My Genealogy Hound

G. W. Griffin is a successful farmer, and is the proprietor of the Vanndale livery stable. He was born in Georgia in 1839, and was the eldest in a family of six children born to Tilam M. and Elizabeth (Raspberry) Griffin, the former a blacksmith by trade, who, in 1854, came to Arkansas, and settled one mile east of the present village of Vanndale, where he began following his trade, his establishment being the first of the kind in this section of the country. Here he died in 1856, his wife’s death having occurred in Alabama, prior to the coming of the family to Arkansas. G. W. Griffin acquired a fair knowledge of the English branches in Tennessee and Alabama, and after his father’s death, when only eighteen years of age, he took charge of the blacksmith shop, and continued this business without a break until the opening of the war. He enlisted in Capt. Martin’s Company, Fifth Arkansas Regiment, Trans-Mississippi Department, and was in the battles of Greenville, Prairie Grove, Jenkins’ Ferry, and Pleasant Hill, and also in a number of minor engagements, serving in the cavalry for some time. After his return from the war he farmed for one year, then opened the shop at the old stand continuing there until the spring of 1882, when he moved to the village of Vanndale, and engaged in business there. In 1860 he bought a small tract of land comprising five acres, added five more in 1867, and two years later bought fifty-five acres, all of which was wild land. He has since had it all cleared, and has continued to purchase from time to time, until he now owns 331 acres, and has 100 acres under tillage. His dwelling-house and barns are in good condition, and his fences are kept in excellent repair, in fact he is a thoroughgoing and thrifty farmer, as can easily be seen in giving a glance at his farm. He is Worshipful Master of Arcadia Lodge No. 183, A. F. & A. M. Mr. Griffin was elected to the office of county treasurer, and served two terms by re-election. He has also held the office of justice of the peace for three years. In 1861 he was married to Miss Mary E. Snowden, a native of Fayette County, Tenn., who came with her father, W. H. Snowden, to Arkansas in 1858. This gentleman was also a blacksmith, and died in 1881. To Mr. and Mrs. Griffin was born the following family of children: Silas W. (who lived to be twenty-seven years of age, and died April 10, 1889), Susan C. (who was married, died in 1886), Sarah Irene, Nannie Izoarah, Annie, Mollie Virginia, Mattie, Charles George, Frank Lee, Hugh and one that died unnamed. Mr. Griffin is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.