Biography

Joseph Clarkson Griffith was born to Mary Parkins Griffiths (nee Hollingsworth) and Aaron Hackney Griffiths, a Quaker family in norther Virginia. They were Unionists. Fanny Adeline Seward writes in her diary from 1862-1863 that a Mr. Griffiths "fled from his home near Winchester to escape with his life & Union sentiments." Joseph married Mary R. Dilks in Philadelphia in 1859 and had two children in 1860 and 1864 in Philadelphia as well, so it is likely he is the Mr. Griffiths Fanny refers to.