Connecting with a new-found cousin

The only information I had about my Griffin ancestors was that Sim's father was John Henry Griffin, born in 1851 in Crab Orchard, Lincoln County, Kentucky. I posted a note on a genealogy forum (genealogy.com) under the Griffin surnames and asked if anyone had any information on him. A year later I had an e-mail from Jean Miller Jorgensen who turned out to be a descendant of John Henry's father (John Griffin, born in 1817). My father was the grandson of John Griffin and Malinda Goff. Jean lives in Houston and was a descendant of John Griffin's second wife, Sallie Ann Middleton. This e-mail began a connection and correspondence with this second cousin once removed (see post on "Determining Family Relationships"). Jean has very graciously shared much information with me on the Griffins, as well as other common ancestors. Her information provided me much of the information I will be posting on the Griffins. We have found much in common and have become internet friends. I do hope to meet her someday.

Some years ago, Jean compiled a record of all the old stories she had heard from and about family members and also observations, etc. She did this because she was getting older and was afraid there would be no one to remember these stories. I am glad I did this as I, as did Jean, want our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to know their ancestors.

Following are some things that she remembered or was told about the Griffins.


"John Griffin, born July 6, 1817 in Lincoln Co. KY and died Sept 21, 1878 in Newton Co. AR; he was the son of Claiborn Griffin and Hannah Mulkey. He married first to Malinda Goff. Malinda was the daughter of John Goff and Sabina Halley and after Melinda's death, John Griffin married his first wife's niece, Sallie Ann Middleton. Sallie was the daughter of Jordan Middleton and Mary Ann Goff and was born Jan 20, 1835 in Lincoln Co. KY and died Mar 30, 1921 in Alpena, Boone Co. AR. When her aunt died, Sallie went to take care of Malinda's and John's children and Sallie's father insisted that if she was going to stay there, she had to marry John Griffin. Sallie had not wanted to get married, but did. She did not care much for John Griffin and never talked about him after he died.



Some members of the family said that John Griffin was a member of the James gang but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time to have ridden with Jesse James. John Griffin owned a hotel in Kentucky.



John Griffin and family packed up and left Kentucky, on their way to California. They got only as far as Newton County AR and John became ill and died there. Grandpa (Robert E.) Griffin always remembered the trip from KY to AR - the boys had to walk barefooted, the girls got to ride in the wagon. Bob's brother Sim remembered this trip, too, and how they would trade apples for rides on the ferry to cross the rivers. I do not know if it was on this trip or while still in KY that Bob Griffin's brother Joe got a high fever that left him "deaf and dumb" which meant he was unable to hear or talk. He would communicate by sign language.



After John Griffin's death, Sallie married Laborn Hawkins Rowatt and liked him real well. Sallie smoked a corn cob pipe, wore glasses (these are the old glasses I have in the trunk). Thelma Jo Griffin Parker remembers going to her funeral: going over a railroad track to the cemetery, the pallbearers lowering the casket into the ground, dirt being put on the casket going "plunk, plunk, plunk". She had been living with her son Jim and his family in Alpena, AR. When she became ill, Jim sent a telegram to his brother Bob, saying that if he wanted to see his mother alive, he had better come quick. That night Bob dreamed that his mother had died and the next day, he got word that she had. The big picture in the closet (too heavy to hang on the wall) is of Sallie Ann.



John and his first wife Malinda (Goff) had children Williah H., John, male child born dead, Malissa, and Tolbert (or Albert) K. The children by his marriage to Sallie Middleton were Jane "Jenny" Williams, Mary Emma, Joseph Roland, Jordan Simeon, Sherrod Williams, Margaret Lucy, Robert Edward (my great-grandfather) and James Peebles.