Lyman A. Griffith
Lyman A. Griffith was born around 1836 in Elyria, Ohio, to Luther Griffith. His father operated a livery business, and he owned $700 of real estate by 1850. He grew up and attended school in Elyria, and the family moved to Michigan around 1853. He married Ann E. Wilsey, and they had at least five children: Mary, born around 1857; Flora, born around 1860; Henry, born around 1862; Lyman, born around 1865; and Frank, born around 1869. He worked as a farmer in Woodstock, Michigan. By 1860, he owned $1,200 of real estate and $250 of personal property.
He enlisted in the Union army, and he mustered in as a private in Company F of the 6th Michigan Cavalry on January 18, 1864. The regiment took part in the Overland Campaign and the Appomattox campaign, and he mustered out on June 15, 1865.
He settled in Ypsilanti, Michigan, after the war and earned a living as a grocer. By 1870, he owned $3,000 of real estate. He moved to Fremont, Nebraska, around 1871 and worked as an express driver there. He supported the Republican Party, and he was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. His wife died on September 11, 1873, and he married Eliza House the following year. She had three children from a previous marriage.
He moved to Seattle in 1888 and eventually purchased 29 city lots. According to one writer, he “had great faith in the future of the city and gave practical demonstration thereof by his investment in property here.” He applied for a federal pension in October 1891 and eventually secured one. He died on May 19, 1909.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (4880) | Griffith, Lyman A. | 1836 | 1909-05-19 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Private
- Rank highest: Private
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 5
- (1512) [writer] ~ Lyman A. Griffith to Jeremiah Wilsey and Betsey Wilsey, 24 January 1864
- (1513) [writer] ~ Lyman A. Griffith to Jeremiah Wilsey and Betsey Wilsey, 14 February 1864
- (1514) [writer] ~ Lyman A. Griffith to Jeremiah Wilsey and Betsey Wilsey, 31 March 1864
- (1515) [writer] ~ Lyman A. Griffith to William Wilsey, 2 May 1864
- (1516) [writer] ~ Lyman A. Griffith to Jeremiah Wilsey and Betsey Wilsey, 21 May 1864
People - Records: 3
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 1
- (873) [enlisted] [F] ~ 6th Michigan Cavalry
Groups - Records: 2
SOURCES
1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; 1890 Veterans Census, available from Ancestry.com; General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, available from Ancestry.com; Fremont (NE) Tribune, 22 May 1909; Clarence Bagley, History of Seattle from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Vol. 3 (Chicago, IL: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1916)
