“Reminiscences
told by mother to me when I was quite young.”
By
Permelia Griffing
(a daughter of Rev. John Griffing & a sister of Rev. James S. Griffing)
Grandfather Griffing was a sea captain
and his family lived in Guilford, Connecticut. Their home was near the seashore,
a large building for the accommodation of travelers. Their names were Jasper
Griffing and Jemima (Vail) Griffing. Only three of the
children I remember -- Henry, Clarissa, and John.
When Henry and John became of age, they
each sought them a wife and started for "the west" as it was then
called, with quite a large company who were going to settle in Berkshire, Tioga
County, New York. They prepared themselves with everything necessary for such an
undertaking, even drove their cows and sheep. Henry Griffing
had his wagon covered with duck canvas so it would not leak and drove a span of
horses. John Griffing had his wagon covered and drove a yoke of
oxen, other families in the same way. The women of course had the most
comfortable seats, if any could be called so. Springs on wagons in those days
were not a very common occurrence. A stage as far as Albany was the only public
conveyance. Mails were carried mostly on horseback.
John married Lydia Redfield.
Her father was Beriah Redfield and her mother's name was Dorothy
Stevens. There were, of the children, Polly, Lucy (she became blind),
Marjory, Rhoda and Lydia. John and Lydia were my father and mother. Lydia's
father, Beriah Redfield was a deacon of the Presbyterian Church -- a man very
strict in regard to religious duties. Mother, a Presbyterian, was never
permitted to visit her parents after her marriage to John, my father, a
Methodist. She lived to be seventy-eight years old, dying in Owego in the home
of her youngest daughter, Mary Griffing.
[Mary married Grove N. Pike and moved to Waverly, New York.]
Upon arrival at] their destination,
John and Henry selected their pieces of land [in Berkshire, New York] and went
to work cutting away the saplings and putting up log houses. It did not take
them but a few days to get them good comfortable dwellings close by a nice
spring of water.
The first Bible that father had was a
large family Bible. I used to get it sometimes after I was old enough to read,
to see if I could read it. One peculiarity there was about it -- the letters
"S" were sometimes made long like an "F" with a hook on each
end which bothered me.
Clarissa Griffing,
father's sister, married a man by the name of Rossiter Parmele.
She had two sons, John and Frederic. They occupied the Griffing homestead [in
Guilford] after Grandfather's death for a number of years and then sold out and
came to Owego some time in the [eighteen] forties. I remember Pa's going down to
Guilford to visit the old home when I was about eight years of age [@ 1840], and
when he came back he had a large quantity of sea shells. Everybody that came to
see us must have some of them. One was made into a horn which we used to call
the men to dinner.
My parents had twelve children. One
died in infancy, Artemesia Griffing. The next death was a
brother, Beriah Redfield Griffing, 18 years old who was taken
sick in the field and brought to the house. He died in two hours with
inflammation of the bowels. This was the first time in my remembrance that we
were called to mourn. I remember afterwards when anyone came to see us after
that, my mother would always have to tell what a wonderful dream she had, and
she would tell it and cry so she could hardly talk, it made her cry so.
The rest of the children lived to get
married. Henry Griffing married Mary Ann Dodge.
She died in a few years and he married Nancy Orcutt. He later
went to Kansas, died with a fever and left a wife and three children.
Clarissa Griffing
married Rev. Charles W. Giddings of Wyoming Conference. They
moved to Table Rock, Nebraska. Clarissa died of typhoid fever when sixty-eight
years old after caring for her husband who died of the same disease the year
before.
Brother John Griffing
lived in Union Springs on Cayuga Lake where he worked in a store. He is said to
have died of Bright's Disease. The last time I saw him we were stationed at
Candor. On his way to New York after goods, he stopped and staid all night with
us. It was snowing hard when he left. The storm increased and when they reached
Port Jarvis, they were snowbound for several days. I shall always remember the
beautiful wedding present he sent me -- a nice dress and a set of teaspoons. He
was quite an old bachelor before he got married. His wife's name was Sally
Ann Beardsley. They had one daughter who died in youth and his wife
died a few years later. Brother John always made his home with Daniel
Messereau who was in the mercantile business. He had no sons of his own
and wanted John to live with him. We always looked for him once a year and he
never failed to bring mother and the small children a present. Once my present
was a nice little book filled with poetry. Everyday I would have to read it
through. Soon I was able to repeat it all by just looking at the pictures and
passages of scripture from the Bible. Those passages were printed more indelibly
on my mind than most others I have learned since.
The next one that died was sister Lydia
Griffing. She married John Kelly of Owego. After
living there a few years, they moved to Baltimore. She had to move in two rooms
that were not dry on account of [being] recently plastered and she took cold.
Consumption took hold of her. She came home to Owego with her children, three
girls and a boy, in August and died in November [1846]. Mother cared for her
children until he married again. He married Charlotte Hill of
Owego. They moved to Brooklyn, New York, and he became mayor of the city for a
while.
Daniel Griffing lived
in Baltimore and married a milliner by trade and member of the Protestant
church, [named Eliza Shaffner.] He joined the church with her
and when he died, was the superintendent of the Sabbath School. He left a boy by
the name of Colby who has since died.
James Griffing, the
next youngest, went to Wesleyan University and was licensed to preach. He was
sent as a missionary to Kansas. He married Augusta Goodrich of
Owego. They went on a claim, made a home in Topeka, [and raised] two sons and
one daughter. The children all graduated at Manhattan College and became
influential members of society. James became worn down in a protracted meeting.
Typhoid fever was the cause of his death.
The next of the family was Samuel
Griffing. Samuel married Lucy Melvina Taylor of Owego.
He died about two years since [1896] with a stroke of apoplexy as he was making
the fire in the morning. His wife is still living [in 1898] in her home there.
Osmyn Griffing went to
Nebraska where he clerked in a store for a while. He then married [Sarah L.
Reavis on July 4, 1861 in Falls City, Nebraska Territory], took up a
claim, and tried to make them a home but he did not live to enjoy it. [He
died in the winter of 1873-74, leaving his wife with one boy and four girls.]
My name is Permelia Griffing,
daughter of John and Lydia Redfield Griffing. I was born in Tioga [1831] about a
mile west of Owego. Here father was a Methodist preacher belonging to the old
Oneida Conference. His life work for nearly thirty years was traveling circuits
up and down the Susquehanna River and adjoining territory, which now includes
Wyoming Conference. [His circuits extended from] Windsor on the northeast, to
Wilkes-Barre in the southeast, and Ithaca on the northwest, to Towanda on the
southwest. From three to six weeks he would be gone from home sometimes.
Father formed the first Methodist
church class in Owego at the McQuigg house near where the Lackawanna Depot now
stands. A man by the name of Thurston was class leader. Aunt Sally
Manning of Binghamton said father used to hold meetings in her house
before there was any Methodist Episcopal church there. The place was then called
Chenango Point. The first settlers located back on the hills thinking it would
be more healthy.
But what a wonderful stride the world
has taken in my day. It is enough to make the hairs of the aged turn white and
the limbs to lose their elasticity. I have often wondered how mother got along
as she did, raising such a large family and father gone more than one-third of
the time. Her house was the accommodation for every traveler that ever heard Pa
preach. She said it would take her three days to get out her washing -- no
washboards, everything rubbed by hand.
Mother always lived on a farm. The boys
as they grew up did the cultivation. They lived within the bounds of Owego
Charge -- that was the meeting place while mother lived. Robert Fox,
A.J. Crandall, F. F. Stanton, William
Reddy, William Pearce were among the pastors in my
childhood. Brother Mulkey was Sunday School superintendent. One
of the stewards, brother Dewey told me that he was pastor when
my father experienced religion. The log schoolhouse was so crowded that some of
the men had to sit on the embankment under the windows. When he heard his wife's
prayers for him, he said that was more than he could stand, arose and went into
the house and asked for prayers. It was the beginning of a great revival. In a
few years he was licensed to preach. His greatest forte was in prayer and
exhortation. Dr. R. R. Clark said he heard him exhort once at a
Camp Meeting in Owego Creek and the likes of it he never heard before from any
man living.
Father died at the age of 61. He had
been called, "Old Father Griffing" for a number of years. In those
days, false teeth were not thought of, and made folks look older as many lost
their teeth. He wore a white cravat and white hat and traveled on horseback with
a valise fastened on back.
My
thanks to Don Bloomfield and Carol Pullen-Reynolds for sharing this treasure
with me.
–
W. J. Griffing
Names
appearing in these memoirs include Jasper Griffing
(1748-1807),
Jemima Vail (1751-1807), Henry Griffing
(1782-1820), John Griffing (1784-1844), Lydia Redfield
(1792-1872), Beriah Redfield (1744-1819), Dorothy
Stevens (1751-?), Mary Griffing (1834-?), Clarissa
Griffing (1791-1850), Rossiter Parmele (Abt 1790-?), Artemesia
Griffing (1821-1821), Beriah Griffing (1819-1837), Henry
Griffing (1809-1855), Mary Ann Dodge (1813-1836),
Nancy Orcutt (1821-?), Clarissa Griffing
(1810-1880), Charles
W. Giddings (1810-1879), John Griffing (1815-1855), Sally
Ann Beardsley (1818-1881), Daniel Messereau (Abt
1790-Aft 1855), Lydia Griffing (1813-1846), John Kelly
(1812-1880), Charlotte Hill (Abt 1815-?), Daniel
Griffing (1817-Abt 1865), Eliza Shaffner (Abt
1822-Abt 1910), James Griffing (1822-1882), Augusta Goodrich
(1829-1906), Samuel Griffing (1825-1896), Lucinda
Melvina Taylor (1829-1901), Osmyn Griffing (1828-Aft
1866), Permelia Griffing (1831-1916), Thurston,
Sally Manning, Robert Fox, A. J.
Crandall, F. F. Stanton, William Reddy,
William Pearce, Mulkey, Dewey, R.R. Clark,
Grover N. Pike.
