Griffith, George W.

GRIFFITH, LONG, HUMPHREY

Posted By: mjv (email)
Date: 3/30/2021 at 15:08:00

George W. Griffith is one of the leading farmers of Franklin Township, the home farm being situated on section 28. He is the son of Robert W. and Eleanor (Long) Griffith, the former being a native of Delaware and the latter of Pennsylvania, and was born in Crawford, Ohio, Jan. 24, 1844. The family emigrated from Ohio to Washington County, Iowa, in 1848, and settled in Clay Township, four miles north of Brighton, where the parents still live.

George W. Griffith was reared on his father’s farm, educated at the district school, but finished at the Brighton High School, and remained at home until twenty-three years of age, when he went to California by way of New York and Panama, making the trip from New York to San Francisco in twenty-two days. He remained in that State until 1871, engaged in farming and the shipping of grain to San Francisco. Returning to Washington County in the spring of 1871, he located on section 28, Franklin Township, on eighty acres of land given him by his father. In his farming operations he has been uniformly successful, having added from time to time to the original eighty, other lands until he is now the owner of 600 acres, all of which is under a high state of cultivation, with three miles of hedge fence, together with wire and board fence sufficient to enclose the entire tract and to divide the same into suitable lots. On the premises is a good dwelling-house erected at a cost of $1,500 and a barn erected at a cost of $1,200. In addition to general farming Mr. Griffith makes a specialty of raising and shipping a superior grade of cattle, and each year turns off about 200 head of fat cattle, and from 100 to 300 head of hogs.

Mr. Griffith was married in 1874 to Miss Julia A. Humphrey, a native of Ohio, and daughter of Eli Humphrey. As already stated, in his farming operations Mr. Griffith has been uniformly successful. He is a practical farmer, one who makes a study of his profession, and who is determined to do well in everything he undertakes. Of a jovial disposition, he makes friends wherever he goes, and few men stand higher in the estimation of their fellow-citizens than George W. Griffith. At this writing he is just in the prime of life, and with that same energy that has heretofore nerved him to action, will take a still higher rank among the many prosperous men of Washington County. A portrait of Mr. Griffith, copied from a photograph taken a few years since, appears upon an accompanying page.

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington County, Iowa (1887). Excerpt from Biographical Sketch of George W. Griffith, page 413. Portrait found on page 412.