MY GRIFFIN
ANCESTORS
By
Joan Firth Kaysen
Mary Louisa Griffin, my great grandmother married “The Boy
Next Door” so to speak. He was Solomon Austin Scullin son of the Irish
immigrant James O. Scullin and his wife Rachel Austin. She was the fifth born
of fifteen children and the third daughter of Orlow B. Griffin 1807-1851 and
Hannah Kellogg Thompson 1811-1875. There are many small gravestones in the
Essex Town Center Cemetery of the babies and young children born to Mary’s
parents. Seven children survived into adulthood.
David Brainerd Griffin 1831-1863 married his cousin Philinda
Minerva Griffin daughter of Almon Daniel Griffin and Mary Polly Chase and they
had four children before he died serving in the MN 2nd Infantry
Regiment at Chickamauga Battlefield during the Civil War. David wrote hundreds
of letters home and they are now in a book.
Henry Franklin Griffin 1832-1912 married his cousin Mary
Elizabeth Kellogg and they had no children. Henry served in the 12th
Vermont during the Civil War.
Maria Ann Griffin 1835-1871 married Arvin D. Angell and they
had one son and one daughter after which she died of birth complications.
Samuel Ebenezer Griffin b. 1842 d. after 1890 married Emma
L. Seaver and had a son Orlow Burnham Griffin1869-1950. Samuel served in the 5th
Vermont during the Civil War and was wounded by a shot in the arm.
Sarah Andalusia Griffin 1846-1872 married Albert A. Bliss and
they had two sons and a daughter.
Sylvia Nancy Griffin 1849-1878 did not marry. Sylvia lies
buried next to her mother in Forest City, Sierra County, California.
Solomon Austin Scullin left Vermont to go to New York to
learn the Timbering trade. Just before 1860 he sailed around the Horn to
California under contract to timber gold mines. Mary at the same time had
stayed in Vermont to work in a factory. After years of working in the gold
mines Solomon joined the California Volunteers to fight the Indians in Arizona.
After the war was over he returned to the gold mine timbering business. In the
meantime his mother Rachel Scullin died in VT. He returned there and that is
when he reclaimed his friendship with Mary. Since Mary’s brother Henry had
moved to
Whittier California, she probably traveled to visit her
brother and his wife, her cousin.
Solomon and Mary were married in Grass Valley, Nevada
County, California on October 24, 1868 and they then returned to Forest City
together. They had three sons, Earl, Austin and Paul, and bought half interest
in Forest House Inn, in town. The years went by and about 1882 a huge fire
broke out in the kitchen of Forest House it became uncontrolled and burned half
the town to the ground. Solomon and Mary and their three sons, destitute
returned to the east coast to live out the rest of their lives.
There are two Samuel Griffins, both from Killingworth, New
London County Connecticut, buried in the Essex Town Center Cemetery. One is
Mary L. Griffin’s grandfather and one is her great grandfather. Her grandmother
was Sylvia Bradley and her great grandmother was Mercy Bailey. Solomon and Mary
L. Griffin Scullin were seventh cousins through the OTIS line. Mary was a
Mayflower descendant through John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley. Earl Scullin and
his wife Margaret Anne Maguire were the parents of my mother Margaret Mary
Scullin who married Thomas Firth.
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