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GRISWOLD, HENRY F., son of Franklin and Caroline E. (Wells) Griswold,
was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, July 10, 1838. Franklin Griswold
was a native of Berkshire, Vermont, and Caroline E. Wells of Greenfield,
Massachusetts.
Franklin Griswold came to St. Johnsbury Center about 1851, and engaged
in the tannery business there two years, then located in East St. Johnsbury,
where he continued the business until two years before his death, September
19, 1874, at the age of sixty-six. His wife died four years later. He was
a good type of the Vermont mechanic, industrious, economical, benevolent,
and strictly honorable in every relation of life. He was the first station
agent at East St. Johnsbury. The only survivors of the five children of
Franklin and Caroline E. Griswold are Henry F. and Captain Edward F. Griswold.
Henry Griswold received a common school training and one term at
St. Johnsbury academy, under the instruction of J. K. Colby.
At the age of twenty, he formed a partnership with his father in
the tannery business, and he continued in this line until 1893, when the
scarcity of hemlock bark and competition rendered it unprofitable. He employed
from two to five men, and his industry furnished a convenient market for
the hemlock bark of this section. He has continued to finish leather until
the fall of 1902. Henry Griswold has been station agent at East St. Johnsbury
nearly thirty years, and has discharged the duties of that position with
fidelity and uniform courtesy. In 1902 he fitted up the first floor of
the tannery building as a warehouse, and since that time has dealt extensively
in grain and feed of all kinds.
Mr. Griswold is one of the local landmarks of East St. Johnsbury,
and no one has done more than he for the moral and material advancement
of that community. He is a member and a liberal supporter of the Congregational
church, and for forty-five years has been a member of the choir and much
of the time chorister. He is a kindly, liberal, Christian gentleman.
Henry F. Griswold married, in 1870, Miss Lilla C. Johnson of Bloomfield,
Vermont, who died in 1879, leaving four children: Lilla Frances, wife of
Marcus J. Hovey of St. Johnsbury; Caroline M., assistant principal in Montpelier
high school; Grace Anna, a stenographer in the Central Vermont railroad
office at St. Albans, and Franklin Merrill, deceased.
Mr. Griswold married, in January, 1884, Flora D., daughter of Palmer
and Laura J. Russell of Kirby. They have one son, Palmer Russell Griswold,
a student of St. Johnsbury academy.
Source:
Successful Vermonters, William H. Jeffrey, E. Burke, Vermont, The Historical
Publishing Company, 1904, page110-111.
Prepared
by Tom Dunn, September 2005
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