About 1838 he removed to Ashtabula County, Ohio, where he taught at the Kingsville Academy twelve years.
[2] Z. C. and Adelia Graves had four known children: James R., Florence M., Zuinglius Dickinson, and Hubert A.
After the Mary Sharp College was chartered in 1848 (as the Tennessee Female Institute), trustees hired Z. C. Graves to lead the new effort.
[4] "The Mary Sharp College under Dr. Graves’ presidency acquired a national reputation, and he avers that its success was owing quite as much to her wise counsels and management as to his own efforts.
Students at Mary Sharp, unlike those at other female colleges and academies, studied algebra, geometry, and trigonometry; Latin and Greek; English literature, grammar, and composition; ancient, English, and American history; philosophy and rhetoric; geography and geology; and botany, chemistry, astronomy, and physiology.