Person:William Griffith (52)

WILLIAM C GRIFFITH, JUNIOR was born November 4, 1758 in Franklin County, Virginia. He later moved to Tennessee.

William Griffith Jr. was a non-pensioner soldier. His son, William C. Griffith, in an affidavit dated November 1, 1852, said "I have heard my father say repeatedly that he could live well without a pension, and he would rather that his government would have his services so that in any subsequent wars she might be better able to feed and clothe her army. "After William Griffith's death, his widow, Susannah, did file a declaratory affidavit with the intention to file for a pension in which she said, "He served at least nine months in three different engagements. He entered from Franklin County in Blackwater, Virginia. I remember the time of his going from the neighborhood, and of hearing my father speak of seeing him in service. He first went to Carolina County under Captain Renfro, and brought back a parcel of Tories under guard. Another tour of duty was under Colonel Lynch in forepart of 1781. We were married after he left service."

Thus William Griffith is the only Revolutionary War soldier buried in the Oak Ridge Project area whose burial site can be pinpointed to an exact cemetery.

William Griffith bought 136 acres of land on Poplar Creek from Charles McClung which cornered at the Sullins line and extended to the McClung line on top of Black Oak Ridge, being a part of the 5,000 acre survey. The deed was registered July 2, 1803, but actual occupation of the land was evidently at an earlier date because William Griffith's name is onthe Anderson County 102 Tax list. In 1807, William Griffith bought an additional 70 acres on Poplar Creek from Zachariah Sullins. The Griffiths had come to stay and their long story is interwoven with the community's history to this day. (Source: History of Oliver Springs Tenn. Vol. 3"