From a granddaughter of Orlow B Griffin

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.