The son of William & Margaret (Wiley) Griest, he married Rebecca Walton March 23, 1849, in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and fathered Asa Walton (b. 04/07/50, d. @1855), Frank (b. @1854), and William Walton (b. 09/22/58). In 1860, he was a blacksmith living with his family in Sadsbury Township, Lancaster County.
A Civil War veteran, he served two terms of service:
1. Enlisted at the stated age of thirty-five in Christiana, Lancaster County, September 6, 1862, mustered into state service as a private with Co. E, 2nd Pennsylvania Militia, and honorably discharged with his company September 23, 1862.
2. In December 1862, he enrolled with the regular army as a clerk and assigned to 3rd Division, 6th Corps, Army of the Potomac. Captured allegedly by "Mosby's guerrillas" [possible but unverified] sometime during October 1863, he was incarcerated in Richmond, Virginia, and reportedly paroled January 30, 1864. It is also reported that he was incarcerated in Libby Prison, which, if true, suggests he held a commissioned rank. Following parole, he was assigned to the Federal prison camp at Johnson Island, Sandusky, Ohio, and in 1864 was commissioned commissary of subsistence at the rank of captain. He discharged during April 1866, at which time he reportedly was offered a lieutenant's commission with the regular army but declined. Note that none of this military history comes from primary sources, and no record of enlistment with the U.S. Army was located. It was, however, then common for the army to select civilians to fill essential administrative roles, and it appears this was the case with Ellwood Griest.
It was unusual that such an important administrative role be granted to a blacksmith. That strongly suggests that Griest was known as a literate man with organizational skills beyond those required of a blacksmith, and subsequent employment experiences support that. After the war, he served as county treasurer, in 1868 became publisher of the Lancaster Inquirer, and later, as an ardent antebellum abolitionist, wrote "The Fugitive Slaves: A Tale of South Eastern Pennsylvania." At his death, he was postmaster, and all of his pall bearers were postal employees.
Although his obituaries refer to him at the rank of "Major," available evidence - secondary thought it may be - claims he left the army at the rank of captain. It was then commonplace during the post-war years to grant prominent veterans advanced ranks they never held while in the military.
Obituary from the Lancaster Semi-Weekly New Era
Ellwood Griest Dead.
Another Prominent Citizen at Rest.
Death Came at an Early Hour This Morning, After Almost a Year of Suffering -- For Many Years Actively Identified with the Public Affairs of City and County.
Major Ellwood Griest, Postmaster of Lancaster, editor and publisher of the Inquirer, and one of the city's foremost residents, passed peacefully to rest at his home, No. 419 South Prince street, this morning at four o'clock, in his seventy-sixth year. For six years past the aged gentleman's health had been declining. He was afflicted with chronic bronchitis, and for almost twelve months prior to his death was confined to his bed. The severity of the disease resulted in nervous prostration, but a remarkable vitality and unusually strong constitution prolonged a life that, under ordinary circumstances, would have ended a year or more ago.
Major Griest was a self-made man in the fullest sense of the word. Born on the Octorara creek, at Griest's fording, in Chester county, on June 17, 1824, he received an ordinary English education, and, without any other advantages save rugged health and the Christian influences with which his Quaker parents, William and Margaret Griest, surrounded and guided him in his boyhood days, he set forth to win his way in the world. In those days, blacksmithing was one of the best of the mechanical trades. He mastered it and worked as a journeyman in various places in Lancaster, Chester and Delaware counties. For many years he worked at the forge in Bart and Christiana, where he established a business of his own. In the anti-slavery agitation preceding the Rebellion, young Griest was an active participant. he had a local reputation as a radical abolitionist. He had the courage to state his convictions upon any and all occasions, and if an ardent Southern sympathizer attempted to carry bulldozing tactics to tantalizing lengths, the sturdy blacksmith displayed his iron muscles, which had the effect of calming the tone of his opponent's debate. Imbued with the feeling that the slave would have to be released from bondage, Mr. Griest enlisted with enthusiasm in the service of the United States in December, 1862, as a clerk in the subsistence department in the Third Division, Sixth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, in which capacity he served with marked ability until October 11, 1862, when he was captured at Chantilly, Va., by Mosby's guerillas. He was sent to Castles Thunder, and afterwards to Libby prison, where he was detained until January 30, 1864, when he was paroled and exchanged. Upon his return home he was detailed for duty to Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, a depot for rebel prisoners. In August , 1864, he was commissioned commissary of subsistence, with rank of Captain, and was ordered to General Sheridan's army, where he was placed on the staff as issuing commissary at headquarters. He remained with Sheridan until February, 1865, and when the great cavalry leader made his famous raid, Captain Griest was left at Winchester as post commissary. While on General Sheridan's staff, General Alexander Shaler, then commanding the post of Columbus, Ky., made repeated applications to have Captain Griest appointed on his staff, which request Gen. Sheridan refused, with the remark that "Captain Griest is an intelligent and efficient officer, whose services at this time (December 14, 1864,) in this department, cannot very well be dispensed with ." Captain Griest, after the close of the war, was detailed with Sheridan at New Orleans and Jacksonville, Fla., where he was mustered out on May 11, 1866, with the brevet rank of Major. Before starting for home he was offered a Lieutenant's commission in the regular army, which he refused to accept.
Major Griest always took a deep interest in matters political. He was one of the two Secretaries of the mass meeting, held in Fulton Hall, on May 26, 1856, at which the Republican party of hte county was organized. Dr. Geo. H. Markley being the other. He believed in the principles of the Republican party and flung his blazing banner aloft for Fremont and Dayton, its first champions. In the organization of the party in this county he was an active and influential figure. Posessed of more than the ordinary intelligence and a leader by nature, he gained prominence at the outset of the party's career. He was frequently called upon to preside at County Conventions. In 1856 he was a delegate to the State Convention, which met that year in Philadelphia, as did also the National body. In September, 1866, upon his return from the war, he was appointed by the County Commissioners to the office of County Treasurer, to fill the unexpired term of Samuel Ensminger, made vacant by the latter's death. In 1868, he became a candidate for Congress to succeed Thaddeus Stevens, but withdrew in favor of Oliver J. Dickey, Esq. In 1876 he was a candidate for the nomination, but was defeated by Hon. A. Herr Smith by a majority of only sixty-two votes, after a vigorous campain. There were five candidates, and the vote was as follows: Smith, 3,763; Griest, 3,701; C.S. Kauffman, Columbia, 1,956; Jesse Kennedy, Mt. Joy, 1,015, and David Evans, city, 272. In 1878, for a third time, Major Griest tried to win the Congressional nomination, but was defeated again by Mr. Smith. the only other public office he held was that of Postmaster of this city, to which he was appointed by President Harrison December 11, 1890, serving during all of that administration and again on February 16, 1898, by President McKinley, which term he was serving at the time of his death. in 1888 he was a Presidential elector in the college that elected Harrison.
Perhaps it was as editor and publisher that Major Griest was best known. While acting as County Treasurer he was engaged by Stuart A. Wylie to edit the Lancaster Inquirer. In 1868 the two formed a partnership which existed until June, 1872, when Mr. Wylie died. Major Griest then became owner of the paper and made it one of the best weekly periodicals in the county. He continued active work on the paper until failing health compelled his retirement.
Deceased was a member of George H. Thomas Post, No. 84, G.A.R., and while in the army, he became a member of the Masons at Winchester, Va., at the same time President McKinley joined the society. In religious faith he clung tenaciously to the Quakers, and he was a member of the Eastland meeting, Little Britain township.
Mr. Griest is survived by his wife and two sons, Frank, who has succeeded his father in the publicatoin of the Inquirer, and Hon. W.W. Griest, Secretary of the Commonwealth. One brother, Thomas Griest, of Christiana, also survives.
The funeral will be held on Monday afternoon at two o'clock from the deceased's late home on South Prince street, interment in Woodward Hill cemetery. -- Lancaster New Era, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 2Feb1900, p. 1.∼He was born in West Nottingham Township, Chester County, Pa., in a house that is still standing on the banks of the Octorara Creek. His father's farm and the farm of the writer were adjoining properties. Elwood was the son of William Griest and Margaret Wiley. His father was also born in West Nottingham. His grandfather was Thomas Griest, who was a lineal descendent of John Griest, who settled on the Delaware prior to William Penn's coming to America. John Griest's marriage to Ann Butt, in 1682, is one of the earliest noted in the records of Chester Monthly Meeting of Friends. Elwood passed his boyhood days on his father's farm, and when he arrived at a proper age learned the trade of blacksmithing, and settled in Christiana, Lancaster Co., Pa., where he married soon after a daughter of Asa and Mary Walton, of Bart. (Five miles west of Christiana.) His widow survives him. Of this union there were three children, one that died in very early childhood and two that survive, Frank who was engaged with his father in business in Lancaster, Pa., and William W., who is at present Secretary of the Commonwealth of Penna. From his earliest boyhood Elwood was a great reader and thinker. During the stormy days of his young manhood, upon the anti-slavery question, he was open, avowed, and thoroughly independent advocate of the freedom of the human race, and was always ready with his voice and pen to defend the downtrodden of whatever race or section. Christiana was noted for many able men, and a great many were thorough anti-slavery men; it is needless to mention many of them, but such men as Thomas Whitson, Levi Scarlett, and others of that class, will long be remembered as being foremost not only in the anti-slavery cause but in every good work. Perhaps no man has ever lived in that entire section who was more thoroughly independent and entirely free from fear in advocacy of what he thought was right than Elwood Griest. The writer knew him well from earliest boyhood, and he never knew him to do that which could be construed into being an unmanly or ungenerous act. When the late Civil War broke out, like others who had been strong advocates of the anti-slavery movement, he entered the United States Army, in 1862. He was captured by Mosby's guerillas, in October 1863, and remained a prisoner in Libby prison, at Richmond, Va., until the following January. He served for a time on General Sheridan's staff, as issuing commissary at headquarters, and was afterwards detailed with Sheridan at New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida, and was not mustered out until April 1866. With the brevet rank of Major, he was at this time offered a lieutenant's commission in the regular army, but declined it. Military life was not to his liking, and he only entered the service from convictions of duty, and with a desire to aid in destroying what he considered a great and burning disgrace upon the American people, the institution of slavery. He was one of the organizers of the Republican party and always took an active in politics; was a candidate on more than one occasion for Congress, and everyone now admits was once nominated, but was "counted out" at the convention. He served as presidential elector in 1888, was appointed in 1890 postmaster at Lancaster, Pa., by President Harrison and reappointed in Feb. 1898, by President McKinley, and held this position at the time of his death. His parents were prominent in the Society of Friends. His mother was a public Friend, a pleasing speaker, whose words never failed to impress upon the hearts and minds of her hearers her sincerity. His father was one of the sterling men of his neighborhood, a man of but a few words, but whose word was his bond; hence, it is but natural, coming from such parentage that Elwood Griest should have become a prominent, useful man, advocating the right upon all occasions. He retained his membership in the Society of Friends, and was at the time of his decease a member of Eastland Preparative and Little Britain Monthly Meetings. Few men in that entire community have left a brighter or clearer record for deeds of worth and conscientious performance of duty than Elwood Griest. The writer feels that that in his death he has not only lost the friendship of an old neighbor, whom he always loved to meet and with whom he always delighted to converse, but that he has lost a friend, one to whom he could look for assistance and good advice. J.A.M.P." Elwood was the editor of the Lancaster Inquirer.
The Griest Family - "The Lancaster County Branch," pgs. 403-405, S.B. Cross, 1966.
Father of the Honorable William Walton Griest Member of Congress 1909-1929.
A Civil War veteran, he served two terms of service:
1. Enlisted at the stated age of thirty-five in Christiana, Lancaster County, September 6, 1862, mustered into state service as a private with Co. E, 2nd Pennsylvania Militia, and honorably discharged with his company September 23, 1862.
2. In December 1862, he enrolled with the regular army as a clerk and assigned to 3rd Division, 6th Corps, Army of the Potomac. Captured allegedly by "Mosby's guerrillas" [possible but unverified] sometime during October 1863, he was incarcerated in Richmond, Virginia, and reportedly paroled January 30, 1864. It is also reported that he was incarcerated in Libby Prison, which, if true, suggests he held a commissioned rank. Following parole, he was assigned to the Federal prison camp at Johnson Island, Sandusky, Ohio, and in 1864 was commissioned commissary of subsistence at the rank of captain. He discharged during April 1866, at which time he reportedly was offered a lieutenant's commission with the regular army but declined. Note that none of this military history comes from primary sources, and no record of enlistment with the U.S. Army was located. It was, however, then common for the army to select civilians to fill essential administrative roles, and it appears this was the case with Ellwood Griest.
It was unusual that such an important administrative role be granted to a blacksmith. That strongly suggests that Griest was known as a literate man with organizational skills beyond those required of a blacksmith, and subsequent employment experiences support that. After the war, he served as county treasurer, in 1868 became publisher of the Lancaster Inquirer, and later, as an ardent antebellum abolitionist, wrote "The Fugitive Slaves: A Tale of South Eastern Pennsylvania." At his death, he was postmaster, and all of his pall bearers were postal employees.
Although his obituaries refer to him at the rank of "Major," available evidence - secondary thought it may be - claims he left the army at the rank of captain. It was then commonplace during the post-war years to grant prominent veterans advanced ranks they never held while in the military.
Obituary from the Lancaster Semi-Weekly New Era
Ellwood Griest Dead.
Another Prominent Citizen at Rest.
Death Came at an Early Hour This Morning, After Almost a Year of Suffering -- For Many Years Actively Identified with the Public Affairs of City and County.
Major Ellwood Griest, Postmaster of Lancaster, editor and publisher of the Inquirer, and one of the city's foremost residents, passed peacefully to rest at his home, No. 419 South Prince street, this morning at four o'clock, in his seventy-sixth year. For six years past the aged gentleman's health had been declining. He was afflicted with chronic bronchitis, and for almost twelve months prior to his death was confined to his bed. The severity of the disease resulted in nervous prostration, but a remarkable vitality and unusually strong constitution prolonged a life that, under ordinary circumstances, would have ended a year or more ago.
Major Griest was a self-made man in the fullest sense of the word. Born on the Octorara creek, at Griest's fording, in Chester county, on June 17, 1824, he received an ordinary English education, and, without any other advantages save rugged health and the Christian influences with which his Quaker parents, William and Margaret Griest, surrounded and guided him in his boyhood days, he set forth to win his way in the world. In those days, blacksmithing was one of the best of the mechanical trades. He mastered it and worked as a journeyman in various places in Lancaster, Chester and Delaware counties. For many years he worked at the forge in Bart and Christiana, where he established a business of his own. In the anti-slavery agitation preceding the Rebellion, young Griest was an active participant. he had a local reputation as a radical abolitionist. He had the courage to state his convictions upon any and all occasions, and if an ardent Southern sympathizer attempted to carry bulldozing tactics to tantalizing lengths, the sturdy blacksmith displayed his iron muscles, which had the effect of calming the tone of his opponent's debate. Imbued with the feeling that the slave would have to be released from bondage, Mr. Griest enlisted with enthusiasm in the service of the United States in December, 1862, as a clerk in the subsistence department in the Third Division, Sixth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, in which capacity he served with marked ability until October 11, 1862, when he was captured at Chantilly, Va., by Mosby's guerillas. He was sent to Castles Thunder, and afterwards to Libby prison, where he was detained until January 30, 1864, when he was paroled and exchanged. Upon his return home he was detailed for duty to Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, a depot for rebel prisoners. In August , 1864, he was commissioned commissary of subsistence, with rank of Captain, and was ordered to General Sheridan's army, where he was placed on the staff as issuing commissary at headquarters. He remained with Sheridan until February, 1865, and when the great cavalry leader made his famous raid, Captain Griest was left at Winchester as post commissary. While on General Sheridan's staff, General Alexander Shaler, then commanding the post of Columbus, Ky., made repeated applications to have Captain Griest appointed on his staff, which request Gen. Sheridan refused, with the remark that "Captain Griest is an intelligent and efficient officer, whose services at this time (December 14, 1864,) in this department, cannot very well be dispensed with ." Captain Griest, after the close of the war, was detailed with Sheridan at New Orleans and Jacksonville, Fla., where he was mustered out on May 11, 1866, with the brevet rank of Major. Before starting for home he was offered a Lieutenant's commission in the regular army, which he refused to accept.
Major Griest always took a deep interest in matters political. He was one of the two Secretaries of the mass meeting, held in Fulton Hall, on May 26, 1856, at which the Republican party of hte county was organized. Dr. Geo. H. Markley being the other. He believed in the principles of the Republican party and flung his blazing banner aloft for Fremont and Dayton, its first champions. In the organization of the party in this county he was an active and influential figure. Posessed of more than the ordinary intelligence and a leader by nature, he gained prominence at the outset of the party's career. He was frequently called upon to preside at County Conventions. In 1856 he was a delegate to the State Convention, which met that year in Philadelphia, as did also the National body. In September, 1866, upon his return from the war, he was appointed by the County Commissioners to the office of County Treasurer, to fill the unexpired term of Samuel Ensminger, made vacant by the latter's death. In 1868, he became a candidate for Congress to succeed Thaddeus Stevens, but withdrew in favor of Oliver J. Dickey, Esq. In 1876 he was a candidate for the nomination, but was defeated by Hon. A. Herr Smith by a majority of only sixty-two votes, after a vigorous campain. There were five candidates, and the vote was as follows: Smith, 3,763; Griest, 3,701; C.S. Kauffman, Columbia, 1,956; Jesse Kennedy, Mt. Joy, 1,015, and David Evans, city, 272. In 1878, for a third time, Major Griest tried to win the Congressional nomination, but was defeated again by Mr. Smith. the only other public office he held was that of Postmaster of this city, to which he was appointed by President Harrison December 11, 1890, serving during all of that administration and again on February 16, 1898, by President McKinley, which term he was serving at the time of his death. in 1888 he was a Presidential elector in the college that elected Harrison.
Perhaps it was as editor and publisher that Major Griest was best known. While acting as County Treasurer he was engaged by Stuart A. Wylie to edit the Lancaster Inquirer. In 1868 the two formed a partnership which existed until June, 1872, when Mr. Wylie died. Major Griest then became owner of the paper and made it one of the best weekly periodicals in the county. He continued active work on the paper until failing health compelled his retirement.
Deceased was a member of George H. Thomas Post, No. 84, G.A.R., and while in the army, he became a member of the Masons at Winchester, Va., at the same time President McKinley joined the society. In religious faith he clung tenaciously to the Quakers, and he was a member of the Eastland meeting, Little Britain township.
Mr. Griest is survived by his wife and two sons, Frank, who has succeeded his father in the publicatoin of the Inquirer, and Hon. W.W. Griest, Secretary of the Commonwealth. One brother, Thomas Griest, of Christiana, also survives.
The funeral will be held on Monday afternoon at two o'clock from the deceased's late home on South Prince street, interment in Woodward Hill cemetery. -- Lancaster New Era, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 2Feb1900, p. 1.∼He was born in West Nottingham Township, Chester County, Pa., in a house that is still standing on the banks of the Octorara Creek. His father's farm and the farm of the writer were adjoining properties. Elwood was the son of William Griest and Margaret Wiley. His father was also born in West Nottingham. His grandfather was Thomas Griest, who was a lineal descendent of John Griest, who settled on the Delaware prior to William Penn's coming to America. John Griest's marriage to Ann Butt, in 1682, is one of the earliest noted in the records of Chester Monthly Meeting of Friends. Elwood passed his boyhood days on his father's farm, and when he arrived at a proper age learned the trade of blacksmithing, and settled in Christiana, Lancaster Co., Pa., where he married soon after a daughter of Asa and Mary Walton, of Bart. (Five miles west of Christiana.) His widow survives him. Of this union there were three children, one that died in very early childhood and two that survive, Frank who was engaged with his father in business in Lancaster, Pa., and William W., who is at present Secretary of the Commonwealth of Penna. From his earliest boyhood Elwood was a great reader and thinker. During the stormy days of his young manhood, upon the anti-slavery question, he was open, avowed, and thoroughly independent advocate of the freedom of the human race, and was always ready with his voice and pen to defend the downtrodden of whatever race or section. Christiana was noted for many able men, and a great many were thorough anti-slavery men; it is needless to mention many of them, but such men as Thomas Whitson, Levi Scarlett, and others of that class, will long be remembered as being foremost not only in the anti-slavery cause but in every good work. Perhaps no man has ever lived in that entire section who was more thoroughly independent and entirely free from fear in advocacy of what he thought was right than Elwood Griest. The writer knew him well from earliest boyhood, and he never knew him to do that which could be construed into being an unmanly or ungenerous act. When the late Civil War broke out, like others who had been strong advocates of the anti-slavery movement, he entered the United States Army, in 1862. He was captured by Mosby's guerillas, in October 1863, and remained a prisoner in Libby prison, at Richmond, Va., until the following January. He served for a time on General Sheridan's staff, as issuing commissary at headquarters, and was afterwards detailed with Sheridan at New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida, and was not mustered out until April 1866. With the brevet rank of Major, he was at this time offered a lieutenant's commission in the regular army, but declined it. Military life was not to his liking, and he only entered the service from convictions of duty, and with a desire to aid in destroying what he considered a great and burning disgrace upon the American people, the institution of slavery. He was one of the organizers of the Republican party and always took an active in politics; was a candidate on more than one occasion for Congress, and everyone now admits was once nominated, but was "counted out" at the convention. He served as presidential elector in 1888, was appointed in 1890 postmaster at Lancaster, Pa., by President Harrison and reappointed in Feb. 1898, by President McKinley, and held this position at the time of his death. His parents were prominent in the Society of Friends. His mother was a public Friend, a pleasing speaker, whose words never failed to impress upon the hearts and minds of her hearers her sincerity. His father was one of the sterling men of his neighborhood, a man of but a few words, but whose word was his bond; hence, it is but natural, coming from such parentage that Elwood Griest should have become a prominent, useful man, advocating the right upon all occasions. He retained his membership in the Society of Friends, and was at the time of his decease a member of Eastland Preparative and Little Britain Monthly Meetings. Few men in that entire community have left a brighter or clearer record for deeds of worth and conscientious performance of duty than Elwood Griest. The writer feels that that in his death he has not only lost the friendship of an old neighbor, whom he always loved to meet and with whom he always delighted to converse, but that he has lost a friend, one to whom he could look for assistance and good advice. J.A.M.P." Elwood was the editor of the Lancaster Inquirer.
The Griest Family - "The Lancaster County Branch," pgs. 403-405, S.B. Cross, 1966.
Father of the Honorable William Walton Griest Member of Congress 1909-1929.
The son of William & Margaret (Wiley) Griest, he married Rebecca Walton March 23, 1849, in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and fathered Asa Walton (b. 04/07/50, d. @1855), Frank (b. @1854), and William Walton (b. 09/22/58). In 1860, he was a blacksmith living with his family in Sadsbury Township, Lancaster County.
A Civil War veteran, he served two terms of service:
1. Enlisted at the stated age of thirty-five in Christiana, Lancaster County, September 6, 1862, mustered into state service as a private with Co. E, 2nd Pennsylvania Militia, and honorably discharged with his company September 23, 1862.
2. In December 1862, he enrolled with the regular army as a clerk and assigned to 3rd Division, 6th Corps, Army of the Potomac. Captured allegedly by "Mosby's guerrillas" [possible but unverified] sometime during October 1863, he was incarcerated in Richmond, Virginia, and reportedly paroled January 30, 1864. It is also reported that he was incarcerated in Libby Prison, which, if true, suggests he held a commissioned rank. Following parole, he was assigned to the Federal prison camp at Johnson Island, Sandusky, Ohio, and in 1864 was commissioned commissary of subsistence at the rank of captain. He discharged during April 1866, at which time he reportedly was offered a lieutenant's commission with the regular army but declined. Note that none of this military history comes from primary sources, and no record of enlistment with the U.S. Army was located. It was, however, then common for the army to select civilians to fill essential administrative roles, and it appears this was the case with Ellwood Griest.
It was unusual that such an important administrative role be granted to a blacksmith. That strongly suggests that Griest was known as a literate man with organizational skills beyond those required of a blacksmith, and subsequent employment experiences support that. After the war, he served as county treasurer, in 1868 became publisher of the Lancaster Inquirer, and later, as an ardent antebellum abolitionist, wrote "The Fugitive Slaves: A Tale of South Eastern Pennsylvania." At his death, he was postmaster, and all of his pall bearers were postal employees.
Although his obituaries refer to him at the rank of "Major," available evidence - secondary thought it may be - claims he left the army at the rank of captain. It was then commonplace during the post-war years to grant prominent veterans advanced ranks they never held while in the military.
Obituary from the Lancaster Semi-Weekly New Era
Ellwood Griest Dead.
Another Prominent Citizen at Rest.
Death Came at an Early Hour This Morning, After Almost a Year of Suffering -- For Many Years Actively Identified with the Public Affairs of City and County.
Major Ellwood Griest, Postmaster of Lancaster, editor and publisher of the Inquirer, and one of the city's foremost residents, passed peacefully to rest at his home, No. 419 South Prince street, this morning at four o'clock, in his seventy-sixth year. For six years past the aged gentleman's health had been declining. He was afflicted with chronic bronchitis, and for almost twelve months prior to his death was confined to his bed. The severity of the disease resulted in nervous prostration, but a remarkable vitality and unusually strong constitution prolonged a life that, under ordinary circumstances, would have ended a year or more ago.
Major Griest was a self-made man in the fullest sense of the word. Born on the Octorara creek, at Griest's fording, in Chester county, on June 17, 1824, he received an ordinary English education, and, without any other advantages save rugged health and the Christian influences with which his Quaker parents, William and Margaret Griest, surrounded and guided him in his boyhood days, he set forth to win his way in the world. In those days, blacksmithing was one of the best of the mechanical trades. He mastered it and worked as a journeyman in various places in Lancaster, Chester and Delaware counties. For many years he worked at the forge in Bart and Christiana, where he established a business of his own. In the anti-slavery agitation preceding the Rebellion, young Griest was an active participant. he had a local reputation as a radical abolitionist. He had the courage to state his convictions upon any and all occasions, and if an ardent Southern sympathizer attempted to carry bulldozing tactics to tantalizing lengths, the sturdy blacksmith displayed his iron muscles, which had the effect of calming the tone of his opponent's debate. Imbued with the feeling that the slave would have to be released from bondage, Mr. Griest enlisted with enthusiasm in the service of the United States in December, 1862, as a clerk in the subsistence department in the Third Division, Sixth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, in which capacity he served with marked ability until October 11, 1862, when he was captured at Chantilly, Va., by Mosby's guerillas. He was sent to Castles Thunder, and afterwards to Libby prison, where he was detained until January 30, 1864, when he was paroled and exchanged. Upon his return home he was detailed for duty to Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, a depot for rebel prisoners. In August , 1864, he was commissioned commissary of subsistence, with rank of Captain, and was ordered to General Sheridan's army, where he was placed on the staff as issuing commissary at headquarters. He remained with Sheridan until February, 1865, and when the great cavalry leader made his famous raid, Captain Griest was left at Winchester as post commissary. While on General Sheridan's staff, General Alexander Shaler, then commanding the post of Columbus, Ky., made repeated applications to have Captain Griest appointed on his staff, which request Gen. Sheridan refused, with the remark that "Captain Griest is an intelligent and efficient officer, whose services at this time (December 14, 1864,) in this department, cannot very well be dispensed with ." Captain Griest, after the close of the war, was detailed with Sheridan at New Orleans and Jacksonville, Fla., where he was mustered out on May 11, 1866, with the brevet rank of Major. Before starting for home he was offered a Lieutenant's commission in the regular army, which he refused to accept.
Major Griest always took a deep interest in matters political. He was one of the two Secretaries of the mass meeting, held in Fulton Hall, on May 26, 1856, at which the Republican party of hte county was organized. Dr. Geo. H. Markley being the other. He believed in the principles of the Republican party and flung his blazing banner aloft for Fremont and Dayton, its first champions. In the organization of the party in this county he was an active and influential figure. Posessed of more than the ordinary intelligence and a leader by nature, he gained prominence at the outset of the party's career. He was frequently called upon to preside at County Conventions. In 1856 he was a delegate to the State Convention, which met that year in Philadelphia, as did also the National body. In September, 1866, upon his return from the war, he was appointed by the County Commissioners to the office of County Treasurer, to fill the unexpired term of Samuel Ensminger, made vacant by the latter's death. In 1868, he became a candidate for Congress to succeed Thaddeus Stevens, but withdrew in favor of Oliver J. Dickey, Esq. In 1876 he was a candidate for the nomination, but was defeated by Hon. A. Herr Smith by a majority of only sixty-two votes, after a vigorous campain. There were five candidates, and the vote was as follows: Smith, 3,763; Griest, 3,701; C.S. Kauffman, Columbia, 1,956; Jesse Kennedy, Mt. Joy, 1,015, and David Evans, city, 272. In 1878, for a third time, Major Griest tried to win the Congressional nomination, but was defeated again by Mr. Smith. the only other public office he held was that of Postmaster of this city, to which he was appointed by President Harrison December 11, 1890, serving during all of that administration and again on February 16, 1898, by President McKinley, which term he was serving at the time of his death. in 1888 he was a Presidential elector in the college that elected Harrison.
Perhaps it was as editor and publisher that Major Griest was best known. While acting as County Treasurer he was engaged by Stuart A. Wylie to edit the Lancaster Inquirer. In 1868 the two formed a partnership which existed until June, 1872, when Mr. Wylie died. Major Griest then became owner of the paper and made it one of the best weekly periodicals in the county. He continued active work on the paper until failing health compelled his retirement.
Deceased was a member of George H. Thomas Post, No. 84, G.A.R., and while in the army, he became a member of the Masons at Winchester, Va., at the same time President McKinley joined the society. In religious faith he clung tenaciously to the Quakers, and he was a member of the Eastland meeting, Little Britain township.
Mr. Griest is survived by his wife and two sons, Frank, who has succeeded his father in the publicatoin of the Inquirer, and Hon. W.W. Griest, Secretary of the Commonwealth. One brother, Thomas Griest, of Christiana, also survives.
The funeral will be held on Monday afternoon at two o'clock from the deceased's late home on South Prince street, interment in Woodward Hill cemetery. -- Lancaster New Era, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 2Feb1900, p. 1.∼He was born in West Nottingham Township, Chester County, Pa., in a house that is still standing on the banks of the Octorara Creek. His father's farm and the farm of the writer were adjoining properties. Elwood was the son of William Griest and Margaret Wiley. His father was also born in West Nottingham. His grandfather was Thomas Griest, who was a lineal descendent of John Griest, who settled on the Delaware prior to William Penn's coming to America. John Griest's marriage to Ann Butt, in 1682, is one of the earliest noted in the records of Chester Monthly Meeting of Friends. Elwood passed his boyhood days on his father's farm, and when he arrived at a proper age learned the trade of blacksmithing, and settled in Christiana, Lancaster Co., Pa., where he married soon after a daughter of Asa and Mary Walton, of Bart. (Five miles west of Christiana.) His widow survives him. Of this union there were three children, one that died in very early childhood and two that survive, Frank who was engaged with his father in business in Lancaster, Pa., and William W., who is at present Secretary of the Commonwealth of Penna. From his earliest boyhood Elwood was a great reader and thinker. During the stormy days of his young manhood, upon the anti-slavery question, he was open, avowed, and thoroughly independent advocate of the freedom of the human race, and was always ready with his voice and pen to defend the downtrodden of whatever race or section. Christiana was noted for many able men, and a great many were thorough anti-slavery men; it is needless to mention many of them, but such men as Thomas Whitson, Levi Scarlett, and others of that class, will long be remembered as being foremost not only in the anti-slavery cause but in every good work. Perhaps no man has ever lived in that entire section who was more thoroughly independent and entirely free from fear in advocacy of what he thought was right than Elwood Griest. The writer knew him well from earliest boyhood, and he never knew him to do that which could be construed into being an unmanly or ungenerous act. When the late Civil War broke out, like others who had been strong advocates of the anti-slavery movement, he entered the United States Army, in 1862. He was captured by Mosby's guerillas, in October 1863, and remained a prisoner in Libby prison, at Richmond, Va., until the following January. He served for a time on General Sheridan's staff, as issuing commissary at headquarters, and was afterwards detailed with Sheridan at New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida, and was not mustered out until April 1866. With the brevet rank of Major, he was at this time offered a lieutenant's commission in the regular army, but declined it. Military life was not to his liking, and he only entered the service from convictions of duty, and with a desire to aid in destroying what he considered a great and burning disgrace upon the American people, the institution of slavery. He was one of the organizers of the Republican party and always took an active in politics; was a candidate on more than one occasion for Congress, and everyone now admits was once nominated, but was "counted out" at the convention. He served as presidential elector in 1888, was appointed in 1890 postmaster at Lancaster, Pa., by President Harrison and reappointed in Feb. 1898, by President McKinley, and held this position at the time of his death. His parents were prominent in the Society of Friends. His mother was a public Friend, a pleasing speaker, whose words never failed to impress upon the hearts and minds of her hearers her sincerity. His father was one of the sterling men of his neighborhood, a man of but a few words, but whose word was his bond; hence, it is but natural, coming from such parentage that Elwood Griest should have become a prominent, useful man, advocating the right upon all occasions. He retained his membership in the Society of Friends, and was at the time of his decease a member of Eastland Preparative and Little Britain Monthly Meetings. Few men in that entire community have left a brighter or clearer record for deeds of worth and conscientious performance of duty than Elwood Griest. The writer feels that that in his death he has not only lost the friendship of an old neighbor, whom he always loved to meet and with whom he always delighted to converse, but that he has lost a friend, one to whom he could look for assistance and good advice. J.A.M.P." Elwood was the editor of the Lancaster Inquirer.
The Griest Family - "The Lancaster County Branch," pgs. 403-405, S.B. Cross, 1966.
Father of the Honorable William Walton Griest Member of Congress 1909-1929.
A Civil War veteran, he served two terms of service:
1. Enlisted at the stated age of thirty-five in Christiana, Lancaster County, September 6, 1862, mustered into state service as a private with Co. E, 2nd Pennsylvania Militia, and honorably discharged with his company September 23, 1862.
2. In December 1862, he enrolled with the regular army as a clerk and assigned to 3rd Division, 6th Corps, Army of the Potomac. Captured allegedly by "Mosby's guerrillas" [possible but unverified] sometime during October 1863, he was incarcerated in Richmond, Virginia, and reportedly paroled January 30, 1864. It is also reported that he was incarcerated in Libby Prison, which, if true, suggests he held a commissioned rank. Following parole, he was assigned to the Federal prison camp at Johnson Island, Sandusky, Ohio, and in 1864 was commissioned commissary of subsistence at the rank of captain. He discharged during April 1866, at which time he reportedly was offered a lieutenant's commission with the regular army but declined. Note that none of this military history comes from primary sources, and no record of enlistment with the U.S. Army was located. It was, however, then common for the army to select civilians to fill essential administrative roles, and it appears this was the case with Ellwood Griest.
It was unusual that such an important administrative role be granted to a blacksmith. That strongly suggests that Griest was known as a literate man with organizational skills beyond those required of a blacksmith, and subsequent employment experiences support that. After the war, he served as county treasurer, in 1868 became publisher of the Lancaster Inquirer, and later, as an ardent antebellum abolitionist, wrote "The Fugitive Slaves: A Tale of South Eastern Pennsylvania." At his death, he was postmaster, and all of his pall bearers were postal employees.
Although his obituaries refer to him at the rank of "Major," available evidence - secondary thought it may be - claims he left the army at the rank of captain. It was then commonplace during the post-war years to grant prominent veterans advanced ranks they never held while in the military.
Obituary from the Lancaster Semi-Weekly New Era
Ellwood Griest Dead.
Another Prominent Citizen at Rest.
Death Came at an Early Hour This Morning, After Almost a Year of Suffering -- For Many Years Actively Identified with the Public Affairs of City and County.
Major Ellwood Griest, Postmaster of Lancaster, editor and publisher of the Inquirer, and one of the city's foremost residents, passed peacefully to rest at his home, No. 419 South Prince street, this morning at four o'clock, in his seventy-sixth year. For six years past the aged gentleman's health had been declining. He was afflicted with chronic bronchitis, and for almost twelve months prior to his death was confined to his bed. The severity of the disease resulted in nervous prostration, but a remarkable vitality and unusually strong constitution prolonged a life that, under ordinary circumstances, would have ended a year or more ago.
Major Griest was a self-made man in the fullest sense of the word. Born on the Octorara creek, at Griest's fording, in Chester county, on June 17, 1824, he received an ordinary English education, and, without any other advantages save rugged health and the Christian influences with which his Quaker parents, William and Margaret Griest, surrounded and guided him in his boyhood days, he set forth to win his way in the world. In those days, blacksmithing was one of the best of the mechanical trades. He mastered it and worked as a journeyman in various places in Lancaster, Chester and Delaware counties. For many years he worked at the forge in Bart and Christiana, where he established a business of his own. In the anti-slavery agitation preceding the Rebellion, young Griest was an active participant. he had a local reputation as a radical abolitionist. He had the courage to state his convictions upon any and all occasions, and if an ardent Southern sympathizer attempted to carry bulldozing tactics to tantalizing lengths, the sturdy blacksmith displayed his iron muscles, which had the effect of calming the tone of his opponent's debate. Imbued with the feeling that the slave would have to be released from bondage, Mr. Griest enlisted with enthusiasm in the service of the United States in December, 1862, as a clerk in the subsistence department in the Third Division, Sixth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, in which capacity he served with marked ability until October 11, 1862, when he was captured at Chantilly, Va., by Mosby's guerillas. He was sent to Castles Thunder, and afterwards to Libby prison, where he was detained until January 30, 1864, when he was paroled and exchanged. Upon his return home he was detailed for duty to Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, a depot for rebel prisoners. In August , 1864, he was commissioned commissary of subsistence, with rank of Captain, and was ordered to General Sheridan's army, where he was placed on the staff as issuing commissary at headquarters. He remained with Sheridan until February, 1865, and when the great cavalry leader made his famous raid, Captain Griest was left at Winchester as post commissary. While on General Sheridan's staff, General Alexander Shaler, then commanding the post of Columbus, Ky., made repeated applications to have Captain Griest appointed on his staff, which request Gen. Sheridan refused, with the remark that "Captain Griest is an intelligent and efficient officer, whose services at this time (December 14, 1864,) in this department, cannot very well be dispensed with ." Captain Griest, after the close of the war, was detailed with Sheridan at New Orleans and Jacksonville, Fla., where he was mustered out on May 11, 1866, with the brevet rank of Major. Before starting for home he was offered a Lieutenant's commission in the regular army, which he refused to accept.
Major Griest always took a deep interest in matters political. He was one of the two Secretaries of the mass meeting, held in Fulton Hall, on May 26, 1856, at which the Republican party of hte county was organized. Dr. Geo. H. Markley being the other. He believed in the principles of the Republican party and flung his blazing banner aloft for Fremont and Dayton, its first champions. In the organization of the party in this county he was an active and influential figure. Posessed of more than the ordinary intelligence and a leader by nature, he gained prominence at the outset of the party's career. He was frequently called upon to preside at County Conventions. In 1856 he was a delegate to the State Convention, which met that year in Philadelphia, as did also the National body. In September, 1866, upon his return from the war, he was appointed by the County Commissioners to the office of County Treasurer, to fill the unexpired term of Samuel Ensminger, made vacant by the latter's death. In 1868, he became a candidate for Congress to succeed Thaddeus Stevens, but withdrew in favor of Oliver J. Dickey, Esq. In 1876 he was a candidate for the nomination, but was defeated by Hon. A. Herr Smith by a majority of only sixty-two votes, after a vigorous campain. There were five candidates, and the vote was as follows: Smith, 3,763; Griest, 3,701; C.S. Kauffman, Columbia, 1,956; Jesse Kennedy, Mt. Joy, 1,015, and David Evans, city, 272. In 1878, for a third time, Major Griest tried to win the Congressional nomination, but was defeated again by Mr. Smith. the only other public office he held was that of Postmaster of this city, to which he was appointed by President Harrison December 11, 1890, serving during all of that administration and again on February 16, 1898, by President McKinley, which term he was serving at the time of his death. in 1888 he was a Presidential elector in the college that elected Harrison.
Perhaps it was as editor and publisher that Major Griest was best known. While acting as County Treasurer he was engaged by Stuart A. Wylie to edit the Lancaster Inquirer. In 1868 the two formed a partnership which existed until June, 1872, when Mr. Wylie died. Major Griest then became owner of the paper and made it one of the best weekly periodicals in the county. He continued active work on the paper until failing health compelled his retirement.
Deceased was a member of George H. Thomas Post, No. 84, G.A.R., and while in the army, he became a member of the Masons at Winchester, Va., at the same time President McKinley joined the society. In religious faith he clung tenaciously to the Quakers, and he was a member of the Eastland meeting, Little Britain township.
Mr. Griest is survived by his wife and two sons, Frank, who has succeeded his father in the publicatoin of the Inquirer, and Hon. W.W. Griest, Secretary of the Commonwealth. One brother, Thomas Griest, of Christiana, also survives.
The funeral will be held on Monday afternoon at two o'clock from the deceased's late home on South Prince street, interment in Woodward Hill cemetery. -- Lancaster New Era, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 2Feb1900, p. 1.∼He was born in West Nottingham Township, Chester County, Pa., in a house that is still standing on the banks of the Octorara Creek. His father's farm and the farm of the writer were adjoining properties. Elwood was the son of William Griest and Margaret Wiley. His father was also born in West Nottingham. His grandfather was Thomas Griest, who was a lineal descendent of John Griest, who settled on the Delaware prior to William Penn's coming to America. John Griest's marriage to Ann Butt, in 1682, is one of the earliest noted in the records of Chester Monthly Meeting of Friends. Elwood passed his boyhood days on his father's farm, and when he arrived at a proper age learned the trade of blacksmithing, and settled in Christiana, Lancaster Co., Pa., where he married soon after a daughter of Asa and Mary Walton, of Bart. (Five miles west of Christiana.) His widow survives him. Of this union there were three children, one that died in very early childhood and two that survive, Frank who was engaged with his father in business in Lancaster, Pa., and William W., who is at present Secretary of the Commonwealth of Penna. From his earliest boyhood Elwood was a great reader and thinker. During the stormy days of his young manhood, upon the anti-slavery question, he was open, avowed, and thoroughly independent advocate of the freedom of the human race, and was always ready with his voice and pen to defend the downtrodden of whatever race or section. Christiana was noted for many able men, and a great many were thorough anti-slavery men; it is needless to mention many of them, but such men as Thomas Whitson, Levi Scarlett, and others of that class, will long be remembered as being foremost not only in the anti-slavery cause but in every good work. Perhaps no man has ever lived in that entire section who was more thoroughly independent and entirely free from fear in advocacy of what he thought was right than Elwood Griest. The writer knew him well from earliest boyhood, and he never knew him to do that which could be construed into being an unmanly or ungenerous act. When the late Civil War broke out, like others who had been strong advocates of the anti-slavery movement, he entered the United States Army, in 1862. He was captured by Mosby's guerillas, in October 1863, and remained a prisoner in Libby prison, at Richmond, Va., until the following January. He served for a time on General Sheridan's staff, as issuing commissary at headquarters, and was afterwards detailed with Sheridan at New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida, and was not mustered out until April 1866. With the brevet rank of Major, he was at this time offered a lieutenant's commission in the regular army, but declined it. Military life was not to his liking, and he only entered the service from convictions of duty, and with a desire to aid in destroying what he considered a great and burning disgrace upon the American people, the institution of slavery. He was one of the organizers of the Republican party and always took an active in politics; was a candidate on more than one occasion for Congress, and everyone now admits was once nominated, but was "counted out" at the convention. He served as presidential elector in 1888, was appointed in 1890 postmaster at Lancaster, Pa., by President Harrison and reappointed in Feb. 1898, by President McKinley, and held this position at the time of his death. His parents were prominent in the Society of Friends. His mother was a public Friend, a pleasing speaker, whose words never failed to impress upon the hearts and minds of her hearers her sincerity. His father was one of the sterling men of his neighborhood, a man of but a few words, but whose word was his bond; hence, it is but natural, coming from such parentage that Elwood Griest should have become a prominent, useful man, advocating the right upon all occasions. He retained his membership in the Society of Friends, and was at the time of his decease a member of Eastland Preparative and Little Britain Monthly Meetings. Few men in that entire community have left a brighter or clearer record for deeds of worth and conscientious performance of duty than Elwood Griest. The writer feels that that in his death he has not only lost the friendship of an old neighbor, whom he always loved to meet and with whom he always delighted to converse, but that he has lost a friend, one to whom he could look for assistance and good advice. J.A.M.P." Elwood was the editor of the Lancaster Inquirer.
The Griest Family - "The Lancaster County Branch," pgs. 403-405, S.B. Cross, 1966.
Father of the Honorable William Walton Griest Member of Congress 1909-1929.
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