"The Sabbath Recorder", Vol 57, No 40, p 629, Oct. 7, 1901.
Hon. Samuel Parker Griffin was born at London, Laurel county, Kentucky, Oct. 27, 1821, and died at his home in Nortonville, Kansas, Sept. 16, 1901, after an illness of several weeks.
While a young man, the subject of this sketch located at Farmingham, Ill., where, in 1848, he married Eliza, oldest daughter of Deacon Dennis Saunders. The widow, two sons and one daughter remain.
With his family he came to Kansas during the stormy days of the growth of the territory into statehood so familiar to every student of American history. Brother Griffin served three terms as a Member in the House of Representatives of the Kansas Legislature and also one term in the State Senate.
In the early beginnings of Nortonville he, with his son, U. S. Griffin, established the strong and reliable mercantile house known in business circles as Griffin & Son, of which he was the senior member at the time of his death.
His career was marked by scrupulous fidelity to all the many interests entrusted to his care. In young manhood he became a Christian, and the principles and habits of Christian loyalty adopted by him then were richly blessed by his Saviour in molding his life in its noble, manly characteristics. In legislative halls, in business, in society and in church life he was ever the same conscientious Christian gentleman, never hesitating to say and do what he believed to be right.
In 1876 he was ordained to the office of Deacon of the Seventh-day Baptist church of Pardee, Kansas, which has since come to be known as the Nortonville church. Church interests and work were dear to him, and none were more regular in attendance at Sabbath services than he until failing health prevented. When he was absent from service, his pastor knew, without inquiry, that it was caused by a physical inability. For a long term of years he was the senior member of the very noble Board of Deacons with which this church has been so richly blessed and who constitute the pastor's advisory council.
No one outside of the immediate family will miss this veteran of the cross so much as his pastor, who always found him a safe and wise advisor, a very loyal and constant friend, always ready with cheerful and encouraging words and a helping hand. So even and sunny a disposition as his is very rarely found.
The place where his strong, noble, yet gentle, manhood manifested itself in its greatest splendor was in the home. The bereavements and cares that came to him in his home life were borne with remarkable Christian fortitude. His dear ones that remain in the broken family miss him most, yet an unusually large circle of relatives and friends share in their bereavement.
Truly, a strong man is gone, yet his manly influences linger like the fragrance of a crushed flower to sweeten and ennoble other lives, and to point the way to the source of all true greatness in human endeavor. He was called to his reward "in a full age, like as a shock of corn coming in in his season." Geo. W. Hills


Census: 1880 Nortonville, Jefferson Co., Kansas: age 58, grocer

"The Sabbath Recorder", Vol 67, No 24, p 762, Dec. 13, 1909.
Eliza Saunders, daughter of Deacon Dennis and Margaret Saunders, was born in Berlin, Rensselaer County, N. Y., June 1, 1829, and peacefully fell asleep in Jesus at 1 a.m., October 26, 1909.
She was the first of four children. The second, Lyman, has been dead a number of years. The third, Electa Saunders Stillman, departed this life a few days less than a month ago. The fourth, Crysanthia (Mrs. Melworth Stillman), survives, and is an honored neighbor among us. When three years of age, in 1832, her parents moved to Little Genesee, Allegany County, N. Y., where at about the age of fourteen she professed faith in Jesus as her personal Saviour, as a result of which her faith in him has grown stronger as her years have multiplied. In 1846 the family moved to Farmington, Fulton County, Illinois, where two years later, on March 20, 1848, she was married to S. O. Griffin. This marriage was blessed in the birth of five children: Charles Truman, Edgar A., Uberto S., Lyman H. and Gertrude Griffin Maxson, the last three of whom survive. In 1859 Mr. and Mrs. Griffin moved from Farmington, Ill., to Pardee, Kansas, where they became constituent members of the Pardee !
Seventh-day Baptist Church. About 1878 they moved to Nortonville, which has since been their home, and from which the husband and father was called to the home above on September 16, 1901.
Hers has been a life of buoyant cheerfulness and faith in God. Until the infirmities of age overtook her, she delighted to entertain company and this was especially marked during any special work, or meetings of the church. Few persons have carried a mirthful, cheerful spirit into advanced age as she did, and it was a source of pleasure to old and young to have the privilege of her company. Her health has been declining for several months past, but she met the inevitable bravely and without murmuring; and even after she was unable to speak in connected sentences, she said to her pastor, with almost a hallowed glow of peace upon her face, "It is all right." M. B. K.

Census: 1880 Nortonville, Jefferson Co., Kansas: age 51