Thomas Griffin was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, on September 24, 1787. He was the youngest child of John and Mary Andrews Griffin of Virginia. John Griffin moved his family to Oglethorpe County, Georgia, in 1792, settling about ten miles from Lexington. Thomas Griffin worked on his father’s farm until he became a Methodist circuit rider. The Methodist Conference sent him to the Carolinas where he traveled and preached for several years before being sent to the Mississippi Territory along with ministers Lewis Hobbs, Richmond Nolley, and Drury Powell.

At the end of his first year of preaching in the Mississippi Territory, the Reverend Thomas Griffin reportedly earned one-and-a-half dollars from his congregation and eight dollars from the Mississippi Methodist Conference. Griffin rode the Red River circuit in 1813, encountering hostile Indians, malaria, and rough terrain. He attended the first Mississippi Methodist Conference in Jefferson County in November of 1813, and he rode the Natchez circuit during the next year. Griffin was the presiding elder of the Louisiana district in 1815. He was a delegate to the general conference of Methodists in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1820. However, Griffin’s anti-abolitionist speech during a debate on slavery drew some attention and was noted in several Baltimore newspapers.

Griffin married Ann Ford Ervin (1796-1852) of South Carolina on August 8, 1820. She was the daughter of the Reverend John Ford and the widow of Hugh Ervin. The Griffins had six children: John Wesley (1822-1892), Mary Ann (b. 1826), Susan, Martha, Eliza (1838-1917), and Thomas M. Although Griffin traveled widely as a Methodist circuit rider throughout much of the rest of his life, seeing expanses of countryside from the Carolinas to Texas, he also farmed in order to provide for his family. He began farming near the Pearl River, probably in Hinds County, Mississippi, in 1823, but he was unsuccessful two years in a row due to droughts and floods, so he transported wooden rails to supplement his farm income.

Despite some local opposition, Griffin brought one of the first regularly organized Methodist worship services to Port Gibson, Claiborne County, Mississippi, in 1827. However, he eventually left Port Gibson because of continuing opposition to his preaching. In 1832, Griffin moved near Canton, Madison County, Mississippi, where he planted cotton. He continued to preach and preside over the Mississippi Methodist Conference, sometimes traveling to camp meetings and religious conferences. Griffin died in 1851.

This collection consists of one bound journal kept by the Reverend Thomas Griffin. Only the first few pages are numbered. Griffin’s name and the year 1841 are written on the front cover. There is also a small amount of Griffin family genealogical information recorded inside the front cover.

The first part of the journal is in daybook form, with chronologically recorded accounts beginning in 1832. The author of the daybook section is unknown. Most entries are for unspecified consultations or visits, perhaps those of a physician, and the entries list specific names of people, perhaps patients whom he visited. Manchester (Yazoo City), Mississippi, is written at the top of each page. These accounts end in 1835.

Griffin recorded the majority of the journal in 1841, initially reviewing the previous years of his life. Once his chronology reached 1841, Griffin began making monthly entries on subsequent events, with some gaps in time. Toward the end of the journal, when Griffin was in ill health, entries are more occasional, with some years omitted. The journal is mostly blank after January of 1850. Several of the last pages of the journal contain a short continuation of an 1842 entry.

Griffin began the journal in 1841 by providing some contemporary historical and societal commentary, adding that he had decided it was time to consider the acts of his own life. After providing some genealogical data on the Griffin family, he accounted for the early years of his life, including his family’s moves, his rural education, and his conversion to Methodism. The rest of the journal describes Griffin’s travels as a circuit rider, including descriptions of a large number of places, ranging from Mississippi to Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Several cities are described in some detail, including Natchez and Port Gibson, Mississippi, and Richmond, Virginia. Griffin’s travels through rural Mississippi during the territorial period and early statehood are recorded in detail. Specifically noted are rivers, swamps, vegetation, and wildlife.

Throughout his travels, Griffin chronicled his spiritual growth, often inserting transcriptions of his sermons in the journal. He also mentioned specific people whom he met such as the Reverend Moses Floyd. Griffin wrote of slavery and other political issues, his financial problems, illnesses, and the struggles that he encountered as a pioneer and as an occasionally controversial minister. Some of the more unusual journal topics include Griffin’s analysis of Napoleon Bonaparte’s life, a description of the opening of the United States Mint, and an account of his trip to Niagara Falls.

1. Journal. 1832-1850. 1 bound volume.

   Box 1: reference photocopy
   Box 2: original journal (restricted)