Graham McConnell

The  McConnell clan from Ireland was well represented in Philadelphia in the last years of the 19th century. The city directory listed 200 employed men with that name, although that is just a small fraction of all the Irish names beginning with the letter M.

Graham’s father was one of 25 named James. He was 55 when Graham was born, and his wife, Sarah, had two more children for a total of seven in the home.

They grew up west of the Temple University campus before moving south to Fairmount and then to Point Breeze. Graham was an electrician’s apprentice as a teenager but drew a sense of purpose from serving in uniform. He joined the Pennsylvania National Guard when he was 17. 

On June 30, 1916 his unit was called up in response to incidents during the Mexican Revolution that spilled north of the border into New Mexico. The Pennsylvania boys only got as far as El Paso, Texas, however, and there Graham earned the rank of corporal. They trained for a few months before coming home in late 1916, but it was a valuable experience because they were mobilized again in the spring of 1917 after the U.S. declared war on Germany.

Despite the turmoil of the day, true love was in full bloom after Olga Irene Russell of Reading, Pennsylvania caught Graham’s eye. The two 19-year-olds exchanged vows on August 6, 1917 and rented 1534 South 24th Street, next door to his parents.

Olga was not expecting a baby nine months later; in fact she probably expected the worst but hoped for the best as she said farewell to now-Sergeant McConnell. His father took some pride in his son’s accomplishments since he too had been a sergeant 55 years earlier in the Civil War.

Graham’s unit, Company G of the 109th Infantry, left the port of Brooklyn on May 3, 1918 for France. With the rest of the 28th Division, he fought in the Second Battle of the Marne in July, but was killed in the early days of September. In fact, it was exactly 13 months after their wedding day.

James McConnell died eight months later and was the first to be interred here. Graham’s body was brought home and placed beside his father in 1921, followed by his mother in 1948. A sister, Sadie, and a brother, Warren, were buried here in the 1970s.

Olga remarried and had nine children, 23 grandchildren and knew 25 great-grandchildren before she died at age 95. She was buried just a few blocks south of Mount Moriah at the St. James Kingsessing Church cemetery on Woodland Avenue.