08/11/2026
**Graham, Iowa—From Jefferson to Graham**
Graham never took up much room on the map, but a place need not be large to gather a fair amount of history.
In 1836, David Springer brought his family to Section 19 of Millville Township north of where Graham sits today, making them among the earliest pioneer settlers in Clayton County. Other families followed, building farms and homes throughout the countryside. On November 10, 1851, the federal government issued Springer a patent for 160 acres he had already called home for fifteen years.
The country was no longer empty. The mill settlement at Millville dated to 1833, although the town was not platted until 1856. Moreland Colony began near present-day Colesburg in 1839. The adjoining towns of Coles Burgh and Colony were laid out in 1848 and 1851. Garnavillo, Elkader and Volga City were also established before Jefferson appeared.
Matbe that's why Jefferson arrived in a considerable hurry.
On March 10, 1852, Elias C. Jefferis and Perry C. Bolsinger received federal title to forty acres in Section 30, directly south of the Springer land. Only fifteen days later, on March 25, they laid out a village and named it Jefferson. The ink had scarcely dried upon the land patent before streets and lots appeared upon paper. No one moves that fast without already having a plan.
In July 1852, Jefferis built a three-story flour mill along the Little Turkey River. A small store operated inside the mill, while homes, a school and a blacksmith shop gathered nearby. Jefferson was its official name, though local people also called it Jeffersonville or Jeffriesville after Jefferis.
In 1855, Joseph Graham established a sawmill just north of the village in Section 19 near where the Springers had settled. After his death in 1867, his sons George and Clarence Graham continued operating it. Between the Jefferis flour mill and the Graham sawmill, the Little Turkey River was expected to earn its keep.
The village continued to grow. Charles Jefferis and Andrew Wilson reportedly connected their homes with a half-mile telegraph line in 1879. By 1886, the plat map showed both the “Original Town” and a “First Addition,” proving that more streets and lots had been formally added.
When a post office opened in 1892, it was named Graham, reflecting the Graham mill family’s long connection with the community. Later accounts particularly associate the name with George J. Graham, although surviving records do not conclusively tell us who selected it.
For a time, Jefferson and Graham lived together without much quarrel. Jefferson remained the village name, while Graham was written upon the mail. A 1902 atlas handled the matter by labeling the place **“Jefferson City—Graham P.O.”**
These were busy years for a small community. In 1882, Jefferson was described as having about fifty residents. In 1894, eight Sunday schools were represented when more than 300 people gathered inside the decorated old mill building. Former postmistress Edna Craig Bolsinger later remembered about sixty people receiving their mail at Graham.
The mills eventually fell silent. The Graham post office closed in 1937, with mail continuing by rural route. The school district joined Guttenberg in 1953, and the last Graham school closed in 1954.
Those closings ended Graham’s years as a milling, postal and commercial center, but they did not end the community.
Homes remain, families still live there, and the countryside continues to carry the Graham name. The mills, school and post office belong to its past. The people who call Graham home today are part of its continuing story.
