Robert Graham (Wisconsin politician)
Robert Graham (July 24, 1827December 14, 1892) was an American educator who served as the 12th Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin. Early career Graham was born in Putnam, New York, on July 24, 1827. He left office in 1887 and returned to teaching. His father died when he was a child and he was raised by his childless uncle and aunt. He received an academy education and began teaching school to pay for the cost of attending the State Normal School in Albany, New York (now the University at Albany, SUNY. He studied under David Perkins Page until his death in 1848. Graham continued teaching in New York and became Superintendent of Schools in Washington County, New York. In 1861, however, he was convinced by his wife, Mary's, family to move west and take up a homestead. They settled at Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Graham quickly became a respected teacher in the area, rising to Superintendent of Schools in Kenosha County, Wisconsin. Civil War In 1864, near the climax of the American Civil War, Graham responded to President Lincoln's call for Hundred Days Men to surge personnel into the Union Army ranks in an effort to end the war in