On this date 100 years ago the Pantagraph chose to tell the history of a long time resident of near by Washburn Illinois. Mr. Griswold was born in Vermont in 1825 and moved to Indiana with his parents in 1943. He moved to Illinois as a bachelor in 1847 and was involved in driving hogs to market in St. Louis, Alton and Beardstown. It was said that one year he drove 600 large hogs to St. Louis and came back with $3,600 in silver in four chests that he brought back in a wagon.
in 1852 he joined up with three other men to make the trip to Oregon. He worked on a farm and sawmill in Oregon, where his wages were $500 but the collection of which involved several trips back and forth by horseback to Illinois and Michigan. While in Oregon, he purchased a horse and rode it to Cisco County, California where he worked in a gold mine for 15 months. He would not have stopped so long except that the Indians had risen up and several travelers were killed. He finally returned to Oregon City and from Portland, he sailed to San Francisco and then to Panama. It was in Panama that he took his first railroad ride of the trip and crossed the isthmus to take another ship to New York.
From New York he traveled by canal and the Great Lakes. He finally returned and in 1857 he married Miss Elizabeth Adams and began farming north of Washburn. While Mr. Griswold was very modest, he did love to tell the tales of his travels. At age 90 he had been married over 60 years and had enjoyed many travels and a happy married life.