Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....Griffith, Hester Tuttle 1854 - 
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Author: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908)

    HESTER TUTTLE GRIFFITH. The past decade has witnessed in Southern California
phenomenal progress in civic, political and social reform. The best thought and
energy of the best people in nearly all walks of life have combined to bring
about in the most direct and practical manner possible these most salutary
results. Especially is this true in the work of Temperance and Social Purity
reform in which many of our most able and accomplished women of independent
thought and achievement have borne a conspicuous part, prominent among whom is
Mrs. Hester Tuttle Griffith, of Coeur d'Alene Place, Ocean Park. Her mental
endowments, her home life and her educational training seem to have specially
fitted her for charitable and reformatory work.

    Mrs. Griffith is a native of Minnesota, born at St. Anthony Falls, where the
city of Minneapolis now stands, September 22nd, 1854. Her father, Calvin Tuttle,
was one of the frontier settlers of the Upper Mississippi and Saint Croix River
valley. He, with his bride, crossed Lake Pepin and sailed up the Mississippi,
thence up the Saint Croix in a small boat, to Saint Croix Falls where, in 1837,
he built the first saw mill erected on that stream and where for a long time
they were the only white settlers. Ten years later they removed to Saint Anthony
Falls, the head of navigation on the Mississippi, and were among the founders of
the ambitious city of Minneapolis. Here a son, Wilmot Garfield Tuttle, was born,
the first white male child born in the then small town of Minneapolis. When, in
1849, the territory of Minnesota was established, Mr. Tuttle was appointed
Territorial Treasurer, and held the office until the territory was made a state,
May 11th, 1858. He was a typical northwest frontiersman of broad intelligence,
sterling character and resolute purpose. He acquired large land holdings at
Saint Anthony Falls, a portion of which he donated to the state for educational
uses and which is now occupied by the Minnesota State University. Later in life
he built saw mills at Lake Minnetonka. He also became heavily interested in the
development of the water power and town of Little Falls, Minn., and owned large
tracts of land in that vicinity. He traveled over unexplored regions of country
looking to final development of the state by building of railroads and other
enterprises. He suffered business reverses by reason of the financial crash of
1857. Up to that time he had been very active in milling and in the promotion of
milling enterprises at St. Anthony Falls. He was also instrumental in bridging
the river below the falls, the first bridge that spanned the "father of waters"
at this point. He then went to Two Rivers, Minnesota, and built up extensive
water power and lumber mills and there remained until he came to California. He
married Charlotte M. Minkler, at Upper Alton, Illinois, in 1840. She was a
native of Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York, born July 31st, 1819. They had
three sons and four daughters, the latter are (1908) all living. Mr. and Mrs.
Tuttle came to Pasadena in 1888 to make their home with Mrs. Griffith and,
notwithstanding their love for and loyalty to their old home state, became
thoroughly wedded to Southern California and Pasadena, where he died November
17th, 1900, at nearly ninety years of age. Mrs. Tuttle also died at Pasadena in
1892.

    Mrs. Griffith spent her childhood at Minnetonka Mills, Minn., and her
girlhood at Two Rivers. At fourteen years of age she entered the Minnesota State
Normal School at St. Cloud and graduated therefrom at sixteen in June, 1871.
After graduation she taught school at Melrose, Stearns County, Minn., and later
at Little Falls. She then went to Minneapolis where, for five years, she taught
in the public schools, three years of which time she was primary principal.
February 4th, 1877, she married Mr. Elijah Griffith, a prosperous young
contractor of Minneapolis.

    Mrs. Griffith was converted to Christianity at the age of fifteen under the
temperance evangelist, Rev. W. W. Satterlee, and has steadily grown in the
faith, towering in strength and influence until she is known throughout the land
as one of the most effective advocates of temperance and pure living engaged in
the holy cause. Never having been accorded the blessings of motherhood, she has
been thrown all the energies of a strong, most lovable and spiritual character
into what she regards as her life work. Soon after coming to Pasadena she joined
the Women's Christian Temperance Union and entered seriously into the work. This
was followed by rescue and prison work in Salt Lake, Utah, for four years. The
year 1892 she served as local president, territorial president and treasurer.
This year she also went as territorial delegate to the national W. C. T. U.
convention at Denver. Returning to Pasadena she was made president of the
Central Union for two years. Moving to Los Angeles, she held the office of
Federation President for eight years, of County Vice President five years and is
now State Superintendent of Prison Work and National Evangelist under this
department, also National Lecturer for the department of Soldiers and Sailors.
In 1906 she was elected by unanimous vote, President of the Los Angeles County
Union and re-elected in 1907. This is the largest County W. C. T. U. in the
United States. At the Santa Ana convention (1908) she was unanimously chosen
State President.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities: prefaced with a brief
history of the state of California, a condensed history of Los Angeles County,
1542 to 1908: supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and
embellished with views of historic landmarks and portraits of representative
people.

Los Angeles: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908)


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