Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020
Daniel M. Storer, a builder and merchant in Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory, wrote in his journal on May 9, 1854, “A black man by the name of Griffin commenced working for me the 9th.”
James Griffin was born an enslaved person in Prince George’s County, Maryland around 1824. His master did not want to be in the U.S. Navy, so instead, he forced James, who was enslaved, to serve in his place.
So, James Griffin was forced into the Navy for five years. While in the Navy, James learned the carpenter’s trade.
In 1849, James married Mary Brown in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Because of his service in the U.S. Navy, James was given his freedom. He moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his wife, and he worked as a steamboat builder.
One of the steamboats that James helped build was the Minnesota Belle. When it was ready, James and Mary and their family moved to Minnesota on the Minnesota Belle, and from there, to Sha K’ Pay, Minnesota Territory.
In the winter of 1853, Captain Samuel Humberston built, probably with James’s help, a fine new boat, christened the steamboat the Minnesota Belle. It was loaded full of immigrants, intended mostly for his new town and headed up the Minnesota River on May 3, 1854. A few of the people on the Minnesota Belle during the first voyage were James and Mary Brown Griffin, along with their three children, Richard, Martin, and Estella. To the captain’s great chagrin, Humbertson’s new boat failed to climb the Little Rapids, near Carver, and he abandoned the river, townsite, and all, in disgust.
The Minnesota Belle landed in Sha K’ Pay after they failed to get over the Carver rapids. “The boat was from Pittsburgh, bound for the upper part of the valley, and its being obliged to discharge its large cargo of freight and passengers here established Shakopee’s reputation as the head of navigation. This incident was used to good advantage by citizens to secure new settlers.”
James worked as a carpenter with Daniel Storer and then was a teamster by 1856. He had wagons and teams in Sha K’ Pay, and he helped immigrant families to settle in the territory, including to Buffalo, Minnesota.
“Mr. Griffin (who is an intelligent colored man, much respected by the neighbors) had the honor of bringing the first team into Buffalo; and for a year or two afterwards, ‘Griffin’s team’ was in great demand among all the settlers.”
By the 1860s, James started a stagecoach line. He had a daily stage route between Buffalo and Monticello, and three times a week from Monticello to Minneapolis.
The Griffins made a claim on the shores of Lake Mary, on the outside of Buffalo.
When he was older and retired from the stageline, James became the first janitor at the new Wright County Courthouse.
James Griffin died on June 26, 1891, in Hot Springs, Arkansas of tuberculosis. According to the Wright County Heritage Herald, Winter 1999, “…after several years of employment at the courthouse, he gave it up because of failing health and sometime after that he sold his farm.” He then moved to Hot Springs and died there.
James was buried at the Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery.
Bibliography
Wright County Heritage Herald, Winter 1999.