Husband Peter Graff 1 2 3 4 5 6
Born: 27 May 1808 - near Pleasant Unity, Mt. Pleasant Twp, Westmoreland Co, PA 1 2 4 5
Christened:
Died: 9 Apr 1890 - ? Buffalo Mills, Armstrong Co, PA 1 4 5 7
Buried: - Lutheran Cemetery
Father: John Graff (1763-1818) 1 3 4 8 9
Mother: Barbara Baum (1775-1841) 1 2 3 4 8
Marriage: 25 Jan 1830 - Westmoreland Co, PA 5 7
Wife Susannah Lobingier 6
AKA: Susanna Lobengier,5 Susanne Lobengier,3 Susan Lobingier 7
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Father: Christopher Lobingier (1770-1850) 10 11 12
Mother: Anna Maria Kuntz (1776-1836) 12
Children
1 M Joseph Graff 7 13
Born: 17 Jul 1831 - Worthington, Armstrong Co, PA 13
Christened:
Died: Aft 1914
Buried:
Spouse: Jane Reynolds ( - ) 14
Marr: Kittanning, Armstrong Co, PA
2 F Mary Lobingier Graff 15
Born: 17 Feb 1834 15
Christened:
Died: 4 Mar 1842 15
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
3 F Anna Barbara Graff 7 15
Born: 31 Aug 1836 15
Christened:
Died: 21 Apr 1891
Buried:
Spouse: William H. Kirkpatrick ( - ) 7 15
Marr: 25 Nov 1859 - Buffalo Mills, Armstrong Co, PA 15
4 F Elizabeth Graff 7 15
Born: 25 Jan 1840 15
Christened:
Died: 24 Mar 1842 7 15
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
5 M Charles Humphries Graff 15
Born: 4 May 1842 15
Christened:
Died: 2 Sep 1842 15
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
6 F Sarah Jane Graff 7 15
Born: 3 Aug 1843 15
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Cyrus B. Linton ( -1891) 7 15
7 M Edmund Dutilh Graff 15 16
Born: 1846 - Worthington, Armstrong Co, PA 15 17
Christened:
Died: 3 Jun 1912 17
Buried:
Spouse: Melvina Wolfe ( - ) 18
Marr: 1901 18
8 M Philip Melanchthon Graff 7 15 19
Born: 15 Aug 1848 15
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Sarah Agnes Earhart ( -Bef 1895) 15 19 20
Marr: 15 Oct 1872 - Worthington, Armstrong Co, PA 15
9 M Peter Graff 7 15
Born: 24 Jun 1851 15
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Hattie O'Brien ( - ) 15
Marr: 12 Oct 1880 - Brooklyn, NY 15
10 M Dr. Charles Henry Graff 7 15
Born: 10 Nov 1854 - Kittanning, Armstrong Co, PA 15
Christened:
Died: 29 Sep 1889 7 15
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
11 M Hon. John Francis Graff 3 22
AKA: Hon. J. Frank Graff 21
Born: 12 Aug 1857 - Worthington, Armstrong Co, PA 3 21 22
Christened:
Died: 6 Jun 1918 - Worthington, Armstrong Co, PA 23
Buried:
Spouse: Carrie Louise Brown ( -1902) 7 22 23
Marr: 27 Dec 1881 - Lancaster, Lancaster Co, PA 7 22 23
Spouse: Martha Greer Stewart (1876- ) 7 23 24 25
Marr: 1 Jun 1904 - Stewart Station, Westmoreland Co, PA 7 23
General Notes: Husband - Peter Graff
His earliest recollections were of soldiers marching home from the War of 1812 and of their tales of prowess. He had but limited educational advantages. One of his teachers was the father of Governor Geary of Pennsylvania. He began work as clerk in the store of his brother Henry, at Pleasant Unity, when but sixteen years of age, and he was afterward similarly employed at Derry, Pennsylvania. In 1830 he removed to Blairsville, Indiana County, he and his brother Henry forming a partnership in the general mercantile business under the firm name of H. & P. Graff, establishing a large and profitable trade. Later they formed a connection with the firm of E. G. Dutilh & Co., commission merchants of Philadelphia, for the purpose of transporting merchandise from that city west, via the Pennsylvania canal and State railroad, over what was called the Union Transportation Line. Moving to Pittsburgh in 1836, Mr. Graff took charge of the work of receiving and forwarding the merchandise, and several years later became a partner in the firm of Painter & Co., wholesale grocers, of Pittsburgh, being associated with Jacob Painter and Reuben Bughman. This firm did not confine its operations to the grocery trade, however, and became extensively interested in the manufacture of iron in Armstrong, Venango and Clarion counties, incidentally obtaining control of the Buffalo furnace, near Worthington. Thus it came about that in 1844 Mr. Graff became a resident of Buffalo Mills, Armstrong County, to assume the management of the extensive iron interests, and although he continued a member of the firm mentioned until 1864 he had in the meantime become sole owner of the Buffalo furnace, which he operated until 1865. In addition to its operations in the counties mentioned the firm carried on the manufacture of axes in Pittsburgh.
In 1865 Mr. Graff, forming a partnership with Isaac Firth, erected the Buffalo woolen mills for the manufacture of woolen fabrics, and this association lasted for twenty years, until Mr. Firth's retirement in 1885. Then the firm of Peter Graff & Co. was organized, the business being afterward carried on under that name; after Mr. Graff's death his sons E. D. Graff and J. Frank Graff, together with James E. Claypoole, continued it until June 3, 1912, when death removed E. D. Graff, and J. Frank Graff and James E. Claypoole took over his interest. Peter Graff was as active in business life at the age of eighty as many men twenty-five years younger. In fact, he enjoyed robust health until within a short time before his death. A man recognized as one of the most prominent in the Allegheny valley, his funeral was one of the largest ever seen up to that time in the community. He was so thoroughly identified with the business development and general history of the region that his loss was not confined to one circle, but felt by all classes and by the many with whom his numerous interests brought him into contact. In politics he was a Democrat. He joined the Lutheran church in 1840 and was one of its influential members in this section, being actively engaged in Christian work as such for over fifty years. He served as elder of his church and for fifty years as superintendent of the Sunday school. To the church building erected in Worthington shortly before his death he was a liberal giver, of his time and thought as well as his means.
He established what for years was known as the Peter Graff & Company Woolen Mills of Worthington, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. It was his purpose in founding this industry to afford a means of earning a livelihood to the widows of the Civil War; so it will be perceived that one of the foundation stones of the business was altruism, and this quality was characteristic of the family down through the years. The Graff mills came to constitute one of the most important plants in the country engaged in the manufacture of pure woolen blankets. During the first World War the Graff concern was engaged in work for the United States Government. [PAH-NW, 16]
A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF PETER
GRAFF.
From the Kittanning Globe.
The news of the death of the venerable citizen whose name precedes this mention is already probably well known throughout the country. He was a conspicuous figure among the generation of men now rapidly passing away, and in the course of more than half a century of active business life, was so largely identified with the history of the business prosperity of the region in which he lived, that his death will be the subject of deep and sincere regret among every class of men that the personality of his large-hearted and generous nature touched.
He was a pioneer among the material beginnings of our prosperity, and while he so largely helped in building the foundations of the industrial enterprises, with which his foresight and business skill were identified, he has built as well a record of an upright, generous and consistent Christian life, that will ever stand as the most enduring monument to his memory.
Mr. Graff commenced his business career in this country sometime in 1844, when with the late Jacob Painter, of Pittsburg, he became the joint owner of the then valuable property known as the Buffalo Furnace, and in the successful management of its affairs up to 1864, he amassed large means.
He was afterward concerned in the establishment and management of the Buffalo woolen mills, one of the most prominent and successful business concerns in the country, and upon the discovery of oil in the upper country, through fortunate investments, he became the possessor of large tracts of land that returned immense income. Through all these different channels into which his sagacious foresight and business ability were cast, he accumulated large means that placed him in the rank of the very wealthy men of the country.
In the abounding generosity of his nature his wealth has been made the source of much good and benefaction. Devoutly attached to the tenets of the Lutheran faith he was an active and consistent member of the congregation of that denomination in Worthington near where he lived, and gave very largely of his means toward its support. At the erection of the new and beautiful edifice of worship, of that body, he contributed by far the greater amount of the fund necessary to its erection, and it was not only in his giving that his influence was felt, but more in the active, earnest and devoted Christian life that he led, as an exemplar of the noblest characteristics of a Christian manhood.
For more than forty years he was the Superintendent of the Sabbath School of that thriving congregation, instilling into the growing minds the precepts of religious truth and giving bent and direction to the moral growth of the entire community.
He lived not only within, but somewhat beyond the confines of his dogmatic faith in the religion of good deeds, of character, of sincerity, in honest endeavor, of cheerful hope, and above all in a religion for every day in the giving of food and raiment to the deserving objects of help. The religion of health and happiness, freedom and content. In the religion of work, and in the ceremonies of honest labor. Such a life was a potent factor for good in its own showing, and leaves behind it an impulse toward moral achievement, a halo of departing light that shall long give direction to those that strive.
He was the sympathizing friend to the whole community who trusted to his larger experience, counsel and help, in moments of doubt, distress or darkened light, and as was eloquently said by the servant man of God who pronounced the last tribute of regard before the temple of his great heart was lowered to the grave, if all whom his helping hand assisted could have been present at his funeral, it would have been the largest ever seen in the country."
His munificent donation to the Lutheran College at Gettysburg, recently bestowed, and the ample charities that in every direction have flowed from his hands during his life time, and that will probably be remembered in the disposition of his large estate, make his death one of the most significant, in its relations not only to the present but to the future, that have taken place in the county.
Above his silent clay, as it was consigned to earth last Friday afternoon, many sorrowing tears were shed by old and young, rich and poor, kinsman and neighbor, for whom the loving heart had forever ceased to beat, whose busy brain was still, and from whose hand had dropped the sacred torch.
Eleven children, seven sons and four daughters, were born to him and his wife, one son and two daughters dying in early childhood.