Margaret Collier Graham

Margaret Collier Graham (September 29, 1850 – January 17, 1910) was a short story writer in southern California at the beginning of the 20th century.

Early life, education and marriage

Margaret Collier grew up in Keokuk, Iowa. She had two sisters and a brother. In 1869, she graduated from Monmouth College (Illinois), where she had been active in its literary society. After teaching for three years in Oskaloosa, Iowa, she married Donald McIntyre Graham whom she had known at college. She settled with her husband, a young attorney, in Bloomingdale, Illinois, where they worked in an abstract of title business. When Donald contracted tuberculosis, the Grahams and Margaret's sister Jennie Collier moved to Pasadena after brief stays in San Francisco and Anaheim.

Career in Pasadena

Once in Pasadena, Margaret took a teaching job and began writing stories for The Argonaut and The Californian. In 1881, she took a two-month leave of absence to meet travel to Oakland where she met publishers, wrote stories and became acquainted with historian Theodore Hittell and poet Ina Coolbirth.

The Grahams and Margaret's brother Will Collier invested successfully in property near Lake Elsinore north east of San Diego, establishing the town of Wildomar in 1885. Financially secure, the Grahams built Wynyate, a three-story mansion in South Pasadena where they entertained the literary and civic leaders of the area. Donald became mayor of South Pasadena in 1888. Margaret and Jennie established the South Pasadena Lyceum, a precursor of the South Pasadena Public Library, in 1889. In 1890, Donald died of tuberculosis.