My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL GRIFFITH is one of the substantial, intelligent and enterprising citizens of the town of Ellington. His parents, Samuel and Nancy (Lewis) Griffith, at the time of his birth, March 23, 1808, were residents of Madison county, New York. Samuel Griffith (father) was a native of Rensselaer county, New York, and was born in the same year that his country became a free and independent nation, 1776. His career was marked by a series of removals and residences. In 1800 he became a citizen of Madison county and from thence removed to Chautauqua county and located in what is now the town of Busti, but at that time an undivided expanse of territory.

Here he took up land and continued to reside for thirteen years, at the expiration of which, he again changed his residence to the town of Ellery, and in 1853 removed to Gerry, where he died in 1855, at the age of eighty years. Samuel Griffith was a farmer of industry and honesty; during the existence of the Whig party he cast his support in its behalf, but when the Republican party was given birth, he allied himself with that party. The Griffiths on the paternal side are of Welsh descent, while the wife of Samuel Griffith was of New England birth and education; she died in 1860 at the age of eighty-four years.

Samuel Griffith was reared upon his father’s farm in Chautauqua county, where he also attended school, receiving a fair common school education. Upon leaving school he was apprenticed to a mill-wright, learned that trade, and continued to work at it for ten years. About this time he turned his attention to farming, which he has continued most of the time since. In 1861, subject moved from Gerry to Ellington, where he now lives in practical retirement.

On February 15, 1841, Mr. Griffith was joined in marriage to Miss Eliza Pardee, a daughter of Augustus Pardee, formerly a resident of Montgomery county, New York. They are the parents of three children, all daughters: Emily, Adelaide and Elsie. The daughters are still living and married.

He belongs to the Grangers and has been a life-long supporter of the Republican cause. In the matter of dealing out offices, he has received his share as well, having served as supervisor for a period of six years in the towns of Ellington and Gerry. Mr. Griffith is an exceptionally well preserved man for his age, which to a great extent must be attributed to the non-use of tobacco in any form. He, however, belongs to a family remarkable for longevity, having one sister ninety-one years of age and three others whose ages will average about eighty years. Mr. Griffith has an unusual memory in connection with his past experiences and incidents of early life. He has been a careful and continual reader of local and traditional history, as well as of contemporaneous occurrences and issues, and in these respects possesses a fund of information of rare value and detail.