|
 Cyndi's
List of Genealogy Sites
on the
Internet
Genealogy's Most
Wanted
| |
Samuel Griswold of Griswoldville,
Georgia
by Janet Michie Mann
|
What prompted a young New Englander to pack
up his family in 1820 and move hundreds of miles south to rural Georgia?
Perhaps it was the same desire for a better life and more opportunities
that caused his ancestor, Edward Griswold, to leave England and settle
in Connecticut almost 200 years before! Samuel Griswold, ninth child of
Jeremiah, may have felt that Burlington, Connecticut didn't offer enough
scope for his abilities or his dreams. The move to Georgia certainly
turned out to be a good one. Samuel became a leading citizen of Jones
County, founded a town (named Griswoldville, of course!), and was a
major arms supplier to the Confederate States of America. His family
flourished in their new home, and apparently adopted the South
whole-heartedly.
I first became curious about Samuel after seeing an
episode of Antiques Roadshow, which featured a Griswold & Gunnison
revolver and mentioned the town of Griswoldville. My research led me
from the GFA database and Bulletin archives to books on Confederate
handguns, the Family History Center of our local Church of Latter Day
Saints, and an on-line Civil War database.
For those interested in the guns themselves, I recommend the book
Confederate Handguns, by Albaugh, Benet and Simmons, published in 1963.
I found this in my local library, and it contains extensive information
on the specifications and materials used in manufacturing. I am neither
a genealogist nor an historian, so I apologize for any errors in this
article. As an anthropologist, my interest instead is in the people,
these transplanted Yankees who became such good Confederates in one
generation!
Samuel Griswold at 22 years of age married Louisa
Forbes, age 21, in Burlington, Connecticut in 1813. In the next five
years, they had three children, Roger (1814), Lucia (1816), and Elisha
Case (1818). Now 27, Samuel may have worried about providing for his
growing family. We may never know why he chose Georgia, but sometime in
1819 or 1820, Samuel moved his family to the town of Clinton in Jones
County, Georgia. Family lore held that Samuel and Louisa moved south
with their last surviving child (Lucia), after losing two others to
harsh northern winters. However, the genealogical record does not agree,
since it shows all three children living at the time of the move.
Samuel began work as a clerk in a store, and the family
continued to grow, with Giles born in Georgia in 1821, followed by Mary
(1823), Annie (1825), Elizabeth (1828), and finally Ellen (1830). Louisa
was now 39 years old, Samuel 40, and they had eight living children
until 1831, when their oldest child, Roger, died at age 17. During these
years, Samuel was probably deciding on the type of business he would
start, and gathering working capital. About 1828, he opened a factory in
Clinton manufacturing cotton gins. His partner in this operation appears
to have been Daniel Pratt, from New Hampshire. Daniel eventually moved
on to Alabama, where he founded the town of Prattville and later
designed the State Capitol building in Montgomery. However, the
relationship is remembered in 1853, when Samuel's grandson is named
Daniel Pratt Griswold.
The cotton gin business was a success, and after the Central Georgia
Railroad surveyed the area in 1835, Samuel decided to relocate on the
rail lines. Since his gins were shipped to Alabama, Louisiana, Texas,
Arkansas, and Mississippi, good transportation would certainly be
important. Samuel bought about 4,000 acres of land on the Central
Georgia Railroad Line about 9 miles east of Macon, and there he founded
Griswoldville. The community was well established by 1850. In addition
to the cotton gin factory, it included an iron foundry, a sawmill, a
gristmill, a post office, a church, a store and homes for himself and
several of his children. Additionally, there were cottages for the
workers, many of whom were slaves.
The Census of 1850 gives us a snapshot in time of this
Griswold family. Samuel and Louisa's household included their youngest
daughter, Ellen, 20 and not yet married, their third daughter, Annie
Stubbs, a 25-year-old widow with a 5-year-old son, and their fourth
daughter Elizabeth, age 22, with her husband Henry W. Dorsey, age 40,
and their 6-year-old son. Henry Dorsey gives his occupation as
"Assistant Manufacturer," so one assumes he worked with Samuel in the
cotton gin factory. Also included in the household was a 28-year-old
overseer named Thomas Stallworth. Samuel listed his occupation as
"Manufacturer," with a property value of $70,000. Nearby lived
eldest daughter Lucia, aged 34, with her husband Francis S. Johnson,
aged 41, a merchant born in South Carolina. Their household included
their seven children, born between 1836 and 1849. Perhaps Francis ran
the store there in Griswoldville! His property value is given as $2,500.
Not too far away lived Samuel's youngest son, Giles H. Griswold, aged
29, a farmer. His household included his wife Penina, aged 28, three
children born between 1844 and 1848, an 8-year-old girl named Sophronia
Gibson, and 25-year-old overseer William A. Marshall. Giles' property is
valued at $8,400. More distant but still in Jones County lived
second daughter Mary, age 26 with her husband Daniel Newman Smith, a 36
year old farmer, and their three children, born between 1843 and 1849.
Their property value is stated as $6,000.
Others appear in the 1850 Census whose paths will
eventually cross those of Samuel's family. Robert Barron, who will marry
Giles' daughter Louisa Griswold (not yet born), is a 16 year old living
with his family. His father, Horatio Barron, is a well to do
Physician/farmer from South Carolina, with property in Jones County
valued at $26,000. William D. Ethridge, a 17-year-old clerk rooming in a
hotel, will marry Lucia's oldest daughter, Louisa Johnson. Richard W.
Bonner, who will marry Samuel's daughter Ellen soon, is a 27-year-old
merchant living in the household of a farmer named Parish. And Robert V.
Cox, who will marry Giles' daughter Mary, born in 1848, is an 8 year old
on his parents' farm.
By 1855, a man named Gunnison is employed in the cotton
gin factory in "a position of responsibility." Samuel is now 64 years
old, and probably ready to retire. His son Elisha, age 39, dies in 1857,
and daughter Mary, age 36, in 1859. Also in 1859, Lucia dies at age 43.
She does not live to see her son Samuel Griswold Johnson die in 1864
after having a leg amputated after Chancellorsville.
But now fate steps in to call Samuel Griswold back to
work, as the War Between the States changes life in the South. In 1862
the Governor of Georgia appealed to the manufacturers of his State to
make weapons called Georgia pikes, an iron pike on a 6-foot staff, for
the price of $5 each. Sam Griswold realized that there would not be a
market for cotton gins for the duration of the conflict, and converted
his factory to pike manufacture. From April 3 until June 2, 1862, the
factory at Griswoldville made over 800 pikes, several of which have
survived, and bear the Griswold name on the blade. Although pikes
continued to be bought by the Confederate Army throughout 1862, no more
came from Griswoldville. After June, Samuel turned his attention to a
much more valuable addition to the Confederate arsenal - the copy of the
Colt 1851 Revolver that became known as the Griswold & Gunnison.
In May of 1862, Griswold & Gunnison had a contract to
supply as many revolvers as possible at $40 each. The first specimen was
delivered for testing in July. At that time, the factory had another 100
in the works. The factory consisted of 22 machines operated by 24
workers, 22 of whom were slaves! There were some problems at first with
this new manufacturing process, but in October the first 18 revolvers
were accepted by the Army, and from then on both quantity and quality
improved.
The major challenge faced by Griswold & Gunnison was
obtaining the necessary metal supplies. Iron and brass were increasingly
hard to get. In spite of difficulties, however, the factory managed to
produce over 100 revolvers a month during the time it was in operation,
from October 1862 to November 1864. In all, a total of 3,606 Griswold &
Gunnison revolvers were supplied to the Army of the Confederacy, about
as many as all other revolver manufacturers combined.
On November 11, 1864, General Sherman began his march
to the sea from Atlanta. Samuel Griswold found himself on that route. On
November 22, 1864, the factory was destroyed during the Battle of
Griswoldville, and no more pistols were made. In addition, almost every
house in town was burned down.
Samuel and Louisa survived the war, having seen six of
their eight children die before them. Giles died in 1862 at age 41, and
Ellen in the same year, only 32. Samuel died in 1867, at age 77, and
Louisa followed him in 1870, at age 79. Only Annie Stubbs and Elizabeth
Dorsey Grier outlived their parents.
Many members of the family served in the Confederate
Army. Company "B" of the 12th Georgia Infantry was also known as the
"Jones Volunteers." It included Harry Dorsey, Elizabeth's son, killed in
1864 in Winchester, Virginia, and Isaac Hardeman, who after the war
married Lucia Griswold, Giles' daughter. The 45th Georgia Infantry
included Samuel H. Griswold, Elisha's oldest son, discharged with
disability after Winchester, William A. Griswold, possibly Giles's
oldest son, who enlisted in July 1864, when he would have been 18, and
Charles Augustus Conn, first husband of Lucia Griswold, who was killed
in 1865 at Petersburg, Virginia. Like a scene from "Gone With The Wind,"
I can imagine Lucia, just 18 years old in 1862, waving farewell to her
young husband as he rides off to enlist. Three years later she is a
21-year-old widow. Richard W. Bonner was in the 45th for a few months in
1862, resigning due to disability in August. His wife Ellen Griswold
Bonner died in 1862, leaving five small children including an infant.
Did he resign to return home to care for his young family? Lucia's
second son, Francis S. Johnson, Jr. also served in the 45th, enlisting
as a Sergeant in 1862 and furloughed due to illness in 1865, with the
rank of Captain. He died in 1911 in Gray, Georgia.
Equally fascinating as the Civil War records is the
1880 Census. I found a number of family members still in the Jones
County area. Peyton Griswold, Elisha's grandson and Samuel's
great-grandson, was a 6-year-old living with his maternal grandparents.
His uncle Samuel H. Griswold is 35, married, lives in Clinton and lists
his occupation as "Agent in Factory." Clinton is also home to Richard
Johnson (son of Lucia Griswold Johnson), 33 year old Attorney at Law,
married to Annie Griswold (daughter of Giles), his first cousin.
Included in the household are Annie's two younger sisters, Lizzie and
Ellie Griswold.
Nearby in Clinton lives Robert Hardeman, Sr., Attorney
at Law, whose wife is Ellen Griswold Smith, Mary's daughter. Their six
children, ages 13 years to 2 months, are joined by Ellen's aunt, Annie
Stubbs. Now 55 and disabled, she never remarried after being widowed at
age 25. Also living there is James Stubbs, 9 years old, who must be
Annie's grandson. Elisha's third son, Daniel Pratt Griswold, is
listed in the Census as Pratt Griswold, a 27-year-old farmer with a wife
and a one-year-old son named Elisha. R. Henry Bonner, a 26-year-old
farmer married to Fanny, is almost certainly Ellen and Richard Bonner's
son Henry R. Bonner, born in 1854.
Perhaps the most interesting entries in the 1880 Census
are the Griswolds whose race is given as black. How tempting it is to
speculate that these may be the former slaves, or children of the
slaves, who worked in the Griswoldville factory or on Giles' farm. They
include farmers James Griswold, 40 and his wife Lindy, with their eleven
children, Richard Griswold, 37, and Augustus Griswold, 38, both with
wives and children. Benny Griswold, 30, is a servant. John Griswold, 26,
is a laborer, with a 19-year-old wife and 2 sons. A mulatto woman named
Allice Griswold is a 25-year-old servant with a young son.
This family of transplanted Yankees certainly did their
share for the Confederacy during the War Between the States, supplying
both men and material in ample quantities. Samuel apparently eagerly
turned his factory to manufacturing weapons, and many of the young men
enlisted early in 1862, when the local regiments were first formed. Were
they accepted by then as Southerners, or possibly still regarded with
some suspicion? The girls married men born in the South, and the family
clearly owned and used slaves in several capacities. In short, they seem
to have fitted comfortably into the way of life that they found when
they arrived in Georgia. |
|
