1856–1927

Introduction

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Born: Ju­ly 23, 1856, Wil­liams­town, Mas­sa­chu­setts.

Died: Jan­ua­ry 2, 1927, Zi­on City, Il­li­nois.

Buried: Mount Ol­iv­et Me­mo­ri­al Park, Zi­on, Il­li­nois.

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Biography

Orphaned at age 9, Graves was di­ag­nosed with epi­lep­sy when he was 14. At age 21, he moved to No­bles Coun­ty, Min­ne­so­ta, and it ap­peared for a while that his seiz­ures had stopped.

Grateful for hav­ing been healed, he be­gan to serve the Am­eri­can Sun­day School Un­ion. He stu­died the Bible and mu­sic in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, and North­field, Mas­sa­chu­setts.

Upon re­turn to Min­ne­ap­olis and hear­ing ev­an­gel­ist John Al­ex­an­der Dow­ie, Graves ex­pe­ri­enced per­ma­nent heal­ing, which pro­vid­ed a back­drop for his Gos­pel songs.

Later, he moved to Zi­on Ci­ty, Il­li­nois, where he lived the rest of his life. All of his child­ren at­tend­ed the Cen­tral Bi­ble In­sti­tute in Spring­field, Mis­sou­ri. Graves him­self was or­dained an As­sem­blies of God min­is­ter in 1918.

Works

Sources

Lyrics

Music