Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

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COLONEL GEORGE BUTLER GRIFFIN

was born September 8, 1840, in New York City, where his father, Charles 
Alexander Griffin, was an attorney at law; his mother was Pastora de Forest, of 
New Haven.  On both sides of the house he is descended from a long line of 
honorable and eminent ancestors. The Griffin family was originally Welsh, and 
has a coat of arms. The subject of this sketch is the eighth in line of descent 
from Jasper Griffin, a Welsh royalist, who emigrated to America in the year 
1643, and first settled in Massachusetts, and afterward in Southold, Long 
Island, where he was a Major of provincial troops. His son, Jasper Griffin, Jr., 
moved to Haddam, Connecticut. Peter Griffin, the great-great-grandfather of 
George Butler Griffin, was a prisoner on the famous prison-ship Jersey, where 
death terminated his sufferings. George Griffin, his grandfather, was a 
well-known barrister in New York City for fifty-two years. His great-uncle, the 
Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin, D. D., was a president of Williams College. His mother 
was the eighth in the line of descent from Henri de Forest, the leader of the 
Walloon Colony, from Leyden, Holland, and, in 1636, was the founder of Harlem, 
which is now a part of New York City. Henri de Forest became a counsellor under 
Governor Peter Stuyvesant. An uncle of Mrs. Griffin's mother was General 
Wooster, a distinguished officer of the Revolution. Admiral Wooster, a kinsman 
of Mrs. Griffin, gave her away at her marriage. Her father, David Curtis de 
Forest, went to Buenos Ayres before the revolution in that country, and there 
acquired considerable property. In that struggle he became a member of the 
revolutionary party, was elected to the first Congress of that Republic, and 
returned to the United States of America as Consul General of the Argentine 
Republic, being the first representative of that country at Washington. Colonel 
Griffin has portraits of him and his wife in full dress, as they were presented 
to President Monroe. The paintings are the work of Samuel F. B. Morse, the 
inventor of the electric telegraph, and, in his younger days, a portrait painter 
of note. Colonel Griffin's father's mother was Lydia Butler, a daughter of 
Colonel Zebulon Butler, of Wilkes Barre, who commanded the American forces at 
the Wyoming massacre, and who was the founder of that colony from Connecticut. 
After Arnold's treason General Washington placed Colonel Butler in command of 
West Point. Collaterally Mrs. Griffin is related to the families of Griswold, 
Wolcott, Selden, Hyde, Lord, Dorr, Peck, Sands, and others among the founders of 
Connecticut and New York. Colonel Griffin was educated at Columbia College, and 
afterward studied engineering. The first position he held was on the New York 
State works. When eighteen years old he went with Captain T. A. M. Craven, U. S. 
N., on a United States exploring expedition for a ship canal across the Isthmus 
of Darien. After this he was assistant engineer in the service of the Louisiana 
Tehuantepec Company, and was engaged in surveying a railroad line across the 
Isthmus of Tehuantepec. He then returned to New York, shortly after which his 
father died, and he studied law for the purpose of settling his father's estate, 
which had been left in a complicated condition. He was admitted to the bar of 
New York in the spring of 1860. As a science, he is very fond of the law, but 
has never cared much for it as a profession. In 1860 he was married in Albany to 
Sarah Edwards, daughter of Judge James Edwards, and had the misfortune to lose 
his wife and two children within three years. He went to the United States of 
Colombia in 1863, as a civil engineer, and for three years was chief of 
engineers in the Colombian service, holding a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel; 
for six years he was State engineer of the State of Antioquia, and later chief 
engineer of the Cauca Railway. In 1872 he settled on a plantation in the Cauca 
Valley, and for four years did very well. He took part in the revolution of 
1876, unfortunately for him on the losing side, and was forced to leave the 
country. While there, in 1870, he married Eva Guadalupe, daughter of Dr. Manuel 
Maria Garcia de la Plaza, a distinguished jurist of Buga, in the State of Cauca. 
The marriage ceremony was performed by proxy, a custom not infrequent in 
Catholic countries. Upon leaving the Republic of Colombia he came with his 
family to San Francisco, where he arrived in January, 1877. An inventory of his 
personal effects and belongings amounted to his wife and three children, the 
cash sum of $1.75 in his pocket, a debt to the purser of the ship for passage, 
and a supposed knowledge that he did not have a single acquaintance or relative 
on the Pacific Coast. He met H. H. Bancroft, who was married to one of his 
kinswomen, and was employed as a historical writer in the Bancroft library till 
the summer of 1880, when he received a telegram from Rome, Italy, summoning him 
to the bedside of his only sister in order to bring her home. While on this trip 
he spent some months in France and Italy. Colonel Griffin had previously visited 
Europe, in 1854, spending some time in England and on the continent. He also 
made several voyages between the United States and South America, and has 
visited many of the West Indian islands. He has voyaged westward, also, as far 
as the Sandwich Islands. After his return to America, in the fall of 1880, he 
met James B. Eads, of jetty fame, in Philadelphia, and accompanied him, as chief 
of staff, to Mexico, to get a concession for a ship railway across the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec. On his return to New Orleans Eads sent him to Tampico with a 
party to make a thorough survey of the bar of Tampico and the river P�nuco, 
which work Eads caused to be done for the Mexican Government as an act of 
courtesy. Colonel Griffin then resigned, came to Los Angeles in the spring of 
1881, and went to work on the reportorial staff of the Express, his first detail 
being to report the trial of Miss Abarta for the killing of Chico Forster. While 
at work on the Express he received a telegram from the chief engineer of the 
Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, calling him to San Francisco. He went, and, in 
consequence, took charge of the division of the road comprising the passes of 
the Sierra from Fort Tejon to Tehachepi, and the route across the desert 
eastward to the Fish Ponds on the Mojave River, and made the preliminary 
location of the road in the summer of 1881. After a severe ride over the desert 
sands of 102 miles to San Bernardino he found a letter stating that one of his 
children was dead and buried, before he even knew it was sick. He resolved to no 
longer pursue a profession that required him to be away from his family, and 
accordingly abandoned engineering, and located himself and his family 
permanently in Los Angeles. He has been an editorial writer on the Times, 
Herald, Commercial, Telegram and Express, and in politics is a Democrat. In 1884 
he was admitted to the California bar, taking this step in order that he might 
be in a better position to examine land titles, and for five and a half years 
has been a notary public.  During all this time he has been a constant 
contributor to leading magazines and other periodicals and the daily press. His 
pen is not altogether confined to prose, and many of his poetic gems shine with 
more than usual lustre. He is a deep thinker, a profound classic, English, 
Spanish and French scholar, and a thorough biblipole and historian. He has a 
pleasant home in East Los Angeles. His botanical garden is filled with exotics, 
and plants rare and curious. He has collected a choice and excellently selected 
library of more than 3,000 volumes. His eldest daughter, Eva, now sixteen years 
of age, is developing a remarkable talent for sculpture, and has modeled some 
busts from life that are an astonishment and a delight. His home is truly one of 
refinement, learning and contentment.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 479
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler