Gunnison County CO Archives Biographies.....Griffing, John L. 1856 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 24, 2006, 4:47 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Born and bred to the life of a farmer, and having followed it at times

since leaving the parental roof-tree, John L. Griffing, of Gunnison county, on a

very attractive and desirable ranch of three hundred and sixty acres which he

has brought to a high state of cultivation and on which he has made extensive

and valuable improvements, came to his present occupation as one of the leading

farmers and stock-growers of western Colorado both through natural inclination

and favorable circumstances.  His early life was passed on his father’s farm

near Crystal Lake, McHenry county, Illinois, where he was born in 1856.  His

parents were Franklin and Lodema (Thompson) Griffing, natives of New York who

settled in McHenry county, Illinois, in 1836, and from that time until near the

death of the father were actively engaged in farming in that county.  In 1878

the father’s failing health brought the family, or those members of it who were

still at home, to Colorado Springs, this state, but too late for much advantage

to him, as he died in 1879, at the age of sixty-four.  He was a veteran of the

Civil war, having enlisted in Company A, Seventy-second Illinois Infantry, and

served three years, participating in some of the severest battles of the

conflict.  The mother survived her husband twenty-two years and died at Colorado

Springs in 1901, aged seventy-seven years.  They were the parents of six

children, John L. being the last born.  He remained at home until 1876, except

that some of his school days were passed in Chicago.  In the year last named he

came to Colorado and located where the town of Gunnison now opens its hospitable

doors to tourists and pleasure-seekers from all over the world, there being then

at that point no evidence of civilization or progress except one little country

store.  From this place as a base of operations he followed freighting and

prospecting for four years.  In 1880 he took up as a homestead half of the place

he now owns and occupies, and has added to its extent by subsequent purchases

until he now has a beautiful expanse of three hundred and sixty acres, rich in

natural fertility and brought to abundant productiveness by judicious, energetic

and skillful husbandry.  His principal product from the soil is a fine quality

of hay which he grows in large quantities, and he also conducts a flourishing

and profitable stock industry, rearing and dealing in superior grades of well

bred cattle.  He has enriched the place with commodious, comfortable and

attractive buildings and other improvements, which are capacious in extent and

equipped with appurtenances for the requirements of the business that are of the

most approved modern patterns.  Mr. Griffing gives every detail of his large

business his personal attention, and the results are commensurate with the

outlay of skill and industry.  As a citizen he stands high in the public regard

as a wide-awake and progressive man, with admirable breadth of view and

public-spirit, and with excellent business capacity wherewith to put his views

in practice for the advancement of his community and the advantage of its people.  

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/gunnison/bios/griffing395gbs.txt

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