John Harte McGraw was born in Penobscot County, Maine, soon after the arrival from Ireland of his parents, Daniel and Catherine (Harte) McGraw. His father was drowned about two years later. His mother remarried, and he left home at the age of fourteen.
Earning his living as a clerk in a general merchandise store, John became manager at seventeen, and at twenty-one he and a brother opened a grocery store. They failed in the panic of 1873. He decided to go west and reached San Francisco by ship on July 10, 1876, drove a horse-car a few months, and then sailed for Seattle arriving on December 28. After working as a clerk in the Occidental Hotel, he went into the hotel business with a partner. He was left stranded again when their place, the American House, burned in 1878, and he joined the police force of four men. Fearlessness and ability won his election as city marshal from 1879 to 1882 and as sheriff of King County for two terms. During the Anti-Chinese riots in 1886, he became unpopular by performing his duty, and he lost his office at the next election. He had studied law while sheriff, and after his defeat he became a member of the law firm of Greene, Hanford & McGraw. He was admitted to the bar in 1886. In 1888, he accepted election as sheriff in vindication of his previous actions. He was elected president of the First National Bank of Seattle before the completion of this term and retained the position until 1897. He was elected governor of Washington in 1892, and his four-year term, falling in a time of financial depression, was a stormy period of railway and mining strikes and of riotous conditions in Tacoma and elsewhere attending the march of Coxey's Army. He went alone into mining districts to reason with the strike leaders. The legislature was extravagant, and he vetoed many appropriation bills and defeated a raid on the capitol building fund. During these years he neglected his private affairs, and at the end of his term he was left bankrupt. In 1897, he borrowed money to go to Alaska, and he returned in two years with enough gold to pay all his debts. Though active in Republican politics, he refused further political honors. His private fortunes improved steadily, and he devoted much time to public enterprises, notably the Lake Washington canal and the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. He was greatly interested in the University of Washington and in Whitman College, of which he was an overseer. While still a policeman, he gave books to the new library of the university.
On October 12, 1874, John married May L. Kelley of Bancroft, Me. He was survived by a son and daughter.
