Lang, H. O., ed.  "The History of the Willamette Valley, Being A Description 
of the Valley and its Resources, with an account of its Discovery and 
Settlement by White Men, and its Subsequent History; Together with Personal 
Reminiscences of its Early Pioneers."  Portland, OR, Geo. H. Himes, Book and 
Job Printer, 1885.  p. 601.

JOHN SMITH GRIFFIN

     The reverend gentleman whose name heads this article has attained and
preserved in the course of a long and eventful life of over three-fourths of a
century, a wide reputation as a man of action and integrity and strong
convictions.  His name has been on the tongues of the people for very many
years; his opinions and his character have always been influential; and his
professions of sanctity and integrity have not exceeded his performances.  He
has lived up to the principles as commendable in theory as they have proved
unique in practice.  The strength, earnestness and outspokenness of his
convictions has raised up enemies; but even these enemies have borne testimony
to the uprightness of his principles.  Rev. J. S. Griffin was born in Castleton,
Vermont, in November, 1807.  His ancestors were of English descent.  The son was
educated for the ministry, acquiring the groundwork of extensive learning in
various schools and seminaries in New England, Vermont and Ohio.  Finishing at
Oberlin, he was ordained as a Congregationalist minister, and was selected to
perform evangelical work among the Indians of the west.  It was in the winter of
1838-39 that he was outfitted as a missionary by the Congregational church of
Litchfield County, Connecticut, and in February, 1839, he left that State with
the intention of crossing the plains to Oregon.  He traveled in a light wagon to
Oberlin, Ohio, and there took in Asahel Munger and wife, destined for missionary
work, as Mr. Griffin's assistants.  In St. Louis, Mr. Griffin, feeling the need
of a help-meet, married a young lady, Miss Desire C. Smith, of Boston,
Massachusetts, who being educated in the eastern towns, had magnanimously
devoted the pleasant years of her youth to teaching the children of the western
settlers, and for that purpose had moved to Illinois.  While in such employment
she met Mr. Griffin, and their marriage followed in a few days.  Of the lady's
life, the following details are communicated by her husband: Born in Boston in
June, 1805; in 1834 was one of the first to answer the call for lady teachers to
go to the then frontier; was married to Rev. Mr. Griffin in St. Louis, on April
10, 1839; on her bridal tour crossed the American continent in the summer of
1839; taught the first Indian school west of the Rocky Mountains (1839-40), and
was the first white woman in the settlement of the Tualatin Plains, Oregon ;
still lives (July 1, 1884) in the first building erected in that settlement.
Mr. and Mrs. Griffin crossed the plains on horseback, in company with some
emigrants and trappers, and stopped at Rev. H. H. Spalding's mission among the
Nez Perces, at Lapwai.  In March, 1840, Mr. Griffin set about the establishment
of a mission among the Snake Indians, in Idaho, but was unsuccessful in two
attempts.  Later, he became chaplain at Fort Vancouver, but in 1841 he proceeded
to the Tualatin Plains and began that settlement in a locality admirably suited
for the purposes of a colony.  Here, when a sufficient number of neighbors had
been drawn around him, he assumed the function of pastor, which he still, though
at an advanced age, carries on.  "Rocky Mountain Retreat" is the fanciful name
which was bestowed upon his place; and her he has since remained, taken up with
his agricultural and other occupations, but entering with vigor into the
political affairs of the State and country.  His acts are elsewhere alluded to,
and his career may be profitably studied by those who would understand the
peculiarities of the puritanic Yankee type, softened and ameliorated by the
stanchest patriotism and magnanimity.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2005 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.