My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH FRANKLIN GRIGGS, librarian Western University, Pittsburgh, was born at Sutton, Mass., April 24, 1822. His father, John Griggs, was a native of Boston, where his ancestors settled in the seventeenth century. Mary Thurston, who married John Griggs and became the mother of Joseph F., was descended from the Scotch clan Campbell, the London branch of which were the founders of Worcester, Mass. Joseph F. Griggs attended the common schools of Sutton and academies at Wilbraham and Leicester, entering Yale College in 1842, from which he graduated with the degree of A. B. four years later. In 1846 he entered Andover Theological Seminary, but owing to sickness had to abandon the course. In 1847 he taught a select school at Holden, and next year became principal of the Mechanic (public) school at Worcester. In 1849 Prof. Griggs came to Allegheny and opened a private classical school, which was combined two years later with the private school of Mr. Nicholas Veeder in Pittsburgh, and the next year with the school of Mr. William T. McDonald, in Pittsburgh. This school, continuing two years, became the nucleus of the Western University of Pennsylvania, on the completion of its buildings in 1855, Prof. Griggs taking the chair of ancient languages. For fifteen years he taught Latin and Greek, and for ten years longer taught Greek alone, when he became professor emeritus, and secretary and treasurer of the board of trustees, curator of museum, librarian and custodian of the property. He has been a member of the Presbyterian Church since he was seventeen years old, and for over twenty-five years an elder in the Third Church of Pittsburgh. He is a republican.

April 16, 1863, Prof. Griggs and Miss Eliza Buchanan, daughter of the late Dr. Jeremiah Brooks, of Pittsburgh, were united in marriage. Their children are: Martha Buchanan; Jeremiah Brooks, assistant secretary Y. M. C. A. of Pittsburgh; Thomas Campbell, assistant teller in the First National Bank of Pittsburgh, and Joseph Franklin, in freshman class of university.