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| John Luther Griffin and Family |
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| John Luther Griffin, son of William and Elizabeth (Rodgers) Griffin was born in 1855 in Virginia (West Virginia). He migrated west with the family at the close of the Civil War, first to Iowa and Missouri, then to Montgomery County Kansas. He was one of the youngest of 14 children, and was about 15 when the family settled in Kansas. When he was about 25, he married Clara Odessa Piersol, b. PA, 16 April 1862, who was an 18 year old school teacher in Montgomery Co., Kansas. Her parents, William Piersol and Angeline Flick [or Fleck], were born in Ohio.
Five children were born to John and Clara : Fred Ralph Griffin, b. 1883, Mabel J., b. 1887, Will Carleton, b. 1889, all three in Kansas. In Colorado, Geneva Clara was born around Jan. of 1892, and died at the age of 8 mos. She is buried at the Boulder Cemetery. Paul Quincy was born in 1894. The family had moved to Boulder, Colorado, in 1891, where John took charge of the old Central School building as principal. He is also listed in the class of 1901 at Colorado University. Notes at Boulder Cemetery site tell us that John Luther Griffin was principal of Central School in Boulder and later County Supt of schools in Boulder County. In 1910, this researcher has not found the family, except for Fred, who is on a construction crew for the Barker Reservoir west of Boulder. A letter from Clara in later years [26 Mar 1946] may explain where they were during that time: �John and Clara and their children arrived in the Boulder area 'in Aug 1891 when John took charge of the old Central School building as principal. We lived in Boulder and vicinity until 1905 when the children and I came to Palo Alto to enter our daughter in Stanford Univ. and to get to a lower altitude.' John stayed in Boulder as did son Fred. 'Later we went north to Puget Sound and John came there from Colorado, secured a position in the schools of Everett, WA as principal of the 8th grade building where he taught until he died 25 Jan 1925. Fred came out to Seattle in 1915, and died there in 1936. After my husband's death I came here to Palo Alto to be near my daughter and her family. My second son Carleton 'Carl' lives with his family in San Gabriel and my third son Paul, still single, lives in Seattle, at least that is his home port, for he is a radio operator on boats [ships], and has served well during the war. I was very busy in Boulder with the work of taking care of my family. We raised 4 children on the very small salary of a school teacher. My husband's and Fred's ashes are buried there in the Boulder cemetery and I expect mine to be sent there when my time comes.'Notes: Mrs. Ernest (Jan Griffin) Leaf of Arlington, WA, Oct 1993, is a granddaughter of John L. Griffin. Her father was W. Carleton 'Carl' Griffin. The links below are to pictures of the construction cousin Fred was working on in 1910. Maybe he is one of the men pictured. He was about 27 and single. The census for construction is listed as Prec. 8, Magnolia or Nederland, Colo. Barker Reservoir Photo Archive http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/bmsite/main.htm Fred and Paul, both single in 1920, are found living together in Seattle WA. Fred is a marine gas engineer [and electrician], and brother Paul is a radio operator. Another brother, Will, also single, is found in Valdez, Alaska Terr. working at a copper mine in 1920. [Jan Griffin Leaf, his daughter, offers: "Will, my Dad, was a wireless operator and statistician for Kennecot Copper Corp. on Latouche Island, my birthplace in Prince Wm. Sound."] We have found a website which states that John�s daughter, Mabel, married Stuart Bevier Show in Everett, Washington, in December 1910. Mr. Show was the son of a professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where Mabel attended college. Stuart B. Show [pronounced as in "ow" you say when hurt], born Nebraska, 1886, became District Forester for the U.S. in California. He served in this capacity from 1926 until 1946. The Ponderosa Way and Truck Trail was the brainchild of Stuart B. Show; it was a 650-mile long fuel break proposed in 1929 and built during the 1930s with Civilian Conservation Corps labor. In 1944 he co-authored with William S. Brown : California Rural Land Use and Management: A History of the Use and Occupancy of Rural Lands in California. 2 vols. San Francisco: United States Forest Service, California Region, 1944. ["Uncle Bevier worked on reforestation of Europe after the end of WWII."] An award , the Stuart B. Show and Edward I. Kotok memorial award, is given at University of California in Berkeley for Environmental Science. ["Uncle Bevier was called U.S. Chief Forester in "Who's Who in America", year unknown."] John Luther Griffin died in Everett Washington, Jan. 25, 1925. His ashes are buried in Boulder Colorado, in the plot where baby daughter, Geneva, was buried. In 1930, census records show that Clara Piersol Griffin is a widow, living alone in a home which she owns, in Palo Alto CA (Santa Clara County). She lived until December 21, 1961, age 99, having spent the last 10 years of her life bed ridden. Her ashes were taken to Boulder Colorado, where her husband, infant daughter, and one son�s ashes are interred. Return to William Griffin web page. |
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