Sacramento Valley Biographies

IRWIN GRIFFITH

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, May 2009.

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

        Prominent among the native-born citizens of Sutter county is Irwin
Griffith, a substantial agriculturist, whose large and highly improved ranch
adjoins Sutter, lying near the foot of Butte mountain. The worthy
representative of an honored pioneer family of this section, he has been
actively identified with its development and progress, and as opportunity
has offered has lent his influence toward the establishment of beneficial
enterprises. A son of the late Evan Griffith, he was born on the farm which
he now owns and occupies, his birth occurring October 1, 1860.

       Born and reared in Wales, Evan Griffith immigrated when a young man,
in 1840, to the United States, and settled first in Pennsylvania, but
subsequently located near Chicago, Illinois. In 1849, following the trail of
the gold seekers, he came across the plains to California, owning an eighth
interest in the outfit. For two years he was engaged in mining in Nevada
county, meeting with satisfactory success. Going back to Illinois in 1851,
he married, and in 1852, returned by way of Panama to the mines of Nevada
county. The next year, in 1853, he settled on the land now owned and
occupied by his son Irwin, taking up a homestead claim, and was here engaged
in farming and stock-raising during the remainder of his life. He bought
adjoining land as he had the oppor-tunity, becoming possessor of about eight
hundred acres, a part of which, when the boom came, his son sold as a site
for Sutter, the tract of which he disposed containing forty acres. His
death, which occurred in 1881, at the age of sixty years, was a loss to the
community, as well as to his family. He was a stanch Republican in politics,
and a valued member of the Marysville Pioneers' Association. In 1852, in
Illinois, he married Harriet Barker, who was born in New York state, but was
reared in Illinois, where her parents, natives of Vermont, located when she
was an infant. She survived her husband ten years, dying in 1891, at the age
of seventy years. But one child blessed their union, namely: Irwin Griffith,
the special subject of this sketch.

        After the death of his father, Irwin Griffith, who had been brought
up on the home farm, and educated in the district school, assumed charge of
the paternal homestead, and on the death of his mother inherited the entire
estate. Enterprising and active, he made constant additions to the
improvements already inaugurated, and has now one of the most valuable and
attractive homesteads in the county. At present Mr. Griffith rents about
four hundred and sixty acres of his ranch, but retains the pasture, and is
extensively engaged in this line of industry. 

         In January, 1889, Mr. Griffith married Rose French, who was born in
Illinois, and came with her parents to California in infancy. Mr. and Mrs.
Griffith have two children, namely: Leonora G. and Harriet Rose. Politically
Mr. Griffith is identified with the Republican party but has never been an
office seeker. Fraternally he belongs to Yuba City Lodge No. 185, I. O. O.
F., and stands high in Masonic circles, being a member of Enterprise Lodge
No. 70, F. & A. M., of Yuba City; Washington Chapter No. 13, R. A. M., of
Marysville; Marys-ville Commandery No. 7., K. T.; and of Oakland Consistory
No. 2.

"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the
Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Company,
Chicago, 1906, Pages 495-496.