Albert Belmont Graham (1868–1960) was born near

Lena, Ohio Lena is an unincorporated community in Miami County, in the U.S. state of Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 m ...

. He was a country

schoolmaster The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, and a few Indian boarding schools (such as The Doon School) that were modelled after B ...

and agriculture extension pioneer at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. Graham taught at an integrated rural school in Brown Township, Miami County. Later, Graham worked at the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

as the Federal Extension Director. On January 15, 1902, Graham held the first meeting of the agriculture experiment club in the basement of the A. B. Graham building in

Springfield, Ohio Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County, Ohio, Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River (Ohio), Mad River, Buck Creek, and Beaver Creek, approxim ...

(now called the A. B. Graham building). Through his diligent efforts, A. B. Graham is considered the impetus for founding the

4-H 4-H is a U.S.-based network of youth organizations whose mission is "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development". Its name is a reference to the occurrence of the initial letter H four times i ...

program across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. His Columbus, Ohio house, the A.B. Graham House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

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Biographical information
1868 births 1960 deaths Ohio State University faculty People from Springfield, Ohio {{Ohio-bio-stub