History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Julius K. Graves
JULIUS K. GRAVES was born in Keene, New Hampshire, September 29, 1837. He received a common school education and at the age of seventeen came to Iowa, becoming a resident of Dubuque in 1854. He secured a position as cashier in a bank and in 1858 had risen to the head of the prosperous banking house of J. K. Graves & Co. It became a branch of the Iowa State Bank, with Mr. Graves as manager. He engaged largely in other business enterprises among which was railroad building. He was one of the loyal capitalists who in the beginning of the Rebellion volunteered to raise the money required by Governor Kirkwood to equip and pay the first volunteers put into the field. He was one of the active promoters of the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad. He was a radical Republican, living in a strong Democratic county but when a candidate for the State Senate in 1881 he overcame an adverse majority of nearly 3,000 and was elected. He died at Dubuque on the 9th of December, 1898.