My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE GRIFFIN, a prominent agriculturist and successful stock-raiser, a long-time resident of Cass County, Mich., is a native of Berkshire, England, and was born in 1829. He passed the days of boyhood in his native land and was twenty years of age when, in company with a brother, he crossed the broad Atlantic to the New World beyond the sea. Upon their arrival in America, the brothers located in Michigan. Our subject settled in Oakland County, but his companion made his home in Berrien County. Three years after Mr. Griffin came to the United States, his parents, Thomas and Sarah Griffin, also emigrated with their three other children to America. Of these younger children, two were daughters. The son who accompanied the father and mother to this country now resides near Nashville, Mich. Immediately after George Griffin came to Michigan he sought employment and worked by the day for about four years. With prudent management he had amassed a small capital, which he then invested in a farm of eighty acres, located in Kalamazoo County.

Three years afterward our subject disposed of his farm, and together with his parents removed to Cass County, but the father and mother only remained there a few years. Since then the parents have both died, as have also the sisters, one of whom left a child, the son of Allen Owen, of Kalamazoo. Mr. Griffin located permanently in Cass County in 1856, and now owns and cultivates a fine farm of over three hundred and fifty acres. In 1860 our subject was married to Miss Iantha MacOmber, of Marcellus Township. The union was blessed by the birth of three sons and three daughters. Mary was the eldest of the family; Lottie is the wife of Z. P. Neidigh; Phinney was the third in order of birth; Lina is the wife of C. Fox; and Mark and Burt complete the circle of intelligent brothers and sisters. Politically, Mr. Griffin is now an advocate of the People’s party, but for thirty years he affiliated with the Republicans. He is progressive in his ideas and arguments, and is thoroughly posted on the local and national questions of the day.

Mrs. Griffin is a valued member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is active in good work. Our subject and his family take an interest in the social and benevolent enterprises of their home locality, and are ever ready to lend a helping hand to those less fortunate than themselves. Having literally fought his upward way in life, Mr. Griffin is practically a self-made man. While making general agriculture remunerative, he has also profitably engaged in raising sheep ever since he settled in Cass County. Financially prospered and surrounded by a happy family, our subject also possesses the confidence and esteem of friends and neighbors, his useful life being crowned in the evening of his days with many blessings.