Land promoter and businessman, Edwin Smith Graham (1831-1899) was born to General Robert Graham and his wife Roxana, née Winchell, in Louisville, Kentucky. With his brother Gustavus Adolphus Graham, he joined their father’s cotton firm and speculated in the Glasco oilfield. After the Civil War, the brothers invested in the Texas Emigration and Land Company of Louisville and bought land from the Peters Colony in Young County, Texas.
After relocating to Texas, Edwin and Gustavus established the town of Graham in 1872, purchased a salt works on Salt Creek, and founded the Graham Land Office. When Young County reorganized in 1874, Graham became county seat. The brothers soon abandoned the salt works and focused more on real estate and community development.
In 1865, Edwin married Addie Mary Kintner (d. 1930), with whom he had five children, including economist Malcolm Kintner (1872-1941) and Edwin S. Graham, Jr. His family moved to Graham in 1879, but they left for Spokane, Washington, in 1891. After her husband’s death eight years later, Addie returned to Graham and with Malcolm established the philanthropic Graham Foundation. Additionally, Malcolm and Edwin, Jr., continued to run the Graham Land Office.
Source:
Correspondence, diaries, reminiscences, tax cases, legal papers, articles, broadsides, account documents, newspaper clippings and other material compose the Edwin S. Graham Papers, 1823-1929. The collection relates to Graham’s land holdings and dealings, tax court cases involving him, the development of land and salt works in Young County, as well as several companies, such as the Texas Emigration and Land Company, Peters Colony, and the Graham City Improvement and Land Company.
The collection is open for research.
Edwin S. Graham Papers, 1823-1929, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s