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ELD. JESSE J. GRIFFITH
In 1855, Jesse J. Griffith
arrived in the area that would become Hamilton County. When the first
Hamilton County officials were elected, on August 2, 1858, the 80
qualified voters in the county chose Griffith to be the first County
Treasurer. In 1860, Griffith started a private school, the 3rd school on
record in the county, in his home on the banks of the Leon River, east of
the town of Hamilton. The school was in existence only a very short time
because Elder Griffith was killed not long after he established the
facility.
Griffith may have been the first Primitive Baptist preacher in Hamilton
County. The book "The
History of the Primitive Baptists in Texas, Oklahoma, and Indian
Territory", by J. S. Newman, contains the following account of
Griffith's death from an Indian attack.
"Elder J.C. White, who was known in his day as Uncle Jackie, left
Alabama October 11, 1856, and landed in Coryell County January the second
1860. At this time the county was sparsely settled and of course our
people were few and widely scattered. A short while after Elder White
settled in Coryell County he heard of an Old Baptist preacher by the name
of Griffith that lived over in Hamilton County on the Leon River, so Elder
White started to hunt Elder Griffith and as there were Indians in the
county at that time. Elder White buckled his six-shooter around him and
his gun to the horn of his saddle with his old saddle bags containing a
hymn book and Bible, so when Elder White found Elder Griffith he was soon
informed that there was a Primitive Baptist Church over in the northeast
corner of Coryell County by the name of Rainey's Creek. Arrangements
were soon made and the two Old Baptist preachers were on their way to said
church, and near where Turnersville now is, the Indians came upon them
wounding both of them, Elder Griffith died nine days after he was wounded.
Elder White's wounds were so severe that life was despaired of by his
family and his brethren. For seven weeks he was turned on a sheet in his
bed. He finally survived, his wounds got well. He died at Lampasas on
February 13, 1884. Thus passed away one of the best pioneer preachers of
Texas. Peace be to his ashes."
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