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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Clay County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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John J. Griffin was born in Greene County, N. C., June 1, 1826, being a son of William and Sarah Griffin, who were members of the Old-School Baptist Church and were born in North Carolina, the former’s birth occurring in 1784 and his death in 1859. Of their seventeen children, John J. Griffin is the only one now living. He became the architect of his own fortune at the age of twenty-one years, and for a number of years was engaged in farming and rafting. On the 25th of July, 1846, he was married to Miss Theresa L. Hicks, a daughter of Thomas S. and Jane Hicks, who were Tennesseans, the former being engaged in tilling the soil. To this union eleven children were born, only four of whom are living at the present time: Sarah E. (Winningham), James M. (farmer, of Clay County, Ark.), John J. (a farmer of Dunklin County, Mo.), and T. J., also a farmer of Dunklin County. Mr. Griffin took for his second wife Miss Sarah E. Spikes, their marriage taking place on the 22d of June, 1875. Four of the seven children born to their marriage are living: Sanford and Adaline (twins), born September 22, 1875; Lee, born February 27, 1880, and Rosa, born September 12, 1887. Mr. Griffin owns a good farm of eighty acres, sixty under cultivation, and devotes his land principally to raising corn and cotton. His property was at first heavily covered with timber, but he has made valuable improvements, and has now a good and comfortable home. He and wife are members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and he is a Democrat, and a member of the Agricultural Wheel. For about fifteen years after first coming west he spent the fall and winter months in hunting and trapping, and has killed at least fifty bear and hundreds of deer, and in some of his hunting expeditions met with many thrilling adventures and narrow escapes from death. He was also engaged in rafting on Black River. His parents moved from North Carolina to Tennessee in 1826, and two years later located in Posey County, Ind., and in 1840 in Randolph County, Ark.

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This family biography is one of 124 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Clay County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Clay County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Clay County, Arkansas family biographies here: Clay County, Arkansas Biographies

View a map of 1889 Clay County, Arkansas here: Clay County, Arkansas Map

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