TROUP COUNTY, GA - BIOS  Charles H. Griffin

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb
Archives by: Typed by Carla Miles


Table of Contents page: 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/troup.htm
Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm


Memoirs of Georgia, Vol. II, Atlanta, Ga., pages 920-921
Published by The Southern Historical Association in 1895


TROUP COUNTY

Charles H. Griffin, president, Troup factory, LaGrange, Troup
Co., Ga., son of Charles H. and Mary A. (Ashford) Griffin, was
born in Troup county in 1845.  His paternal grandparents were
natives of South Carolina, came to Georgia about the year 1800,
and settled in the woods in Wilkes county, where they cleared a
farm.  Mr. Griffin’s father was born in Wilkes county in 1809,
where he was reared and educated, and whence, on reaching
manhood, he went to Alabama.  He was married in Montgomery
county in that state, and in 1833 returned to Georgia and
settled in the woods in Troup county, where he cleared a farm
and reared his family.  He was a soldier in the Indian war of
1836; was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and himself and
wife were members of the Baptist church, to whose support they
devoted much time and money.  He died in 1855, but his wife
survived him many years.  She was a woman of uncommon industry,
and so devoted to labor that she may be said to have died at
her work.  The day she died she came from her garden, where she
had been engaged, to get a drink of water, when she suddenly
dropped down and expired, aged seventy-two years.  Her parents,
William and Charlotte (Andrews) Ashford, were natives of South
Carolina, came to Georgia, and settled and cleared a farm in
the woods.  Mr. Griffin was reared on the farm, and received a
common school education.  In 1863 he enlisted in Company B,
Fourth Georgia regiment, successively under the command of
Capt. Robert S. Smith, Miles H. Hill, J.A. Norwood, and A.C.
Gibson, Col. (later Gen.) Phil Cook, and served until the
battle of the Wilderness, where, May 5, 1864, he had a thumb
shot off, was shot through the hand and also through the hip,
which last-named would permanently disabled him for further
service.  His company went into that battle with thirty-three
men, and came out with only six, the others, excepting four
captured, having been killed and wounded.  After the war he
came to LaGrange, his only capital being his war record,
personal integrity, and a $100 Confederate note, and entered a
general merchandise store, where he clerked twenty-two years;
then in 1872-3, establishing a business of his own in LaGrange.
In 1891 he was elected president of the Troup Factory company. 
This company, organized fifty or more years ago by Robertson,
Leslie & Co., manufactured goods for the Confederate government
during the war, but failed in 1879.  A stock company, of which
Mr. Griffin was a member, was organized and bought the plant,
which has since been operated successfully and very profitably.
Since his election as president he has devoted his entire time
and attention to its management.  The mill employs about fifty-
five hands, and a capacity of 3,500 yards of sheetings per day.
Coming out of the war poor, penniless, wounded soldier, he has
made an enviable reputation for business capability and
integrity, and ranks among the most esteemed of the citizens of
the county.  Mr. Griffin is a master Mason.