Background
John McGraw was born in Dryden, New York in the year 1815 to Joseph McGraw and Jane Nelson McGraw, both natives of Northern Ireland.
John McGraw was born in Dryden, New York in the year 1815 to Joseph McGraw and Jane Nelson McGraw, both natives of Northern Ireland.
They also co-founded the town of Wenona. She was born September 19, 1819, also in Dryden, the daughter of John Southworth of Salisbury, New York and Nancy Ellis Southworth of Dryden. Nancy died on 29 February 1856 at the age of 30.
John later married Jane P. Bates Turner in Ithaca, Tompkins, New York, in 1861.
She died in Ithaca in 1904 at the age of 84. John died May 4, 1877 in Ithaca, New New York
She died 30 September 1881. Upon Jennie"s death, some of this fortune was bequeathed to Cornell.
A dispute over this gift led to the Great Will Case, ultimately decided by the United States Supreme Court against Cornell in Cornell University v.
Fiske et al. The McGraw name graces the principal clock tower of Cornell. Additionally, McGraw Hall is one of the buildings on the main arts quad of Cornell University.
Among other uses, it was the first home of Cornell"s business school, now known as the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and located in Sage Hall.