Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/22

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GRISCOM
GRISWOLD

protection of a score of ex-slaves, he wrote a part of his Virginia proclamation.” Mr. Grinnell was active in aiding the escape of fugitive slaves, and at one time a reward was offered for his head. He has been connected with the building of six railroads, and has laid out five towns, including that of Grinnell, Iowa, which was named for him. He gave the proceeds of the sale of building-lots in that town to Grinnell university, now merged in Iowa college, and was for some time its president. He has published “Home of the Badgers” (Milwaukee, Wis., 1845); “Cattle Industries of the United States” (New York, 1884); and numerous pamphlets and addresses.


GRISCOM, John, educator, b. in Hancock's Bridge, Salem co., N. J., 27 Sept., 1774; d. in Bur- lington, N. J., 20 Feb., 1852. His education was acquired at the Friends' academy in Philadelphia, and later he was given charge of the Friends' monthly-meeting school, in Philadelphia, with which he continued for thirteen years. In 1806 he removed to New York, where he was actively en- gaged in teaching for twenty-five years. He was one of the first to teach chemistry, and gave public lectures on this subject to his classes early in 1806. When the medical department of Queen's (now Rutgers) college was established in 1812, he was appointed to the chair of chemistry and natural history, which he held until 1828. His colleague, Dr. John W. BVancis, said of him that "for thirty years Dr. Griscom was the acknowledged head of all teachers of chemistry among us" in New York. He was the projector of the New York high-school, an institution on the Lancaster or monitorial sys- tem of instruction, which had great success from 1825 till 1831, under his supervision. For many years Dr. Griscom's lectures were given in the " New York Institution," which had been built in 1795 for an almshouse. Halleck, in his " Fanny," thus alludes to the building and its occupants :

" It remains
To bless the hour the Corporation took it
Into their heads to give the rich in brains
The worn-out mansion of the poor in pocket,
Once 'the old almshouse,' now a school of wisdom,

Sacred to Scudder's shells and Dr. Griscom." From 1832 till 1834 he had charge of a Friends' boarding-school in Providence, R. I., also lecturing in various places on chemistry and natural philoso- phy. Subsequently he resided in Haverford, Pa., and then in Burlington, N. J., where he was town superintendent and trustee of public schools, and also was associated in the reorganization of the common-school system of New Jersey. During his residence in New York he was instrumental in or- ganizing the Society for the prevention of pauper- ism and crime, which was the parent of many im- portant reform movements. For many years he contributed abstracts of chemical papers from the foreign journals to Silliman's " Journal of Science." He' was also the author of " A Year in Europe " (New York, 1823), and "Monitorial Instruction" (1825). See a " Memoir of John Griscom," by his son (New York, 1859).— His son, John Raskins, physician, b. in New York city, 14 Aug., 1809 ; d. there, 28 April, 1874, was educated in the Collegi- ate school of Friends, and, after studying medicine under Dr. John D. Godman and Dr. Valentine Mott, was graduated at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1832. A year later he was appointed assistant physician to the New York dispensary, becoming physician in 1834. From 1836 till 1840 he was professor of chemistry in the New York college of pharmacy. In 1842 he was made city inspector, but a year later became visiting physician of the New York hospital, and continued as such until within a few years of his death. In 1848 he was appointed general agent of the commissioners of emigration, which office he filled until 1851. Dr. Griscom was identified with the management of the New York prison associa- tion, the Juvenile reformatory, the Home for the friendless, the New York sanitary association, the Social science association, and the New York asso- ciation for the advancement of science and art, of which he was one of the founders and first presi- dent. He wrote much and ably on medical, sani- tary, hygienic, and scientific topics, contributing largely to the medical journals, and was the author of " Animal Mechanism and Physiology " (New York, 1839) ; " Uses and Abuses of Air for the Venti- lation of Buildings " (1850) ; " An Oration before the Academy of Medicine " (1854) ; " Prison Hygiene " (Albany, 1868) ; " Use of Tobacco and the Evils resulting from It " (New York, 1868) ; and " Physi- cal Indications of Longevity " (1869).


GRISWOLD, Alexander Viets, P. E. bishop, b. in Simsbury, Conn., 22 April, 1766 ; d. in Boston, Mass., 15 Feb., 1843. He manifested great precocity in childhood, and learned to read fluently at three years of age. It was intended that he should receive a collegiate training at Yale, but the Revolutionary war prevented. Instead of going to college, young Griswold took to himself a wife in 1785. He next devoted himself to the study of law, at the same time continuing his labors on the farm. He was confirmed by Bishop Seabury, on his first visit to Simsbury par- ish, and became a communicant at the age of twenty. Not liking the law as a profession, he resolved to study for the ministry. He was received as a candidate for holy orders in

the summer of

1794, and during his preparatory course officiated as lay reader in

several neighboring towns. He was ordered deacon by Bishop Seabury, 3 June, 1795, and ordained priest by the same bishop, 1 Oct., 1795. During the next ten years he had charge of three parishes where he had served as lay reader before ordination — Plym- outh, Harwinton, and Litchfield, Conn. He also taught the district school in the winter, and did not disdain manual labor among his parishioners. In 1804 he accepted an urgent call to the rectorship of St. Michael's church, Bristol, R. I. Six years later he was invited to Litchfield, and was prepar- ing to remove thither, when he was elected to the episcopate over a diocese of which he was the first and only bishop, i. e., " The Eastern Diocese," con- sisting of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massa- chusetts, and Rhode Island. This was in May, 1810. At first, through modesty and self-distrust, he positively declined the office ; but others urged his acceptance, and he at last yielded. He was consecrated in Trinity church, New York, 29 May,