Note 165 — Chapter VII · [II]

John S. Griffin (not Griffith) was a native (1807) of Castleton, Vermont, educated in New England, but taking a theological course at Oberlin, where he was graduated in 1838. He prepared to go out to the Indians as an independent missionary, and was dispatched by the Congregational church in Litchfield, Connecticut. Having engaged Asahel Munger, a skilled mechanic, to accompany him, he stopped in St. Louis long enough to marry, and left the frontier the last of April, 1839. At Fort Hall, Griffin, because of some differences, left Munger and pushed on to Lapwai, where he spent the winter, Munger having meanwhile joined Dr. Whitman who gladly employed him at his mission for a year and a half. In the spring of 1840 Griffin attempted a mission to the Shoshoni; but becoming discouraged, pressed on to Fort Vancouver, where he spent the second winter, establishing in 1841 a settlement at Tualatin Plains, near the present Hillsboro. He was active in establishing the provisional government, being suggested as candidate for governor, but opposed on account of his profession. Griffin was the editor of the first Oregon magazine, Oregon American and Evangelical Unionist, eight numbers of which were published (1848-49). He established a Congregational church, the first in Washington County, and lived in Oregon until his death in February, 1899. Munger became deranged, and as a religious test cast himself into fire, dying from his injuries, near Salem, Oregon.—Ed.