John S. Griffith, Lawyer, was born, July 2d, 1813, in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He was the first of eleven children of James Griffith and Mary (Simpson) Griffith. James Griffith, a native of Bucks county, and a blacksmith by trade, moved to Ohio in 1817, in Bethel, Clermont county, where he farmed during the latter years of his life, and died in 1864, The mother of the subject of this notice was also a native of Bucks county, and a daughter of John Simpson, who settled in Clermont county in 1818, where he was a leading agriculturist until his death, in 1837. Hannah, daughter of John Simpson, was married to Jesse R. Grant, father of General Ulysses S. Grant. The ancestors of John Simpson were identified with the Revolution and the war of 1812. His preliminary education was limited and received at the common schools. In early life he worked on his father's farm and in the blacksmith shop, alternating with speculating on the river, until he was about twenty-five years old. In 1839 he began reading law under Thomas J. Buchanan, a prominent attorney of Batavia, being admitted to the bar in 1841. He immediately entered upon the practice of his profession in Bethel, Clermont county, laboring industriously there until 1852, when he moved his office and residence to Batavia. Mr. Griffith has since remained in Batavia, having built up a large and paying practice. In 1857 he was elected Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of the Fifth Judicial District of Ohio, serving for three years, at the end of which time he was renominated and defeated by the Know Nothing party. In 1857 be was again elected Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas. He was the first in his district to be elected Clerk under the new Constitution, the office having been previously filled by appointment. With the exception of this one public-office, Mr. Griffith has always refused to accept political preferment, notwithstanding frequent solicitation. He cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson, and has acted with the Democratic party since then. He is a man of strict integrity, and enjoys the respect and confidence of all who know him. In the course of a long professional career he has established a reputation as an able lawyer and a useful citizen. He has found time from his professional labors to read the best current literature and cultivate the refining influences of life. In 1843 he married Ann Amelia Harris, of Berks county, Pennsylvania, by whom he is the father of seven children.
Source: The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century, Cincinnati: Galaxy Publishing Company, 1876, p. 479.