Biography of John Griffin, Clay Co, AR

***********************************************************
Submitted by:
        Date:
Copyright. All rights reserved
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
***********************************************************

From: 
The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of N. E. Ark.
Biographical Information.

John J. Griffin was born in Greene County, N. C., June 1, 1826, being a son of
William and Sarah Griffin, who were members of the Old-School Baptist Church and
were born in North Carolina, the former's birth occurring in 1784 and his death
in 1859. Of their seventeen children, John J. Griffin is the only one now
living. He became the architect of his own fortune at the age of twenty-one
years, and for a number of years was engaged in farming and rafting. On the 25th
of July, 1846, he was married to Miss Theresa L. Hicks, a daughter of Thomas S.
and Jane Hicks, who were Tennesseeans, the former being engaged in tilling the
soil. To this union eleven children were born, only four of whom are living at
the present time: Sarah E. (Winningham), James M. (farmer, of Clay County,
Ark.), John J. (a farmer of Dunklin County, Mo.), and T. J., also a farmer of
Dunklin County. Mr. Griffin took for his second wife Miss Sarah E. Spikes, their
marriage taking place on the 22d of June, 1875. Four of the seven children born
to their marriage are living: Sanford and Adaline (twins), born September 22,
1875; Lee, born February 27, 1880, and Rosa, born September 12, 1887. Mr.
Griffin owns a good farm of eighty acres, sixty under cultivation, and devotes
his land principally to raising corn and cotton. His property was at first
heavily covered with timber, but he has made valuable improvements, and has now
a good and comfortable home. He and wife are members of the Missionary Baptist
Church, and he is a Democrat, and a member of the Agricultural Wheel. For about
fifteen years after first coming west he spent the fall and winter months in
hunting and trapping, and has killed at least fifty bear and hundreds of deer,
and in some of his hunting expeditions met with many thrilling adventures and
narrow escapes from death. He was also engaged in rafting on Black River. His
parents moved from North Carolina to Tennessee in 1826, and two years later
located in Posey County, Ind., and in 1840 in Randolph County, Ark.