USA > New York > New York City > Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city > Part 41
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In the second American generation, Samuel Greenwood, son of Nathaniel Greenwood, also a shipbuilder and selectman, married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Bronsdon, of Boston, and died in 1721. His son, Isaac Greenwood, born in 1702, graduated from Harvard College in 1721, studied divinity, and, perfecting himself in mathematies with Dr. Desaguliers, in London, became the first Hollisian professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Harvard College in 1727. His wife, Sarah, daughter of Dr. John Clarke, was a niece and namesake of the Reverend Doctor Cotton Mather's last wife.
Isaac Greenwood, son of Professor Isaac Greenwood, was born in Cambridge in 1730 and died in 1803. He was one of the expert makers of mathematical instruments in his generation, his services being called into requisition by Dr. Benjamin Franklin. His wife, Mary l'ans, was a sister- in-law of Colonel Thomas Walker, of Montreal, remembered for his endeavors to arouse the Canadians to join us in our struggle for independence. His son, Dr. John Greenwood, born in Boston in 1760, became a famous physician in New York City. A devoted patriot, he joined the provincial army of Boston in 1775, but after the battle of Trenton, left the land service, and, sailing on various privateers, attained the rank of Captain, and was four times a prisoner of war. At the end of the hostilities, he settled in New York City, where he lived until his death, in 1819. His son, Dr. Isaac John Greenwood, M. D., D. D. S., born in 1795, was a member of the Governor's Guard during the War of 1812. He succeeded to his father's practice, retired in 1839, and died in 1865. By his first wife, Sarah Vanderhoof Bogert, daughter of John Gilbert and Jane (Earl) Bogert, he had three daughters. His second wife, whom he married in 1832, was Mary McKay, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Riddell) Mckay, of New York, and was mother of two sons, Isaac John and Langdon Greenwood.
Mr. Isaac John Greenwood, son of Dr. Isaac John Greenwood, was born in New York, November 15th, 1833. Graduated from Columbia College in 1853, he received the degree of A. M. in 1857. He studied chemistry with Professor Robert Ogden Doremus and attended lectures in the New York Medical College, 1856-61. Having been one of the original members in 1859, Mr. Greenwood was an incorporator and first vice-president of the American Numismatic and Archæo- logical Society in 1864. He is also a corresponding member of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society and of the Buffalo Historical Society, and a member of the New York Historical, the New York Genealogical and Biographical, the American Geographical and Statistical, and the Long Island Historical Societies, the Dunlap Society, and the Prince Society of Boston; also of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the New York Botanical Garden and Zoological Societies. He is also a member of the Sons of the Revolution and of the Grand Consistory of the Collegiate Dutch Church. His wife, Mary Agnes Rudd, daughter of Joseph and Eliza E. (Barnes) Rudd, whom he married in 1866, died in October, 1890. He lives at 271 West End Avenue, and is a member of the Colonial Club.
246
FRANCIS BUTLER GRIFFIN
O F Welsh origin, the Griffins and Griffings of the present generation trace their descent from the Griffiths and Gruffids, great families in the history of the principality. The last Prince of Wales, Llewellyn ap Griffiths, is the progenitor of the different branches. In the United States, there have been two notable Colonial families bearing the name. One descends from Cyrus Griffing, of Virginia, and the other from Jasper Griffing, who was born in Wales about 1648, and came to New England when a child. He resided in Essex, Mass., in 1670. He married in Massachusetts, and with his wife, Hannah, moved to Southold, Long Island, in 1675. His descendants in Long Island, Connecticut and New York have been numerous.
In the second American generation, Jasper Griffin, second of the name, born about 1675, married Ruth Peck, daughter of Joseph and Sarah Peck, of Lyme, Conn. Lemuel Griffin, son of the second Jasper Griffin, was born about 1704, and married Phoebe Comstock. George Griffin, son of Lemuel Griffin and great-grandfather of Mr. Francis Butler Griffin, was born in 1734, and married Eve Dorr, daughter of Edmund Dorr. The father of Eve Dorr was born in Roxbury, Mass., in 1692, settled in Lyme, Conn., and died in 1734. He was the sixth son of Edward Dorr and Elizabeth Hawley. His father emigrated from the West of England, where he was born in 1648, and settled in Boston in 1670, becoming the progenitor of the Dorr family in New England. The mother of Eve Dorr was Mary Griswold, a daughter of Matthew Griswold and his wife, Phœbe Hyde, who was a daughter of Samuel and Jane (Lee) Hyde, of Norwich, Conn. Matthew Griswold was one of the founders of Lyme, Conn., in 1666. He was a son of Matthew Griswold, who was descended from Sir Matthew Griswold, of Malvern Hall, England, and came to this country in 1639, and settled in Windsor, Conn. He married Anna Wolcott, daughter of Henry Wolcott, son and heir of John Wolcott, of Golden Manor, England. Henry Wolcott came to America in 1630, was one of the founders of Windsor in 1636, and was annually elected to the General Court of Connecticut until the time of his death. George Griffin and his wife, Eve Dorr, have had many distinguished descendants, among whom was the Reverend Edward Dorr Griffin, D. D.
The grandfather of Mr. Francis Butler Griffin was George Griffin, 1728-1860, second of the name. He was graduated from Yale College in 1797 and became a lawyer. Removing to Wilkes- barre, Pa., he remained there until 1806, when he returned to New York and became one of the distinguished members of the bar. In 1801, he married Lydia Butler, of Wilkesbarre, who was the daughter of Colonel Zebulon Butler, of that city, and his wife, Phoebe Haight, of Fishkill, N. Y. Colonel Butler was a distinguished officer of the Revolutionary War. He was in command of the American forces at the time of the massacre in the Wyoming Valley, and after the treason of Benedict Arnold was assigned to duty at West Point by special order of General Washington. On the paternal side, his ancestry was traced from the family of the Earls of Ormond.
George Griffin, the third of the name and the father of Mr. Francis Butler Griffin, attended Williams College and settled in Catskill, N. Y., of which place he became a prominent citizen. His third wife, the mother of the subject of this sketch, was Elizabeth Frances Benson, daughter of Abraham Benson, of Fairfield, Conn. The children of George Griffin by this marriage were Francis Butler, Lydia Butler, Sophy Day, George and Caroline Griffin.
Mr. Francis Butler Griffin was born in New York, November 8th, 1852, and has been engaged in the hardware business for the last twenty-five years. He is a director of the National Shoe and Leather Bank. He married Anne M. Earle, daughter of the late John H. Earle, their residence being in East Forty-first Street. Mr. Griffin is a member of the City and Presbyterian clubs, and he also belongs to the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is one of the managers of the Presbyterian Hospital, is on the executive committee of the board of that institution, and is treasurer and one of the managers of the New York Infant Asylum.
247
IRVING GRINNELL
M ATTHEW GRINNELL, a member of a Huguenot family in France, came to America with two brothers in 1632. Settling in Rhode Island, he was a resident of Newport, in 1638, and died in 1643. His will shows that he was a man of comfortable means and of high standing in the Colony. Matthew Grinnell, the son of the pioneer, was a freeman in Portsmouth, R. I., in 1655, a constable of the town and frequently a moderator of the town meetings. He died at Portsmouth in 1705.
A descendant from these pioneers was Cornelius Grinnell, whose wife was Sylvia Howland, a descendant of John Howland of the Mayflower in 1620. Cornelius Grinnell was a successful shipping merchant in New Bedford, Mass. Three sons of Cornelius Grinnell attained prominence in mercantile pursuits in New York and were among the most public spirited citizens of their day. The eldest brother, Joseph Grinnell, came to New York in 1815 and established the firm of Fish & Grinnell. His brothers, Henry and Moses Hicks, became partners in 1825 and soon after Joseph retired. Henry Grinnell, 1800-1874, was identified with the business interests of New York for half a century. In 1850, he organized the Arctic expedition to search for Sir John Franklin, and in 1853, with George Peabody, organized the second expedition for the same purpose.
Moses Hicks Grinnell, father of Mr. Irving Grinnell, was the third of those great merchants and one of six brothers. He was born in New Bedford, Mass., March 23d, 1803, and died in New
York, November 24th, 1877. His early education was secured in the New Bedford Academy, and he had his first business experience in his father's counting room. For a short time he was a clerk for a New Bedford firm engaged in importing Russian goods, but soon engaged in business on his own account, and before he had attained his majority went on a voyage to Brazil and France as supercargo of a vessel. In 1825, he came to New York City with his brothers, and in 1828, after Joseph Grinnell had retired, he organized, with his brother Henry, the firm of Grinnell & Minturn, of which Robert B. Minturn was junior partner. This concern soon came to be one of the most prosperous in its class of business. It probably built more ships, prior to 1860, than any other mercantile house in this country. The partners were the owners of about fifty vessels engaged in the South American and foreign trade, and in the packet service to England. They established the Blue and White Swallow-Tail Line to Liverpool, and the Red and White Swallow- Tail Line to London.
Mr. Grinnell was one of the leading citizens of the metropolis and prominent in all public enterprises. In 1838, he was president of the Phoenix Bank, and early in his career was elected a member of the Chamber of Commerce, of which he was the eighteenth president, succeeding Robert Lenox in that position, which he occupied for five years. In his youth he was a Democrat and a member of Tammany Hall, and in 1838 was elected a Member of Congress as a Whig; but in 1856 he was a Presidential elector-at-large on the Fremont ticket. From 1860 to 1865 he was a Commissioner of Charities and Correction. In 1869, President Grant appointed him Collector of the Port of New York. During the Civil War, he was a member of the Union Defense Committee, and was a generous contributor in support of the Union cause. He was one of the original members of the Union League Club.
Mr. Irving Grinnell, the second child of Moses H. Grinnell, was born in New York, August 9th, 1839. His mother, whom his father married in 1836, was Julia Irving, a niece of Washing- ton Irving, and descended from William Ervine, a companion-in-arms of Robert Bruce. His sister, Julia Irving Grinnell, married George S. Bowdoin, and another sister, Fanny Leslie Grinnell, married Thomas F. Cushing, of Boston. Mr. Grinnell was educated in Columbia College. He married, April 28th, 1863, Joanna Dorr Howland, daughter of Gardiner G. and Louisa (Meredith) Howland, and descended from John Howland, of the Mayflower. Mr. and Mrs. Grinnell live at New Hamburgh-on-Hudson. He belongs to the New York Yacht and Hudson River Ice Yacht clubs, and for several years has been treasurer of the Church Temperance Society.
248
WILLIAM MORTON GRINNELL
M ATTHEW GRINNELL, who was a freeman of Newport in 1638, was the American ancestor of a notable family. The Honorable George Grinnell, of Greenfield, Mass., who was born in 1786 and died in 1877, was in the seventh generation of descent from Matthew Grinnell. He was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1808, and became one of the most prominent public men in Western Massachusetts, being a member of the Massachusetts Senate and of the National House of Representatives, and a Judge in Franklin County, Mass., 1849-53. Judge Grinnell's wife, Eliza Seymour Perkins, descended from the Pitkins, a leading family in early Connecticut. William Pitkin, its founder, was born near London, England, in 1635. He was a lawyer of high attainments and in excellent standing when he came to this country and settled, about 1659, in Hartford, Conn., where he held many public offices. William Pitkin, in the second generation, born in Hartford, in 1664, was a Judge, and was otherwise prominent in Colonial affairs. In the third generation, William Pitkin, born in Hartford, in 1694, was a Colonel of militia, Chief Justice of the Colony, Lieutenant-Governor 1754-66, and Governor 1766-69, and one of the most useful public men of the pre-Revolutionary period. Mrs. Grinnell was also descended from Thomas Clap, one of the early presidents of Yale College, and included other Colonial New England families among her ancestors.
The Honorable William F. Grinnell, father of Mr. William Morton Grinnell, was the son of Judge Grinnell, and was born in 1831. For several years he was actively engaged in mercantile pursuits, and at one time was a partner in business with the Honorable Levi P. Morton. In 1877, he was appointed, by President Hayes, Consul of the United States in St. Etienne, France. He held that office during five successive administrations, and was afterward United States Consul in Manchester, England, being acknowledged to be one of the most accomplished consular officials in the service. In 1856, he married Mary Morton, daughter of the Reverend Daniel D. Morton, of Vermont, and his wife, Lucretia Parsons, daughter of the Reverend Justin and Electa (Frary) Parsons. Daniel D. Morton, 1788-1852, the son of Levi Morton, of Middleboro, and a Revolu- tionary soldier, was minister of the Congregational Church in Shoreham, Vt., 1814-31, and after- ward occupied several pulpits in Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The Honorable Levi Parsons Morton is Mrs. Grinnell's brother, and an uncle of the subject of this sketch.
Through his mother, Mr. Grinnell is descended from George Morton, the first of that name in America, who was born about 1585 in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England. He was a member of the ancient Morton family, whose arms were: Quarterly gules and ermine, in the dexter chief and sinister base, each a goat's head, erased, argent, attired or. Crest, a goat's head argent attired or. George Morton was one of the Pilgrims who settled in Leyden, Holland, where he married in 1612. After serving as London agent for the Pilgrims in 1620, he came to this country in 1623, but returned some years later and died in England. The ancestors of Mrs. Grinnell included George Morton, of Plymouth, deputy to the General Court.
Mr. William Morton Grinnell was born in New York, in 1857. He entered Harvard College, but on account of ill health left college before taking a degree, and went abroad. Return- ing to America, he was graduated from the Law School of Columbia College, was admitted to the bar, and practiced his profession in this city. For several years he resided in Paris as counsel to the American legation there. In 1890, the French Government conferred on him the decoration of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. In 1892, he was appointed Third Assistant Secretary of State by President Harrison, and held that position until the coming in of the Cleveland administration. Since 1894, he has been a partner in the banking firm of Morton, Bliss & Co. He has two sisters, Mary Lucretia, wife of Edward H. Landon, and Ethel Morton Grinnell. His brother, Richard B. Grinnell, is a member of the New York bar. Mr. Grinnell, who is unmarried, lives in East Sixty-sixth Street. He is a member of the Metropolitan, University, Harvard and Lawyers' clubs, and of the Metropolitan Club of Washington.
249
CLEMENT ACTON GRISCOM, JR.
A N exceptionally large number of names distinguished in the histories of Pennsylvania and New Jersey are found in Mr. Griscom's ancestry. The family which he represents has been identified with those States and with the City of Philadelphia for over two centuries. It was in the Quaker City that Mr. Griscom was born, June 20th, 1868, his parents being Clement A. Griscom and his wife Frances Canby Biddle Griscom. His grandparents were Dr. John D. Griscom and Margaret Acton, daughter of Clement Acton, of Salem, N. J., while his maternal grandfather was William C. Biddle. On his father's side, Mr. Griscom descends from one of the earliest settlers of Pennsylvania, Andrew Griscom, who accompanied William Penn to the New World in 1682, and who was prominent in the early history of the Province, having been a member of the first grand jury that was impaneled there. Another of Mr. Griscom's ancestors was Thomas Lloyd, Deputy-Governor of Pennsylvania from 1691 to 1693, and who also held the offices of Provincial Councilor, Master of the Rolls and Keeper of the Great Seal. Samuel Preston, son-in-law of Thomas Lloyd, who also appears in the Griscom ancestry, was a member of the Provincial Council and of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and in 1711 was Mayor of the City of Philadelphia. Samuel Carpenter, Deputy-Governor of Pennsylvania, 1694-1698, Member of the Governor's Council, Treasurer of the Province and Member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, is still another distinguished ancestor of the subject of this article.
The maternal line in this instance represents, however, names and families fully as distinguished and interesting. Mr. Griscom's mother is a direct descendant of William Biddle, the founder of the Philadelphia Biddle family, who settled in New Jersey early in the history of that Province, was a member of the Governor's Council in 1682, and held other important offices. An ancestor of this connection was Owen Biddle, a member of the Provincial Council held in Philadelphia in 1775, and who took an active and patriotic part in the Revolution. From his mother, Mr. Griscom, moreover, can claim a long line of good New Jersey and Pennsylvania names, such as Thomas Olive, Deputy-Governor of New Jersey, Member and Speaker of the Council, and Member of the Assembly; Isaac and Thomas Marriott, Elisha Bassett, Ebenezer Miller, Henry Wood, William Bates, Thomas Thackara, Daniel Leeds, and others, all of whom filled Colonial offices in New Jersey, together with Robert Owen and Joseph Kirkbride, both members of the Pennsylvania Assembly in the last century.
Clement A. Griscom, Sr., the father of the subject of the article, is one of the leading citizens of Philadelphia, and has been active and successful in restoring the prestige of the United States upon the ocean, and in regaining our country's share of the world's carrying trade. Born in Philadelphia, in 1841, and educated there, Mr. Griscom was from early life connected with the Philadelphia shipping house of Peter Wright & Sons, in which he soon became a partner, and was a founder of the International Navigation Company, the corporation owning the American and Red Star line of ocean steamers, of which company he is now president. He is a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and of many financial institutions. He was a delegate and influential member of the International Maritime Conference at Washington, and since its foundation has been president of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. He is a member of many clubs in Philadelphia, New York and London, and enjoys honorary membership in numerous scientific bodies both here and in Europe.
His eldest son, Mr. Clement A. Griscom, Jr., was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, taking the degree of Ph. B. He has made New York his home for some years, being manager of the International Navigation Company in this city. He resides at 303 West Eighty-fourth Street, and has a country home at Flushing, Long Island. In 1889, Mr. Griscom married Genevieve Ludlow, daughter of Colonel William Ludlow, of the Engineer Corps, U. S. N. Mr. Griscom is a member of the Metropolitan and Lawyers' clubs of New York and of the University Club of Philadelphia.
250
CHESTER GRISWOLD
T HE Connecticut Griswolds, from which family Mr. Chester Griswold is descended, were of English root, an ancient family established in Warwickshire prior to the year 1400. They had a long and honorable pedigree and were entitled to a coat of arms : Argent, a fess, gules. between greyhounds, courant, sable. John Griswold, who, about the middle of the fourteenth century, came to Kenilworth and married the daughter and heiress of Henry Hugh- ford, of Huddersley Hale, was the first of the name to come into historical prominence. King Henry VI., in 1436, granted the estate, Solihule, to Thomas Griswold, and from his descendant, Richard Griswold, of the reign of Henry VIII., have sprung the other branches. The family was one of local distinction, and held many local offices.
Edward and Nathan Griswold, who came to America from Kenilworth, England, in 1639, were men of education and property. They were members of the Reverend Ephraim Huit's party, that settled in Windsor, Conn. Matthew Griswold became the father of a family that has given many eminent men to public service, Governors, Senators, judges, clergymen and educators. Edward Griswold, the ancestor in direct line of the subject of this sketch, was born in England, about 1607, and died in 1691. He built the old fort in Springfield, was a deputy to the General Court from Windsor, 1656-63, and after his removal to Killingworth, now Clinton, Conn., a place that he founded, in 1667, was magistrate and deputy there continually up to the time of his death. He was always an active and influential member of the Legislature, and since that time there has rarely been an Assembly of the State of Connec- ticut in which some of his descendants, and those of his brother, Matthew, have not been members.
Simon Griswold, in the fourth generation from Edward Griswold, was born in Bolton, Conn., in 1753, and died at Nassau, N. Y., in 1793. When he was just of age the War of the Revolution began, and he enlisted, serving about Boston, and on Long Island and with Washington, in New Jersey. The son of Simon Griswold was Chester Griswold, of Nassau, N. Y., who was born in Bolton, Conn., in 1781, and died in 1860. He was active in public affairs throughout his long life, holding many town and State official positions, and being a member of the New York Legislature, 1823-31.
The son of Chester Griswold was the Honorable John A. Griswold, for more than twenty- five years one of the most prominent citizens of Troy, N. Y. He was born in Nassau, November 11th, 1818, and for a time lived in the family of General John E. Wool, who was his uncle. Early in life he became interested in the Rensselaer Iron Company, eventually became the principal owner of the concern, and, with his associates, introduced the Bessemer steel process into this country. In 1861, in connection with C. F. Bushnell and John E. Winslow, he built Ericsson's monitor, and also aided in building seven others of the monitor class, including the monitor Dictator. He was Mayor of the City of Troy, in 1850, aided in raising three regiments of infantry in the Civil War, as well as the Black Horse Cavalry and the Twenty-first New York or Griswold's Light Cavalry, was a Representative to Congress, 1863-9, Republican candidate for Governor in 1868, and trustee of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1860-72.
Mr. Chester Griswold, the son of the Honorable John A. Griswold, was born in Troy, N. Y., September 10th, 1844. He is a steel manufacturer, and president of the Crown Point Iron Company, and vice-president of various manufacturing organizations. He is prominent in the social life of the metropolis, being a member of the Tuxedo, South Side Sportsman's and Riding clubs, and other exclusive social organizations. He also belongs to the Metropolitan, Union, Racquet, New York Yacht, and other clubs, the Sons of the Revolution and the Down- town Association, and is a patron of the American Museum of Natural History. Mrs. Griswold is a daughter of Le Grand B. Cannon, and is descended from the old-time Connecticut family of that name.
251
EGBERT GUERNSEY, M. D.
A MONG the two hundred Puritans who went from Boston in 1638 to found New Haven, was John Guernsey, a native of the Island of Guernsey. He was the ancestor in direct line through six generations of Dr. Egbert Guernsey. John Guernsey became prominent in the Colony and was one of the party that protected the regicides, Goff and Whalley.
The descendants of John Guernsey were numerous in Connecticut, and in the struggle for independence, thirteen of the family were in the Continental Army. His great-grandson, John, who was born in Woodbury, Conn., in 1709, removed to Amenia, Dutchess County, N. Y., and Noah Guernsey, his son, was the grandfather of Dr. Egbert Guernsey; his wife, whom he married in 1770, being a Hollister, a direct descendant from William Clinton, the first Earl of Huntington, A. D. 1350, whose descendant during the reign of Henry VIII. was created Earl of Lincoln, a title subsequently merged into that of the Dukes of Newcastle. The mother of Dr. Guernsey was Amanda Crosby, daughter of William Crosby, of the same family as Enoch Crosby, the famous spy of the Revolution.
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