Griffey and Sarah were married on the December 25, 1853 in Warsaw, Indiana. Our first child, Ellen, was born in Koscinsko Cnty, IN Jan. 6, 1855. Our second child, Emma, was born in Marion County, IA Dec. 14, 1858. In the spring of 1859 I crossed the plains and settled in the northern part of California and went to work in mining and prospecting for gold and from that to freighting and farming. In 1864, at the close of the Civil War, my wife and the two children went from Northern Indiana to New York and took a steamer, crossed the isthmus of Panama and landed in the state of California much reduced in flesh and health by spotted fever and sea-sickness. They soon regained their health.
Our third child, Charles Wesley, was born in Lassen Cnty, CA and was buried at Fort Saunders, WY in 1867. Our fourth child, Maggie Olive, was born in Honey Lake Valley March 16, 1867. I recrossed the plains in 1867 and passed through Salt Lake City and at Fort Bridger I was made Captain of our train of emigrants and was commissioned as a Captain by the United States Army Officer in command of the fort. We travelled under military orders from there to Fort Saunders, a distance of 600 miles, through the worst Indian country between Missouri and California. I had in my train 30 well armed men and there was scarcely a day that we did not have trouble with the indians.
On our return to the states, we settled in Lyons County, KS and in the fall of 1869 we moved to Osage Cnty, KS where we had three children born. George was born in the spring of 1869 and died that same fall. Harvey Martin was born on June 16, 1871 and Gertrude was born on March 8, 1873. In 1874 I traded for a farm near Burlington, Coffey Cnty, KS where we moved and had two children, Edward Alonzo on July 7, 1875 and Walter in October 1877. Walter died January 22, 1882 and was buried in Siloam Springs, AR where we had moved.
In March, 1883, we moved to Ottawa, Franklin Cnty, KS where Maggie Olive was married to Wm. L. Beardsley on September 30, 1884. We then moved to Barber Cnty, KS where we remained until the spring of 1891 when we moved back to Ottawa where we remained till March 16, 1896. At this date, Sarah and myself, at the ages of 66 and 58 started to our farm near Medicine Lodge, KS to live the balance of our lives with our oldest son and his wife, Harvey M. Miller
Dictated by me this 16th day of March, 1896, at Ottawa, Kansas, to W. L. Beardsley.
