Eliza Williams Griswold

Source: https://archive.org/details/commemorativebio12inbeer
Scan label: 191
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462 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. and removed with his parents to Killingworth, now the town of Clinton, where he became a land owner and farmer, and died there Aug. 7, 1717. John Griswold was a man of intelligence and influence and was a deacon in the church. On Oct. 27, 167 1, he was married to ^lary (surname unknown), and after her death to Bathsheba (surname unknown), who died Alarch 19, 1736, and he was the father of these children : Alary, born in February, 1673 ; Margaret, in December, 1675; Hannah, in October, 1677; J<5hn B., Sept. 22, and died Dec. 27, 1679; Dorothy, born in ]\lay, 1681 ; Bathsheba, in Decem- ber, 1682, married Daniel Clark, Dec. i, 1708; Samuel, April, 1685; Lucy, in July, 1686; Martha, in June, 1689, died in March, 1690; Joseph and Benjamin (twins), Sept. 26, 1691 ; Dorothy, in September, 1692; Martha, in June, 1694; Daniel, in October, 1696; and Walter, in Alarch, 1700. Joseph Griswold, twin brother of Benjamin, and son of John, of Killingworth, like his father and grandfather, spent his days in the town of his birth, where he was influential, and a worthy mem- ber of the church, and died April 18, 1770. On Dec. 27, 17 14, he married Temperance Lay, who died in September. 1772, and their children were: John, born Oct. 12, 1715; Joseph, Oct. 22, 1716; Martha, April 28, 1719; Giles, June 3, 1725; John; J^aniel, who married Lydia Hull ; and Jedediah. Giles Griswold, son of Joseph, was born in Kill- ingworth, June 3, 1725,' and on Nov. 17, 1746, mar- ried Mary Chatfield, and their children were: Mary, born April 18, 1747; Giles, Oct. 28, 1748; Mercy, Oct. 19, 1751 ; Lucy, Oct. 15, 1753; Jesse, Aug. 28, 1756. died Sept. 21, 1777; Zenas, born May 10, 1759; Abner, Alarch 31, 1762; Drusilla, Jan. 21, 1764, died in Alarch, 1764; Drusilla (2), May 21, 1766; David. Nov. 20, 1768; and Charity, Feb. 12, 1774. Zenas (jriswold, grandfather of Xathan Fowler Griswold, was born Alay 10, 1759, in Killingworth, where he grew to manhood, and where he became a farmer and landowner. He participated in the war of the Revolution, having enlisted Jan. 3, 1777, in Capt. Stevens' company, and was discharged Dec. 21, 1779, re-enlisting ^lay 3. 1781. and served in Capt. Nathaniel Edwards' company. By an act of Congress, passed March 18, 1818, he was made a pensioner, and died in his native home, full of years and honors, in 1836. Zenas Griswold was twice married. His first wife, Mary Lane, was born in 1758, and d'ied in ]May. 1803. Her chil- dren were: Philip, born in January, 1786. settled in Genesee, N. Y. ; Jesse, born in February, 1788, settled in Lockport, X. Y. ; Deborah, born Aug. 2. 1790, married William Hill, and died Oct. 15, 1873; Rachel, born in January, 1793, died in 1809; Martin married Sally Fowler; and Sarah married Elias Norton. For his second wife Zenas Gris- wold married Mary Pettibone, a widow, who died in 1843. Two children were born to this union: j Amasa Pettibone, who married Charlotte Chatfield ; and Rachel, who married Louis Chatfield. Alartin Griswold, father of Nathan Fowler Griswold, was born on the old Griswold homestead in Killingworth, where he grew to manhood, and where he married Sally Fowler, daughter of Nathan and Chloe (Davis) Fowler. After his marriage he removed with his wife to Lockport, N. Y., where his brother Jesse was also located, and engaged in farming for some time, but a'fter the death of his wife, which occurred shortly after the birth of our subject, he sold out, and returned to Connecticut, i locating in ]\Iiddletown. There he engaged at gun- j making for several years for the United States ! Government, and then went West, locating in I Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where he bought a farm and spent the remainder of his days. Mr. Gris- wold was a hard-working, honest man, well known for his integrity and for his fair and honorable dealings, a man who made the Golden Rule his life motto and steadily endeavored to follow it. His happiness was only found when he was square with the world and his fellow men. In his younger days he was a Democrat, but held anti-slavery views, and at the formation of the Republican party associated himself with it, ever after being a strong partisan, although no office seeker. For his second wife he wedded Mary Post, of Westbrook, Conn., who died in Ohio. She became the mother of several children, all of whom are dead except Anne and Willard M. Griswold, a railway agent, residing in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Nathan Fowler Griswold, the subject proper of this sketch, was only three days old when his mother died, and he was thus early deprived of her tender, fostering care. While still a babe he was taken by his bereaved father from his native New York home to Connecticut, and there placed under the care of his maternal grandparents, in Durham, and there attended the district schools. When he was but eleven years of age he started out to make his own way in the world, trying one season on a farm. This life did not entirely please him. and he then engaged to work in the store of Uriah A. Ayers, of East Haddam, where he re- mained four years, receiving as compensation his board and clothes. While filling this position he managed to attend school during the winters, but the greater part of his education was received through study at home, through reading, and in the severe school of experience. The desire to learn a trade first brought him to Meriden, and he worked first with Pomeroy & Ives, learning the tinning trade, and during his four years with that firm he received for the first year $25, with an increase of $5 everv year. After completing his trade within one or two months of his apprenticeship, he pur- chased his remaining time, and started for the West, with Cincinnati as his objective point. The trip was an interesting one, filled with variety and