James Griffith

GRIFFITH, FOX, COLSTON, BENNETT, LAKIN, LANDIS, CARR

Posted By: Diane (email)
Date: 2/24/2002 at 20:59:29

James Griffith has resided in Coldwater township since 1852. The first settlement in the township was made only a year previous to his coming here; John Fox, L. Colston, Commodore Bennett and Mr. Lakin having taken claims in 1851. Mr. Griffith was born in Kentucky in 1817; he removed to Indiana with his parents when a child, where he lived till thirty-five years of age, or until he came to Butler county in the fall of 1852.
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He has been twice married. His first wife was a native of Virginia, and died in Indiana. His present wife was Elizabeth A. Landis, a native of Virginia. He has four children – Frances Jane, born in Indiana in 1839; she is now Mrs. Clarke Carr; William A., born in Indiana in 1842, is a graduate of Cornell college, Iowa, graduating in 1865; he is by profession a teacher; Charles W., born in what is now Dayton township, April 21, 1855; he was probably the first white child born in that township; his youngest child, Belle, was born in Coldwater township, February 21, 1863. He has lost two children in Butler county – Abram P. and James Madison.
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Mr. Griffith resides on section 13, near the line of Dayton, in fact the principal part of his farm is in the latter township, where he has 160 acres, having but 30 acres in Coldwater, on which his residence stands. Mr. Griffith being one of the pioneers of the county, endured with his fellow pioneers, all the privations incident to a pioneer life. He has seen Butler county progress from a state of nature till it now ranks with the more advanced and important counties of the State. He has been a close observer, and possesses an excellent memory, and is valuable authority on the early history of Butler county.
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Source: History of Butler and Bremer Counties, Iowa
Union Publishing Co., Springfield, IL, 1883
Pages 368-369