Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 555 - 556 

PHILO GRIFFIN, who is interested in the coal and grain business at Furley, is numbered among the leading men of Lincoln Township. There are but few public enterprises in which he is not interested in some manner. Mr. Griffin, in addition to the business already mentioned, is carrying on farming and stock-raising on section 8, where he owns eighty acres of land, situated about one mile from the new and ambitious little town of Furley, which has been constituted a station of the Rock Island Road. Our subject, in addition to general agriculture is considerably interested in stock-raising, and is one of those wide-awake men who are always ready to take advantage of whatever opportunity offers in the shape of business or trade.

            The subject of this history, a Vermonter, was born in Franklin County, that State, Dec. 25, 1836, and was the fifth child in the family of Willard and Sarah (Layton) Griffin, who were also natives of the Green Mountain State. The father followed farming considerably, and was also a mechanic. About 1850 he left New England with his family, and settled in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., where he turned his attention exclusively to farming, and where his death occurred in 1851. The mother subsequently came to this county, and died at the home of her son Philo, in 1875, at the advanced age of seventy-two years.

            Young Griffin pursued his early studies in the district schools of his native county, and acquired his first lessons in agriculture among his native hills. He removed with his parents to New York, where he remained until after the death of his father, and then migrated to Whiteside County, Ill., settling in 1856 on a farm in Profit Township. He labored two years singly and alone, and then secured for himself a life partner, being married, Dec. 25, 1858, to Miss Charlotte C. Lee, who was of Swedish birth and parentage, born in 1840, and came with her parents to the United States when a young girl twelve years of age. She was the third in a family of five children, and her parents are now dead.

            Mr. Griffin after his marriage continued farming in Whiteside County until 1864, then crossed the Father of Waters into Webster County, Iowa. There he homesteaded eighty acres, and improved a good farm, which he sold in September, 1870. His next removal was to Woodson County, this State, where he was engaged as a fireman. In the meantime he purchased a tract of railroad land. Eighteen months later he sold his claim and came to this county, pre-empting in Lincoln Township, in March, 1872, eighty acres of raw prairie on section 8. He put up a small house with lumber which he hauled from Newton, a distance of seventeen miles, commenced breaking land that year, and the year following planted an orchard. In this manner he effected his improvements, and with his surplus capital purchased another eighty acres, which, however, he subsequently sold, still retaining possession of his first land. This he has brought to a good state of cultivation, and upon it erected a first-class set of frame buildings. The farm is stocked with high-grade Clyde and Norman horses, Durham cattle, and Poland-China and Berkshire swine.

            The five children born to our subject and his wife were named respectively: Charles W., Emma E. Maria A., Frederick Lee and Minnie E. Charles W. is married, and assists his father in carrying on the store; Emma, Mrs. Stevenson, resides not far from the home of her parents; the other children are attending school. Mr. Griffin, as one of the earliest settlers of Lincoln Township, assisted in the organization of the school districts, and was instrumental in establishing the first school within its limits. This was effected in 1872, the year of his arrival here, and the building put up in his district that same year. He has been a member of the board for several years, and has always taken a lively interest in politics; and votes the straight Republican ticket. He and his excellent lady are members of the Methodist Protestant Church, of which Mr. Griffin is a Trustee, and has always been a liberal and cheerful contributor to its support. No man takes a deeper interest or greater pride in the moral and financial welfare of Sedgwick County.

[ Home ]