| Around 1810, a young man named Lewis
Lawrence Griffin settled in Twiggs County. The very poor native Georgian
would become president of the Monroe Railroad and the founder of the city
of Griffin. Griffin became a General in the Georgia Militia after fighting
in the Indian War and other wars against the Creeks. He served in the
Legislature in 1829 and 1830. He lived in Monroe County and Macon, all the
while amassing a large fortune. General Griffin purchased 800 acres of
land and planned a city at the crossing of his Monroe Railroad and another
line. But not long after June 8, 1840, when the city’s first lots were
sold a depression hit the nation and the Monroe Railroad and Banking
Company collapsed. General Griffin lost most of his fortune and moved to
Aberdeen, Mississippi. There, he remarried, raised a family, and acquired
another fortune. He died in Aberdeen in July of 1867, survived by his wife
and two children. General Griffin’s ante-bellum home still stands across
the street from Aberdeen’s city hall and is owned and occupied by his
grandchildren.
DURING THE WAR YEARS Griffin was not
the site of any Civil War battles, but nonetheless it was a vital location
during the war. Camp Stephens, located two miles north of McIntosh Road,
was a mobilization point for infantry. Cavalry were mobilized at Camp
Milner, which is now the grounds of the city park. Two military companies
from Griffin and seven from Spalding County were organized to fight. Not
only was Griffin the first stop for troops and the home of many soldiers,
it was also a hospital town and a printing center. Trainloads of sick and
wounded poured into hospitals, public buildings, the courthouse, stores,
colleges and even private homes. Much Confederate money was printed in
Griffin as well as most of the Confederate government’s stamps. At one
point, Spalding County even printed its own currency. Although not
destroyed physically by Union soldiers (only one warehouse was burned),
Griffin was devastated financially. Three hundred miles of railroad, the
city’s lifeline, had been demolished. Yet once again, as it did after
the depression, the town recovered. A new development in Griffin helped it
to survive Reconstruction and the postwar era. The 1880’s saw the birth
of textile manufacturing in Griffin. In 1888, the Kincaid Manufacturing
Company opened. It continued to expand by buying other mills in the area.
Today, the company is known as Dundee Mills/Springs Industries and is one
of Griffin’s largest employers.
OAK HILL CEMETERY Oak Hill Cemetery
was a part of Lewis Lawrence Griffin’s original plan for the city. Many
persons crucial for the establishment of Griffin and Spalding County are
buried there. Nationally known figures buried in Oak Hill include James S.
Boyton, governor of Georgia after the death of Alexander Stephens, a hero
of the Confederate navy, John McIntosh Kell and Martha Eleanora Holliday,
Doc’s sister who died in infancy. The cemetery is one place to walk
through Griffin’s history.
STONEWALL CONFEDERATE CEMETERY AND
GRIFFIN’S MEMORIAL PARK Many who died in the battles of Atlanta and
Jonesboro were left without a proper burial. Around 1867, a group of women
organized to form the Ladies Memorial Aid Society to create a cemetery for
the fallen soldiers. They, and other volunteers, went to Lovejoy’s
Station to collect remains. Over 500 Confederate dead and 1 Union soldier
were interred, marble headstones were acquired and a monument was
dedicated on August 17, 1867. Monuments for the dead of the Revolutionary
War, both World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and for the women who
nursed soldiers in Griffin during the Civil War are also located in the
Stonewall Confederate Cemetery and Memorial Park. The cemetery and
monuments are located on East Taylor Street across from the Flint River
Regional Library. |
