Thomas H. Graydon
None of the younger business men of Cincinnati have made more notable progress in commercial circles than Thomas H. Graydon, who at the age of twenty-eight years was elected president of The Macdonald-Kiley Shoe Company. He was born in this city on the 30th of March, 1881, and is a son of the late Dr. Thomas W. and Ann H. Graydon. Dr. Thomas W. Graydon, who was for many years prominently and successfully identified with the medical fraternity of this city, was a native of Fermanagh county,
Ireland, his birth occurring on the 19th of May, 1850. At the age of eighteen years he emifrated to the United States, locating in the vicinity of Rock Island, Illinois. He practiced the most rigid economy in order to acquire the necessary means to enable him to complete his education, having decided to become a physician. For a time he attended the college at Davenport, Iowa, and later he went to the Iowa State University at Iowa City, where he completed his academic course. In 1875 he came to Cincinnati, where he pursued his professional studies, after the completion of which he established an office and engaged in practice. The possessor of rare mental powers as well as a pleasing personality, Dr. Graydon was able to inspire confidence in his ability, which his unusual skill enabled him to retain, and as a result he built up an extensive practice. He was a self-made man, such success as he was awarded having been won through his own efforts and capabilities. His demise occurred in 1900, when he was but fifty years of age.
They boyhood and early youth of Thomas H. Graydon were spent in the parental home, his preliminary education being acquired in the private schools of this city and at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, from which he was graduated in 1899. In the autumn following he entered Harvard University, being awarded his degree with the class of 1903. After the completion of his education Mr. Graydon returned to his native city to engage in business, having in the choice of his vocation decided in favor of a commercial career. He accepted a position in the bookkeeping department of The Maconald-Kiley Company. At the expiration of three years he was elected vice president, which position he retained until the 1st of November, 1909, when he was appointed president of the company. The business has been very successful under the direction and supervision of Mr. Graydon and is giving employment to two hundred men and fifty women. They manufacture a general line of high-grade shoes for men and sell their goods all over the United States.
Mr. Graydon is affiliated with the Episcopal church, the Business Men's Club, Harvard Club and Phi Delta Psi fraternity, which he joined while in college. He has always been very fond of all athletic sports and played on the Harvard football team in 1900, 1901 and 1902, and during the two latter seasons he was selected for the American team. Mr. Graydon has the business acumen which enables him to take the initiative in any venture and as a result his friends feel assured of his unqualified success in the industry, with which he has become identified.
From Cincinnati, The Queen City, Volume III by Rev. Charles Fredric Goss, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912