He and his brother John left home in the 1870s and went to California and moving to Arizona after about 10 years. At Globe Arizona he met Ed Tewksbury who invited him to the Pleasant Valley area. He liked the area and remained with Tewksbury for some time before moving his herd of cattle into the valley. The two families remained friends until the Tewksburys claimed that the Grahams were rustling cattle. The Grahams were brought to trial and acquitted. Tom Graham charged the Tewksburys with stealing his cattle and that case was also dismissed. In September of 1887 the accusations turned to gunfights and four Graham faction members were killed or missing and five were wounded. Tom, as elder Graham and the leader, then led an attack on one of the Tewksbury ranches which left John Tewksbury and William Jacobs dead. On September 21, 1887 a sheriff's posse ambushed and killed John Graham at the Perkins Store in Pleasant Valley. Tom had had enough of the war and moved to Tempe, Arizona, but retained his Pleasant Valley holdings. Now 33 years-old he married Anne Melton, a 17 year-old Baptist minister's daughter. Tom surrendered to Prescott sheriff William Mulvenon and was placed on $3,000 bail pending a Grand Jury hearing in December. He then went back to Pleasant Valley and hired a few cowboys and placed the ranch under the care of his foreman on a shared basis. The Tewksburys were also required to appear before the December Grand Jury and both parties were indicted, but after some postponements the case was again dropped. The courts thus failed to stop the feud and the bushwhacking, lynching, and vigilante action continued. On April 10, 1892, George Newton, a Tewksbury partisan, disappeared at a Salt River crossing. Ed Tewksbury suspected Tom Graham and on August 2, 1892 Ed and John Rhodes ambushed Tom in Tempe and shot him in the back. At trial the charge against Rhodes was dropped by the judge. Tewksbury was found guilty, appealed and acquitted at the second trial.