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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Poinsett 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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James M. Griffin, planter and proprietor of a grist and saw-mill and cotton-gin, resides in Bolivar, near the county seat of Poinsett County, and has been a resident of this county from his birth, which occurred in 1850, being the fifth of seven children born to Theophilus and Eliza Ann (Thrower) Griffin, who were born in the “Old North State” and the “Blue Grass State,” respectively. They both removed from Poinsett County, Ark., at a very early day, and after their marriage settled near where our subject is now residing, where they cleared and improved a farm. The father was also a practicing physician and surgeon, and in early times he was called upon to attend the sick in all parts of the county, as well as in the counties adjoining. He was successful in alleviating the sufferings of his fellow-mortals, and was a man who was esteemed for his many worthy qualities of mind and heart. His wife was called to her long home in 1877. James M. Griffin received such education as Poinsett County afforded in his youthful days, and from his earliest recollections he has been familiar with the details of farm labor. At the age of twenty years he began doing for himself, and after his marriage, in Poinsett County, in November, 1874, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Freeman, of Alabama, he settled down to tilling the soil, and now owns an exceedingly fertile tract, embracing 200 acres, with eighty acres under cultivation. He devotes the greater part of this to the raising of cotton and corn, and has 100 acres under fence. He is a Democrat, and socially is a member of the K. of H. He and wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Pleasant Valley, of which he has been steward, trustee and superintendent. He has been an active worker for churches, schools and, in fact, all worthy enterprises, and is in every respect a public-spirited citizen. He and wife became the parents of the following children: Eva Eugenia, Louis Christopher, Mattie Lon, Jim and Hubbard Hugh, living, and Nora Bettie, who died September 2, 1888, at the age of four years.

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This family biography is one of 70 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Poinsett County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Poinsett County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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

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