BIOGRAPHIES
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These pages contain biographical sketches (full or extract) of former Montcalm County residents.

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Greenhoe, Henry

See Bushnell Twp. page

WARREN G. GRISWOLD

HISTORY OF MONTCALM COUNTY, MICHIGAN
Its People, Industries and Institutions
pg. 220-222
BY JOHN W. DASEF, VOLUME II, 1916 B.F., BOWEN & COMPANY , Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana.

Warren G. Griswold, a veteran of the Civil War and a prosperous retired farmer, now living in comfort at his pleasant home in the village of Crystal, this county, is a native-born son of Michigan, having been born at Novi, in Oakland county, this state, February 22, 1849, son Of Warren B. and Phoebe Ann (Holt) Griswold, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of New York state, who, in the early fifties, moved from Oakland county to Ionia county, where Warren B. Griswold traded a yoke of cattle for twenty acres of land and proceeded to make a new home in the forest wilderness, and there he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in I874. His wife died in 1861, their son, Warren G., the subject of this sketch, then being twelve years of age.

In October, 1864, he then being fifteen years of age, Warren G. Griswold enlisted in Company C, Third Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry,and saw service in Tennessee and Texas, being mustered out at San Antonio, Texas, on February 10, 1866. Upon the completion of his military experience Mr. Griswold returned home and resumed his place on his father's farm. The next spring he married and for a number of years was engaged as a timberman and general farmer. In 1879 he began farming for himself, having bought a small place two miles south and one mile west of the village of Crystal, in this county.  He did well and gradually added to his holdings there until at the time of his retirement from the farm in February, 1915, he was the owner of one hundred and twenty acres, more than one hundred of which had been cleared and was under cultivation. He sold the place to his son, Lyman, and bought a home in the village of Crystal, where he and his wife are now living in comfortable retirement. Mr. Griswold is an earnest Republican and for years has given thoughtful attention to civic affairs. He has served the public in the capacity of drain commissioner and was also highway commissioner for Crystal township for some years. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Grand Army of the Republic and takes an active interest in the affairs of those organizations.

On March 21, 1867, Warren G. Griswold was united in marriage to Elvira Rockwell, who was born in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, August 21, 1850, daughter of Charles and Almeda (Millard) Rockwell, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of New York state, who came to this county in October, 1857, and bought a farm southwest of Crystal, where Mr. and Mrs. Griswold for years made their home and where their son is now living. When the Rockwells settled here there was only a trail leading through the deep timber and Mrs. Griswold has seen the development of Crystal township from the very beginning of the establishment of a social order thereabout, she being acknowledged to be the only person now living for miles about who has been a resident of that section as long as she. March 21, I917, will be the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage date of Mr. and Mrs. Griswold. To them ten children have been born and they have thirty-two grandchildren and one great-grandchild, Donna, daughter of Truman Rolfe. Of the ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. Griswold five are still living, five having died when quite young, three, Erwin, Clinton and Raymond, having died within a week of each other of a combination of scarlet fever and diphtheria, the youngest less than a year old and the eldest not quite five years of age; Franklin Charles, their firstborn child, died at the age of two years and six months, and Wesley, the third in order of birth, a few days before his fifth birthday, in February, 1880. The living children, in the order of their birth, are as follow: Estella, widow of Watson Rolfe, is living at Crystal and has eight children, Harley L., Ernest W., Leo, Truman, Leslie, Hazel, Lucille and Dale; Bertha, wife of Daniel Kidder, lives near the town of Muir, in Ionia county, and has eight children, Clifford, Nettie, Grace, Claire, Donald, Raymond, Marion and Frank; Ina, wife of Perry Blount, living two and one-half miles southwest of Crystal, has five childrem Alta, Ford, Floyd, Dorothy and Joyce Elaine; Lyman, who bought the old home farm, where he now makes his home, married Ina Rickard and has five children. Beatrice, Lyle, Warren, Cecil and Beulah, living, and two dead, and Eli, living near Muir, in Ionia county, who married Edith Dudhope and has six children, Elsie. Elton, Elbert, Eula, Elmer and Eunice.