for train conductors.He also kept a blackjack and brass knuckles in his footlocker to help maintain order in case he ran into unruly passengers.He served as a conductor for 50 years before retiring in 1944.
He was always neat in appearance and always wore a white shirt and a tie, except when he was working in the yard or at the beach.He had brownish-black hair that barely turned gray.His shoes were always shined.He looked really sharp in his black conductor's uniform and cap.He wore old-fashioned one-piece BVD underwear, shaved with a straight razor, wore a swimsuit with a top, and instead of a belt he used suspenders, which he called "galluses".He was polite and mannerly and always tipped his hat very courtly to ladies of his acquaintance.He did not drink, smoke, or curse, although in his later years, Dr. Blackmon, his physician, prescribed a shot of whiskey once a day, which he took rather reluctantly.He never weighed over 170 pounds.
He invested in a four family apartment building in the Myers Park section of Charlotte, NC. and lived there for five years before moving back to Rock Hill.He was also part owner of the Orange Crush Bottling Plant in Charlotte.
More About William Andrew Graham:
Burial: Unknown, Laurelwood Cemetery, Rock Hill, S.C..
More About William Andrew Graham and Emily Pearl Whisnant:
Marriage: December 01, 1896, Blacksburg, South Carolina.
Children of William Andrew Graham and Emily Pearl Whisnant are:
- +Norman Turner Graham, b. March 30, 1898, Blacksburg, S.C., d. August 12, 1945, Rock Hill, York Co., South Carolina.
- +Augustus Bomar Graham, b. August 15, 1900, Blacksburg, S.C. or Rock Hill, SC, d. March 13, 1973, Columbia, South Carolina.
- William Earnest Graham, b. January 20, 1904, Rock Hill, York Co., S.C., d. December 28, 1907, Rock Hill, York Co., S.C..
- +Charles Whisnant Graham, b. February 21, 1912, Rock Hill, York Co., South Carolina, d. April 09, 1976, Greensboro, North Carolina.