Between March 1892 and February 1894, Markham invested a total of $2800 in Charles and Frank Duryea's project of creating a self-propelled road vehicle.
The son of Solvin and Harriet Markham, he married Henrietta E. King on November 29, 1860.
The 1872 Springfield Massachusetts Directory, lists Markham as a butcher, but by 1887 he had switched to nursing.
When Charles Duryea asked him to support their efforts in an untried field, Markham risked his life savings to fund the project.
When asking Markham for the third time, he refused: "The thing's no good, Frank, and I have lost my money.