This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/kFB.2ACE/4212 Message Board Post: John Griswold, of Spencer township, whose name is a household word in Kent county, Mich., is a leading merchant of Harvard, Kent county, although his rural home is in Spencer township. He was born in the state of New York, April 13, 1857, and is the seventh of the eight children-five sons and three daughters-that constituted the family of Jabez and Eliza (Edgar) Griswold, five of whom still survive. In the biography of Scott Griswold, register of deeds for Kent county at Grand Rapids, will be found a full record of the Griswold family, to which the attention of the reader is respectfully invited. Mr. Griswold, the subject of this sketch, was reared in his native state until twelve years of age, but the major part of his education was acquired in the public schools of Kent county, Mich., his parents having come to Spencer township in 1869. This being a lumber country, and the father operating a saw-mill, young John was employed in this business until twenty years old, when he married, July 4, 1877, Miss Millie Johnson, to which union have been born three sons and six daughters, of whom the following named seven still survive: Grace; Ed and Edna (twins); Lee, Ethel, Gladys and Edith. Mrs. Millie Griswold was born in Pennsylvania, July 26, 1856, is a daughter of Charles and Emiline (Inman) Johnson, and was about twelve years of age when brought to Michigan by her parents, who are now deceased. She is rearing her family most carefully, and has all during her happy wedded life been a worthy and cheerful helpmate to her husband. John Griswold, like his father, who is still living at the age of eighty-two years, has done much toward developing Spencer township. In 1882 he purchased eighty acres of stump land in section No. 30, and steadily devoted himself to clearing and cultivating it until 1890, when he entered into a partnership with his brothers, Edgar and Alonzo, in general merchandizing at Harvard. They carry a $3,000 stock of dry-goods, boots, shoes, groceries, and all the miscellaneous articles that usually constitute the stock of a first-class country store, and this stock is chiefly supplied from Grand Rapids, and is consequently fresh and undeteriorated, and the annual business amounts to from $15,000 to $20,000. They also ship potatoes each season, buying many thousands of bushels each year. Mr. Griswold, in politics, prefers to vote for the republicans in national affairs, but in local matters votes for worthy candidates rather than for machine nominees. He cast his first presidential vote for the lamented Garfield, and is generally selected as a delegate to the party conventions. He has been a school director for thirteen years and has ever advocated the employment of the best teachers the school funds would justify. Fraternally he is a member of Cedar Springs lodge, No. 213, F.&A.M., and of Evans tent, No. 785, K.O.T.M. The Griswold family is one of the most respected in Kent county, and Mr. Griswold is himself especially esteemed for his many personal good qualities by the community in which he has lived since boyhood, and of which he is a pioneer.