George Washington Griffin, Great Grandfather
Sept. 7, 1854 Madison Co., AL – Sept. 26, 1929 Cullman Co., AL
George Washington Griffin was born in Madison County in 1854. In early 1860 his family moved to Valhermoso Springs, Alabama. He grew up in Morgan County and farmed with his father. As noted above, in June of 1880, George W. was living with his dad and step mother and farming in Valhermoso Springs. But, in November of that same year, George Washington Griffin married Laura Jane Houston (whose gg grandfather was our Patriot Samuel Houston). During her courtship and engagement, Laura Jane was living with her parents, Samuel Theodore and Mattie Houston, 10 miles away in Somerville, AL.
Laura and George W. married at Samuel T. and Mattie’s home:
George W. and Laura had six kids. Minnie Lee Griffin (our grandmother) was their oldest child born in 1881. They also had Lily Maud, Marvin Theodore, Roy Casin, Frank C. and Annie (who some of you may remember as Ann Stuart married to Dick. They lived in Maryland).
1890 Census records were lost in a warehouse fire, so we have no information for George W. and Laura that year. In 1900, they were living in Pct. 2, Beat 8 Valhermoso Springs and farming leased land. One of their neighbors, also a farmer, was 45-year-old Hugh W. Rice. Hugh was a widower and only 6 months younger than George W. In August of 1900, Hugh W. married George’s daughter, 19-year-old Minnie Lee Griffin.
In 1910, George W. and Laura moved a little north and were renting farm land at Mooresville (Hwy 20) and Swancott Roads (now just off I-565) in Limestone County. They were in house #119.
Laura died in 1918. In 1920, at 65, George W. was renting a house in Mooresville and he had the youngest, Annie (age 7) living with him. George died in Belle Mina on September 27, 1929. He was 74 years old and died from chronic nephritis and partial paralysis. George W. and Laura Houston Griffin are both buried in the Houston family cemetery in Somerville, AL.
No will has been located for George W. probably owing to the lack of any measurable real or personal property to pass on to his heirs, a similar situation as his father’s. One has to wonder at the difference in lifestyles/success for George W. and Joseph Casen, from that of their grandfather/father, Joseph. It is fair speculation that their loss of property/assets resulted largely from the geographic and economic devastation wrought by the Civil War; southern cotton’s wartime and post-war loss of market share to other countries, e.g. India and Brazil; and, sluggish economic diversification in the south following the war. They simply couldn’t overcome these factors.