California Biographies Mendocino and Lake Counties, California Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California With Biographical Sketches History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry Illustrated, Complete In One Volume Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914 WILLIS N. GRAHAM.� The brothers Willis N. and John J. Graham are large landowners and sheep raisers in the Bachelor Valley precinct of Lake county, and also hold a large acreage in the Forty Spring valley on Bartlett mountain, their operations having increased steadily during the last few years. They have four hundred acres of tillable land and to some extent are engaged m its cultivation, but the greater part of their attention is given to the sheep business, and they have prospered by hard work, enterprising methods and the exercise of good judgment in their transactions, using their heads as well as their hands in caring for the interests they have acquired. Typical repre- sentatives of the Graham family and the sturdy, intelligent Scotch stock from which they spring, they are known for their sagacity, progressive ideas and practical application of their principles to the affairs of everyday life, and are counted among the highly desirable citizens of the county in which their home and business interests lie. A son of Nathan Graham, one of the most respected residents of Lake county, Willis N. Graham was born July 13, 1868, at Worthville, Jefferson county, N. Y., and was about ten years old when his father moved his family to Minnesota. They were there only a few months, however, coming to Lake county in 1879. and as his father's assistant Willis Graham became familiar with ranch life and the details of the various interests his father had acquired. The latter bought seven hundred and sixty acres in the county, and his son Clinton R. Graham holds a deed in escrow for fifty acres of this property, and his daughter. Bertha L. Arps, has the title to one hundred acres, the remaining six hundred and ten acres being held bj' Willis N. and John J. Graham. Four hundred acres of this land are adapted for agricultural pur- poses. Since 1904 these brothers have also homesteaded and bought six hundred acres in Forty Spring valley, on Bartlett mountain, on which they keep their cattle and sheep in the summer season, bringing their herds and flocks to Bachelor valley for the winter. They are breeding high-grade Percheron horses, Durham cattle, Poland china hogs and Ramboulette sheep. The brothers are hard workers, and have been successful in the various lines which have engaged their attention. Their principal crops are potatoes and beans, and the}' have a fifteen-acre prune orchard now nearly thirty years old which is still bearing. Like his father and brother, Willis N. Graham is a Socialist in sentiment. In 1898 Mr. Graham married Miss Elsie Morrison, daughter of Samuel Morrison. She died leaving one child, Elsie, who lives with her maternal grandmother in East Upper Lake precinct. Mr. Graham's second marriage, which took place in 1900, was to Miss Sylvia Dunton, daughter of Jerome B. and Malinda A. (Goff) Dunton, who reside at Lodi, San Joaquin county, where Mr. Dunton is a successful vineyardist. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Graham, Freda, Nathan, Ross and Dorris. Their home is on the Ukiah road, three miles west of Upper Lake.