Joseph Griffitts of Tennessee; Tarrant and Denton Cos., Texas
We here in northeast Tarrant County have a Civil War veterans monument in place, and are posting biographies and photographs of the men at our Genweb site.If you can add to the following biographical sketch, or could share any photos you might have of this veteran, his wife, or his home, we’d be happy to have them.Thanks for taking the time to read our query.Mike Patterson, Colleyville, Texas.
Joseph Griffitts was a Union veteran who lived in Grapevine at the time the 1890 census was taken.He later left northeast Tarrant County and spent the last years of his life in Denton County.Joseph was born August 4, 1841 in McMinn County, Tennessee.
Joseph served the Union as a private in Co. F, 4th Tennessee Cavalry.His official service records in the National Archives say enlisted March 29 1862 at Summerset, Kentucky.He was twenty years old, born in McMinn County, Tennessee.He was mustered out at Nashville, Tennessee on July 12, 1865.At the time of his enlistment, he was 5'10" tall, had a fair complexion, blue eyes, and light hair.He enlisted for three years.He was a corporal by June 30, 1863, when his name appears on a muster-in-roll at Nashville.His name appears as present on all the company muster rolls beginning with July, 1863 and extending through April, 1865.A generalized history of the Union’s 4th Tennessee Cavalry regiment may be found on the internet at:
In 1870 he was living in District 13 of McMinn County, Tennessee, with a wife Sarah, born about 1835 in Tennessee, and children Mary E. (born about 1867), Margaret (born about 1868), and Martha (4 months old when the census was taken in the summer).
By 1900, Griffitts and his wife, Harriett, were living on Sycamore Street in the city of Denton, Ward 4, in Denton County, Texas.They said they had been married one year.He was born in Tennessee to two Virginians.Harriett was born in May of 1858 in Mississippi to a Mississippian father and a Georgian mother.She had given birth to no children, but there was a daughter from Joseph's previous marriage, Martha J., born in March 1870 in Tennessee living with them.She was a single school teacher.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Griffitts were pensioned by the federal government for his Civil War service.The index card for his record shows him to have been a corporal.He filed his invalid’s application on August 16, 1882 with application no. 457369.His certificate number was 303812.Mrs. Griffitts’s application number was 798257 and her certificate number was 573187.
Mrs. Sarah Griffitts, Joseph’s first wife, died in Denton on September 6, 1898 and was buried in the IOOF Cemetery there.Joseph Griffitts died in Denton on January 8, 1903 and was buried in the same cemetery.Mrs. Harriett Griffitts survived him.