New York was a city of sharp contrasts, with a great disparity between rich and poor. Life was particularly difficult for widows, who grew numerically after the yellow fever epidemics of 1795, 1799, and 1803. Graham knew what it was like to be a widow and single mother, but at least her education had allowed her to open a school and earn a living as instructor.

“Who are these children, that idly ramble through the streets, a prey to growing depravity and vicious example?” Isabella Graham asked in 1804. By that time, she had already created a vast program of assistance to the needy, a program that included the very children she mentioned. So why were they now in the streets, “running about in the most imminent danger, apparently without protection”?[1]

She knew the answer. “They are fed, they are clothed, their mothers’ fireside is made warm for them; but no culture is provided for their minds, nor protection from baneful example. These will, in time, follow that of the older ones, and grow up the slaves of idleness and vice, in the certain road to ruin.”[2]

They needed more than food and clothes. They needed to learn to read, particularly the Scriptures.

Early Joys and Pains

Isabella Marshall Graham was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, on July 29, 1742, to a family of landowners and devout Presbyterians. An inheritance allowed her to attend boarding school for seven years. At 17, she made profession of faith in the Church of Scotland under the ministry of Dr. John Witherspoon, who would later become president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). At 23, she married John Graham, an army surgeon in a British army regiment.

When John became stationed in Canada (first Quebec, then Montreal), 25-year old Isabella accompanied him there, leaving behind an infant son who was too young for the journey. The baby died within the year.

After Canada, John was assigned to Fort Niagara in western New York, a place Isabella particularly enjoyed. There, she raised three daughters: Jessie, Joanna, and Isabella.

In 1773, just as they were making plans to retire from the army and move to New England, her husband was ordered to Antigua, in the Caribbeans. As usual, she followed him with their children.

The next year, John was overtaken by a strong fever and died, just before the birth of their fifth child, also named John.

Overwhelmed with grief, 31-year old Isabella returned to Scotland with her children, struggling to provide for them and for her elderly father, who had recently become a widower.

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