Charles A. Griswold (1860-1954)

**Charles A. Griswold** (September 1, 1860 - March 1, 1954) was a leader in civic affairs in town and a trustee of the West Hartford branch of the Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company.

Griswold was born in West Hartford on September 1, 1860 to Charles S. Griswold and Lucia Bishop. He attended Williston Academy and operated a tobacco packing business in Bishop's Corner with his father.

On March 1, 1954, Griswold died at the age of 93 in a private convalescent home.

## Family

Griswold married Mary Emma Sedgwick.

* Charles S. Griswold
* Ruby Griswold - m. Hiram L. Manville

## Organizations

* Griswold was elected Master of the Grange on January 21, 1890.
* Hosted one of the first meetings of the Merry-Go-Round Whist Club on November 15, 1894.
* Elected Senior Warden of Wyllys Lodge on November 31, 1899; re-elected December 1900.
* Chosen state delegate at the Republican caucus in town on April 25, 1900; he was then elected to the committee for fire protection on September 11, 1901.
* Elected as Republican town representative against Arthur J. Brodeur on November 8, 1904, returning soon after from a tobacco buying trip to Vermont. He was then appointed assessor on October 4, 1905 in place of Charles S. Griswold, who refused to serve due to a clerical error on the ballot.
* Chosen as chairman of the Republican caucus in place of Carlyle Thomson, resigned, in August 1908.
* Elected as a Vice-President of the Business Men's Association on April 19, 1909, re-elected in March 1910 and March 1911. He was elected as President of the Business Men's Association on March 20, 1913.
* On April 8, 1912, Chairman Griswold declined to serve on the Republican town committee after 32 years, succeeded by Robert H. Schutz, unanimously elected.
* Was a director of the Masonic Hall Association, incorporated in February 1913; was also one of the organizers of the town plan commission in November 1913 as chairman.
* Elected as Vice-President of the Village Improvement Society on November 10, 1917, re-elected in October 1919.

## Real Estate

* On April 15, 1904, he purchased the farm of Eleazer W. Storrs (1855-1904), just northwest of Bishop's Corner, from his wife after his death. Abbie Bradley Storrs, his wife, then moved to Spring Hill, Mansfield. On April 4, 1909, Griswold sold the former Hugh G. Montgomery farm to Allen W. Brown and Emma J. Brown.
* Griswold contracted out a house for himself on Fern Street near Charles S. Griswold's home in June 1912 on a lot purchased from him, removing to the new house from Bishop's Corner on January 28, 1913. The home is now 10 Hawthorne Road. In January 1917, Griswold asked the town for the grading of Fern Street prior to the laying of the big water main.
* Griswold sold the 90-acre tobacco farm in Bishop's Corner to his son, Charles S. Griswold on December 4, 1914.

## Land Use and Business

* Griswold was one of the leading tobacco growers in the 1890s, with a large piece of tobacco land at the corner of Albany Avenue and North Main Street.
* Removed barns and sheds to the rear of his place on Albany Avenue, grading the premises on August 10, 1901. A tobacco barn was built for him by James P. Murphy in August 1902, standing north of the road. Murphy then built a large three-story addition to the tobacco warehouse in January 1906.
* The shop of Charles S. Griswold and Charles A. Griswold employed about 25-32 employees in April 1911.

## Accidents

* On October 21, 1904, a storm damaged a tobacco shed on his property on North Main Street.
* On the Fourth of July in 1910, several young boys stole his outhouse and placed it on Goodman Green beside the watering trough.
* On February 4, 1913, Peter H. Dwyer, an employee at their tobacco packing firm, was found dead with a wound to his head on the road beside Albany Avenue.

## Personal

* Went on a business trip to Pennsylvania and Ohio with sample tobacco crops to sell between January 12, 1898 and October 18, 1898.
* Left on a trip to Maine for the late summer 1904. He then went on a business trip to Pennsylvania in May 1905. He went to Virginia Hot Springs in July 1907 to regain his health, returning at the end of the summer.
* He purchased a touring automobile in September 1911.
* Griswold's father, Charles S. Griswold, died in February 1916, leaving his siblings, Joseph H. Griswold and Ethel Griswold (Mrs. Charles M. Penfield).