J. Louis Griswold, M. D. During his long and active practice at Columbus, Doctor Griswold has become a recognized specialist in medical and surgical work, and has well earned a position among the foremost members of his profession in Cherokee County. Doctor Griswold has lived in this section of Kansas for more than thirty years, and was a druggist before taking up his studies and preparations for medicine.
He was born on a farm in Bureau County, Illinois. His Griswold ancestors came originally from Wales and were colonial settlers in Connecticut. His grandfather, Willard Griswold, was born in Connecticut in 1776. He was the son of a soldier of the American Revolution, and other members of the family were also represented in the patriot armies. Willard Griswold became a pioneer farmer in the State of Iowa, where he died in 1874.
Hubbard Griswold, father of Doctor Griswold, has for many years been a well known citizen of Southeastern Kansas. Born in Livingston County, New York, in 1830, he grew up in that state, and spent part of his boyhood as a “bound boy.” He worked hard to earn his own living from an early age, and as a young man went west to Michigan. His was a life of varied experience. For a time he was a boatman on the Mississippi River. He became an active farmer prior to the war, and after his marriage in Michigan moved to Illinois in 1855. During the war he tried two different times to enlist, but was rejected on account of disability. In 1868 Hubbard Griswold moved to Northern Missouri, was engaged in farming there for a number of years, and in 1883 moved to Montgomery County, Kansas, where he was one of the early settlers in that now rich and populous district. He is now past eighty-five years of age and is living quietly retired at Caney. He came to his majority in time to participate as one of the first voters of the Republican party, and has always been stanchly aligned with that organization. He is also a Mason. Hubbard Griswold married Susan A. Kinney, who was born in Livingston County, New York, in 1828, and died at Toledo, Ohio, in 1910. There were three children: Alonzo, who is a cattle rancher at Montoya, New Mexico; Dr. J. Louis; and Emma Hopkins, who lives at Toledo, Ohio, where Mr. Hopkins is in the employ of the Standard Oil Company.
Doctor Griswold spent ten years of his early youth in Mercer County, Missouri, and while there received most of his public school training. His father’s farm was his home until he was twenty-four, but in the meantime he had been awarded a certificate and taught for four years in the country schools of Northern Missouri.
It was as a school teacher that Doctor Griswold first became known to the people of Southeastern Kansas. He taught one term in Montgomery County, beginning in 1884, and then embarked in the drug business at Crestline in Cherokee County. For twenty years Doctor Griswold owned and operated his drug store at Crestline, and it was from this occupation that he graduated into a professional career. He took up the study of medicine while a druggist at Crestline, and completed his training in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at St. Louis, where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1899. For the next six years Doctor Griswold practiced at Crestline, but since 1905 has had his home in Columbus, and his work in that city has been exclusively as a specialist. He has his offices in the Columbus State Bank Building at the north corner of the Square. Doctor Griswold stands high among his fellow associates in medical circles, is a member of the Cherokee County Medical Society, the State and the Southeastern Kansas Medical societies and the American Medical Association.
While his life has counted much towards the welfare of his fellow citizens, Doctor Griswold has also prospered in business affairs, and besides his home at 626 East Maple Street he owns 320 acres of land in the State of New Mexico. Since coming to Columbus he has served four years in the city council. He is a republican, is affiliated with Prudence Lodge, No. 100, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Chapter No. 223, Royal Arch Masons, both of Columbus, and with Columbus Lodge, No. 387, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Columbus Lodge, No. 12, Knights of Pythias.
In December, 1895, Doctor Griswold was married in Cherokee County, to Miss Mamie Janney, daughter of William and Mary (Brown) Janney, the latter now deceased. Her father, who is a retired farmer, lives with, Doctor and Mrs. Griswold. To their marriage have been born two daughters. Mildred, born July 18, 1897, is now in the first year of the Cherokee County High School at Columbus. Marjorie, born in June, 1903, is in the eighth grade of the public schools.