Biographies P2 - CT Genealogy Trails

was governor of Connecticut and a member of the US House of Representatives, serving as a Federalist.

Born in Lyme, New London County, Connecticut, to Matthew Griswold and Ursula (Wolcott) Griswold; pursued classical studies, and was graduated from Yale College in 1780; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1783 and commenced practice in Norwich, Connecticut; returned to Lyme in 1794; elected as a Federalist to the Fourth and to the five succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1795, until his resignation in 1805 before the convening of the Ninth Congress; chairman of the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business (Sixth Congress), Committee on Ways and Means (Sixth Congress); declined the portfolio of Secretary of War tendered by President John Adams in 1801; served as a judge of the supreme court of Connecticut in 1807; presidential elector on the Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Rufus King ticket; Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut 1809-1811; Governor of Connecticut from 1811 until his death in Norwich; interment in Griswold Cemetery at Black Hall, in the town of Lyme (now Old Lyme, Connecticut).

Griswold was grandfather of congressman Matthew Griswold. Griswold's father (Matthew Griswold), his maternal grandfather (Roger Wolcott), his uncle (Oliver Wolcott), and his cousin (Oliver Wolcott, Jr.) were all also Governors of Connecticut.

Griswold was the first congressman to engage in a physical altercation with another congressman. Matthew Lyon, a Republican congressman from Vermont, was insulted by Griswold on the floor, and proceeded to spit on him. Two weeks later, Griswold attacked him with a cane. Lyon promptly picked up a pair of fire tongs to ward him off.

In 1803 along with several other New England Federalist politicians he proposed secession from the union due to the growing influence of Jeffersonian Democrats and the Louisiana Purchase which they felt would dilute Northern influence.

John Plumb was born 28 July, 1594 in Great Yeldham, Essex, England, to Robert and Grace Crackbone Plume, one of at least nine children. Around age 22 (about 1616) John married Dorothy Wood. In 1634 they are found in Ridgewell Parish in County Essex, England (Parish records). John, Dorothy and their family were living there in Ridgewell Hall, where most of their nine children were born (the only child born in New England was Dorcas, around 1636).

John Plumb and his family were in Weathersfield, Connecticut no later than 1635 (among the earliest residents). It is believed that John sold his holdings at Ridgewell, Essex, bought (or previously owned) his own boat (ship) and sailed for the New World. He was a Magistrate there (Weathersfield) in 1637 (from F. M. Caulkins in her HISTORY OF NEW LONDON, derived from Connecticut Colonial Records, vol. 1, pg. 13). He was the first ship-owner in the Weathersfield area, trading up and down the river with the Indians (Caulkins). In 1664-5 he was appointed Inspector of the lading of vessels in Weathersfield (Caulkins).

John was active in the life of Weathersfield for about 9 years. It is possible that John's ship was one used in the attack upon the Indians at Pequot Hill (Mystic/Groton) during the punative campaign of 1637-1638; the result being total defeat for the Indians, and an overland pursuit. John had a warehouse burned by the Pequots at Saybrook (Caulkins), so he had a vested interest in the final outcome of this conflict.

Another result of this overland pursuit of the Native Americans was an exposure of the Europeans to a new area of southeast Connecticut ripe for settlement. It may be surmised that as a result of this excursion, John and Dorothy Plumb's oldest son Robert settled in Milford, where he lived out the remainder of his life.

By 1644 John and Dorothy Plumb had sold most of their Weathersfield holdings and relocated to Branford, Connecticut, while retaining some property in Weathersfield. John was elected Town Clerk of Branford, and held this office until his death in 1648. The first Town Meeting was held in Branford 15 Dec 1645. John died in Branford, and his wife Dorothy and son Samuel filed his probate, 1 Aug 1648. Dorothy Plumb is thought to have outlived her husband by at least 21 years.

(note: Francis Manwaring Caulkins originally confused this John Plumb of Weathersfield/Branford (1594-1648) with John Plumb of Hartford/New London (1634-1696, biography elsewhere). They were both from the same English county (Essex), and lived in the same area in Connecticut. They were both mariners, involved in river and coastal trading. However, John Plumb of Hartford/New London did not arrive in the New World until 1659, nine years after the death of John of Weathersfield/Branford. it is thought he may have been a nephew of this John Plumb. This mistake is corrected in the 1860 version of Caulkin's HISTORY)

McCALL, DANIEL THOMPSON, physician, was born September 4, 1849, at DeSotoville, Choctaw County; son of Daniel and Nancy Elizabeth (Thompson) McCall; brother of Charles E. McCall (q. v.); grandson of John and Mary McCall and of Benjamin F. and Sarah Thompson, all of DeSotoville. He was educated at Cooper's institute, Spring Hill, Miss., at Pushmataha and Furman, and graduated at the University of Alabama, 1886, with the A. B. degree, completing his medical studies, 1894, at the Louisville medical college, now the University of Louisville, Ky. He entered immediately upon the practice of his profession at Gaston where he remained four years. In 1899 he located in Butler where he remained until 1908 when he entered upon a post graduate course in diseases of children, studying in New York. Completing this work he located in Mobile. He was county health officer of Choctaw, 1899-08; member county board of school commissioners, Mobile County, 1912-18, and president of that board, 1918-19; president board of health, Mobile County, 1916, and chairman of that board, 1917-18; member State board of education, 1919. He is a Democrat; Methodist; Mason; and Knight of Pythias. Married: July 10, 1907, at Butler, Choctaw County, to Caroline Winston, daughter of Green Berry and Rosa Lee (Wilcox) Bush, of that place; granddaughter of Judge Curtis Nash and Sallie Battle Dade (Winston) Wilcox, the latter a descendant of Peter Fontaine, an Episcopal clergyman in colonial Virginia, the former a descendant of Jonathan Wilcox, a Puritan settler of Connecticut. Children: 1. Daniel Thompson, jr.; 2. Winston Bush. Residence: Mobile.
[History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Volume 4 By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen, 1921 - Transcribed by AFOFG]