Biographical Sketch of

John Gardener Griffin

Transcribed by Jaimee Hedlund

Source: Memorial and Biographical Record and Illustrated Compendium of Biography of Citizens of Columbia, 
Sauk and Adams Counties, Wisconsin, published 1901 by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1901, Pages 421 - 422


John Gardener Griffin, of Courtland, Columbia County was born Oct. 30, 1815, in East Haddam, Middlesex County, 
Connecticut, and was the oldest son of Nathan and Sarah Barber (Gallup) Griffin. His paternal grandfather was 
John Griffin, and his great grandfather bore the name of Nathan. Nathan Griffin was born in Lyme, New London 
County, Connecticut, and moved to the town of East Haddam, and purchased land there some time in the early 
years of the seventeenth century.  This land remained in the family possession through four generations, and 
was still held about fifty years ago by descendents of this early Nathan Griffin.  On this farm were born our 
subject, his father, his grandfather and here also was born the eldest daughter of John Gardener Griffin, Kate.
The Griffins have always been farmers, though occasionally would be found one who would depart from the family 
traditions and engage in trade or follow a profession. Such was the career of the father of our subject. At 
twenty-six years of age he engaged in mercantile pursuits at East Haddam, and continued in that line until he 
came to Wisconsin in 1845. He was the father of twelve children:  John G.; Sarah Ann; now Mrs Julius C. Williams;  
Edwin B.;  Betsy B.; Henry C.;  Albert Morgan;  Carlos;  Phoebe;  Wallace Frederick;  George Cone;  Theodore;  
and one who died in infancy.  There is a family tradition to the effect that about the beginning of the seven-
teenth century three brothers emigrated to this country from Wales and settled in various parts of this country.  
One brother located in Boston; and another on Long Island, and the third in South Carolina. The Griffins of this 
history belong to the Long Island branch of this family.  Nathan Griffin, the father of the subject of this sketch, 
and a part of his family, came west in 1845, and purchased land from a previous settler in this county.  It was 
described as the southwest quarter of section 15, township 12, range 12 east, and on this land he lived until 
his death in 1862, when he was over seventy-two years old.
 
Hulda Cone, the great-grandmother of our subject, was the oldest daughter of George Cone by his first wife. The 
maternal grandparents of our subject, Gardener and Betsy Barber Gallup, were both born in Groton, New London County, 
and followed farming all their lives.
 
John Gardener Griffin, being the oldest son of his parents, was named after both his grandparents.  He passed his 
youth and early manhood in Connecticut, and was there married.  He did not come west until 1857.  He came to his 
father's farm in this county that year, bringing his own family with him, and remained with his parents as long 
as they lived.  His mother lived until January 2, 1881, surviving her husband many years. After her death our 
subject bought out the interests of the other heirs, and is now the sole owner of the homestead, which, with other 
lands added to it, now constitutes a valuable farm of three hundred and eighty acres.  It is cultivated in the most 
modern and enlightened fashion, and is catalogued among the model farms of the county.
 
Mr. Griffin and Miss Ursula Mack were married in Connecticut.  Her parents were Romancey and Mehitable (Knowles) 
Mack, and her father was in early life the foreman of a granite quarry, but later became a farmer. She is the 
granddaughter of Hezekiah Mack, veteran of the Revolution. Her union with Mr. Griffin was blessed by the birth 
of three daughters: Kate, who died June 12, 1882, when she was thirty-seven years old;  Jane, the wife of Hiram 
Gilmore, and living in Cambria;  Edith, who married George Ketchum, and with her husband is living on a farm.
 
Mr. J.G. Griffin is a man of much more than the ordinary education. He attended a select school at East Haddam, 
later took a course at the Troy Conference Acadamy, at West Poultney, Vermont, and the Wesley Acadamy at Wilbraham, 
Massachusetts.  When he was twenty-one he left school and applied himself to his lifework, the occupation of a 
farmer.  When he was seventeen he taught winter school, and from that time has always been associated with edu-
cational and public affairs.  While still a young man, he made superintendent of schools, and when the law provided 
for a board of school commissioners, he was named on the board among the very first to recieve that honor. While 
in Connecticut he was twice a candidate for the legislature on the Free Soil ticket, and once recieved within five 
votes of a majority of all cast.  He had been a Democrat, having voted for Martin Van Buren in 1848, but when the 
parties divided on the issue of slavery he at once took his place with the party of freedom.  He cast his first 
Republican vote for John C. Fremont, and since that time has been a steadfast supporter of the party. Here in 
Wisconsin he has served about twenty-five years as a justice of the peace, and represented his district in the 
legislature of 1875 and 1876.  He has frequently served on the jury, more frequently perhaps than any other man 
in the county.  He became a Methodist when only fifteen years of age, and his life has been an offering on the 
altar of his faith. Through a long and active life he has been an earnest and faithful worker in the communion 
he so selected, and it has honored him in every way.  He has lived to a grand old age, and leaves his posterity 
the inheritance of a noble name and the memories of a useful life.


Transcribed by Jaimee Hedlund






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