Peter GRAFF I

May 27, 1808-April 9, 1890

• BIRTH: May 27, 1808, Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

• MARRIAGE: 1824

• FACTS: He began work as a 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, Pa. In 1830 he removed to Blairsville, Indiana Co., Pa., 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 parner 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 to be 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, and now compose the firm. Peter Graff was 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 which occurred April 9, 1890. 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.
  SOURCE:Beers Project

• DEATH: April 9, 1890, Worthington, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania; buried Worthington Evangelical Church Cemetary, Worthington, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania (the plot is at the back/right of the churchyard, a few yards away and to the back is the plot where my great-great grandfather Peter Graff Shearer is buried, the story goes that Peter Shearer worked for Peter Graff and admired him so much that he took "Graff" as his middle name. This plot for the Shearer's was given to them by the Graff's- Colleen)

                             Heinrick "Henry" GRAFF
|John GRAFF I |
|                           |Marie FRIED 
|
|--Peter GRAFF I
|
|                            Frederick BAUM
|Barbara BAUM     |
                            |Barbara UHLMANN 

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