William Alexander Graham was born in Lincoln County on September 5, 1804. The son of a prominent plantation owner, Graham was a iron entrepreneur and lawyer. He later became a successful politician and served as North Carolina's governor from 1845 to 1849. He gained a national reputation as the U.S. Secretary of the Navy from 1850-1852. After the Civil War, Graham opposed equal rights for African Americans, and served as a prosecutor on Governor William Woods Holden's impeachment trial. He died in Saratoga Springs, New York on August 11, 1875.