Out in the Sleet, I see Uncle Pete

Little kids in the Griffin family made jokes about the eccentric old Uncle who dressed up in his 3 piece (though mis-matched) suit. Carrying his black umbrella, he would walk to work, or just walk through the then small town of Edmond, Oklahoma. No one knew the story of Peter C. Griffin until we began to search the family of William and Elizabeth M. Griffin (see link in previous post.)

Peter was the youngest child of our 2Gt. Grandparents William and Elizabeth, born in West Virginia in 1860. So he was just a toddler when one older brother died of a virus, and 3 older brothers joined the Union armies and went to war. Only one of those brothers, Sam, came home from that war in 1864, when Peter was only 4. Other brothers, Robert and Alpheus, closer in age, died as children, as did sister, Rachel.

When Peter was about 7, the Griffin family, along with many uncles, aunts, and cousins, had been moved from their Braxton County homes to the safety of the Union Camp in Harrison County. Upon coming home, they found destruction of their farms and persecution by neighbors. So they boarded a steamboat on the Ohio River and sailed down the Ohio to the Mississippi, then to the Missouri River and up to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and on to Exira, Audubon County by wagon. Eventually, the families went to Missouri and on to Montgomery County, Kansas to homestead. Within a year or two, Pete's older siblings married, leaving 4 boys to help father William farm. Soon Pete was the only one left at home. He never married, possibly as he felt the responsibility for his parents and the farm.

In 1889, news of the free land in Oklahoma Territory spread. As Peter's father was elderly and probably not well, the young man decided to participate in the Land Rush. He traveled to Arkansas City where he boarded the crowded train and entered the Oklahoma Territory. Nearing the Edmond area, he jumped off near Waterloo Road, walked west to Deer Creek, and staked two adjoining claims of 160 acres each... one quarter section for himself and one for his parents. The family soon made the move from their Kansas home. William died Nov. 4, 1889, leaving Elizabeth, and Pete to construct buildings and start gardens and prepare for future crops.

In a couple of years, Lizzie Terry Griffin, widow of Pete's brother, Sam, came to Oklahoma from Kansas, with sons and a daughter, to farm with Pete and the elderly Elizabeth. The young men and women (my Grandpa's generation) also married and left the farm. Before 1910, matriarch, Elizabeth M. died, and all the Griffins moved into Edmond, leaving the large farm for smaller acreages, and Pete went to work at the bank in town. He was about 50 years old, and lived with relatives.

This was the time that his gt. nieces and nephews would make jokes "Out in the sleet, I see Uncle Pete." He must have just seemed like a strange old man. Little did they know, besides caring for his family members, he was saving his money for all those years. His death came at age 73, on April 25, 1934, just 4 days after the celebration of "Eighty Niners' Day". We find a photograph of Pete among other Eighty Niners (listed as Charles, his middle name) probably taken in the 1920s.

When Peter Griffin's will was probated, many were probably surprised. His estate totaled about $103,000, comparable to more than $1,000,000 in 2008. After providing for his own funeral and estate expenses, he specified that a large stone would be placed in Gracelawn Cemetery of Edmond, OK, for the Griffin Family, with small ones for himself and his parents. Then he gave $4,000 to his remaining sister, Sarah McNutt, and provided $1,000 each for the education of orphaned great niece and nephew. The remainder was to be divided among 32 living nieces and nephews, which amounted to about $3,000 each. His obituary has not yet been found, but could have called Peter Griffin an eccentric millionaire today, rather than the strange little man with an umbrella "out in the sleet.... Uncle Pete."