Graham, John
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J 0 H N
GRAHAM
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Doctor Graham was a Scotsman born and bred, a
fact of which he was very proud.
Born within sight of Stirling Castle, in his.
veins ran some of his country's best blood.
His
early development was in an atmosphere supersaturated
with traditions and ideals, religious and political
of the very highest order, and must be recalled as
we think of the sturdy personality amongst us no
more.
At the age of sixteen he came with his parents
to Canada, locating in Oxford County.
Here he be-
came a Methodist and was licensed to preach by the
Washington church.
Here also he met and married
Miss Hannah Cornell; a woman of great strength of
character, poise and judgment, who became to him a
pillar of strength upon whom he leaned heavily, and
whose memory he cherished with characteristic tender·
ness to the last.
He came to -L¥1ichigan in 1869 as junior preacher
at Cedar Springs; that fall he entered the Conference and was appointed Preacher in Charge.
came Lamont, where he served two years.
Next
Then fol-
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lowed the full term of three years in Muskegon,
Sturgis, Kalamazoo and Jackson, where a notable
debt of Forty Thousand Dollars was paid.
In 1884
he was pastor at Albion and the year following was
appointed to First Church (Division Street) Grand
Rapids.
Here he remained five years.
Then came
a temporary retirement, at which time Mrs. Graham
died.
A vacancy occurred on the Albion District,
occasioned by the death of the presiding elder, and
Bishop Fowler appointed Dr. Graham.
Here he spent
five years, and was transferred to the Grand Rapids
District by Bishop Vincent.
in this office.
Six years were spent
He then became pastor of Joy
Memorial Church for two years.
His appointment as
Field Agent for Albion College concluded an active
ministry of over half a century.
The passing of John Graham from our ranks removed an outstanding individuality.
Intense,
sensitive, intuitional, of energy all compact,
shrewd in a high degree, of utter honesty of purpose.
He was a personal force to be reckoned with anywhere.
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By temperament and cultivation Dr. Graham was a
preacher.
To him preaching was · a serious business,
and the pulpit a sacred responsibility.
His themes
always centered in the great verities of the Faith.
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He labored prodigiously, for the most part writing
in fun and committing to memory his discourses.
He scorned the sermonette.
Catch - penny
pueri.lities, picture shows, and the like, were to
him the abomination of desolation in t he house
God.
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The recent emphasis upon the managerial ·and
scheme producing function, at the expens
of prepara-
tion for a message as ambassadors of God, in the
training of young men for the ministry, gave him
grave concern.
He was a great preacher.
The neat, carefully attired, refined gentleman
of the immaculate linen and white tie was no more in
deshabille t han John Wesley himself; always cheerily
dignified and self-respecting.
There was an .inner
correspondence; clean-hearted, the coarse or prurient
word never formed upon his lips.
pure as his mind.
His eye was as
His half century cycle of ser-
vice was unflecked by even a suspicion as to his
moral character.
Long a Presiding Elder he came into close relationship with many of his brothers in the ministry,
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the great majority of whom loved, trusted and honored him.
He had permanent friends all over the
Confere'nce, the quality and number of whom would do
honor to any man.
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He was elected to the General Conference of
1884 and 1904.
He was a member of the Conference
board of trustees for many years, also of the Slark
Home board, the Deaconess Home board, and of the
Albion College board twenty-seven years.
In 1888 Albion College conferred upon him the
degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Dr. Graham's religious life was not of the
emotional type.
God as revealed in Jesus Christ
was to him the great reality.
Here his faith was
firmly anchored, and his experience had been tested
in many . a storm of heart-break and disappointment.
Trust in God was the habit of his soul.
When in
feebleness extreme he came to face the last enemy,
it was not with ecstatic
e~pectation
of deliverance,
for his was the normal desire to live, but in the
same sane soul temper in which he had lived, he met
the inevitable unafraid.
On Christmas eve 1920 he departed this life
from his own home, surrounded by his family, which
consisted of his daughter, Mrs.
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c.
R. Wallace ot
Jackson, his two sons Williams. and James E. and
his nieces, Misses Flora and Edith Thompson.
December 28th funeral from the house was followed by public services in First Church in charge
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ot the Pastor and participated in by a number of his
brothers of long fellowship in the ministry.
Ad-
dresses were made by Rev. J. W. Sheehan and the
writer.
A
temporary resting place for his remains was
in the mausoleum of his long time friend Mrs. Emily
J. Clark.
Later, interment was made in the family
lot in the be autiful Oak Hill Cemetery, Grand
Rapids, where he rests side by side with his beloved
wife.
Born December 4, 1835; died December 24, 1920.
Edward George Lewis
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