Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/154

122 detailed by Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks to collect a fleet for the Rio Grande expedition. He soon afterward entered the service of tlie Pacific mail steamship company, commanding, as their com- modore, successive steamers of their fleet till 1883. Capt. Griffin was an autliority on ship-building, and the author of a code of international fog-signals.

GRIFFIN, Thomas Musgrove, engineer, b. in New York city, 38 April, 1833. He was grad- uated at Hobart in 1848, and adopted the profes- sion of a civil engineer. He assisted in the pre- liminary surveys of the Panama railroad, built the suspension bridge at Hamilton, Canada, the first bridge over the Mississippi river in 1854, and two others in 1876 and 1877, and was mechanical en- gineer under Admiral Francis H. Gregory dui-ing the civil war. He has invented and patented several improvements on suspension bridges.

GRIGGS, John William, statesman, b. in New- ton, Sussex CO., N. J., 10 July, 1849, and was graduated from Lafayette college in 1868. He be- gan the study of law, and in 1871 removed from Newton to Paterson, where he was admitted to the bar. Pour years later he was elected to the house of assembly from Passaic county. In 1877 he was again sent to the house of assembly, but the following year he was defeated. In 1883 he was elected state senator, being re-elected in 1884, and again two years later. In the senate of 1886 he was elected to the presidency. In 1893 Presi- dent Harrison gave serious consideration to his name in connection with a vacancy on the U. S. supreme bench, caused by the death of Justice Jo- seph P. Bradley, but the appointment went to an- other. In 1895 Mr. Griggs was chosen over Alexan- der T. McGill by a plurality of 26,900 votes, being the first Republican governor elected in New Jersey in twenty-five years. In January, 1898, he became attorney-general in President McKinley's cabinet.

GRINNELL, Frederick, inventor, b. in New Bedford, Mass., 14 Aug., 1836. He was graduated at Rensselaer polytechiuc institute in 1854, and be- came a draughtsman and mechanical engineer. He was successively superintendent of the Corliss steam-engine works, Providence, R. I., manager of the Jersey City locomotive works, and superin- tendent of motive power on the Atlantic and Great Western railroad, and in 1869 became president, manager, and mechanical engineer of tlie Provi- dence steam and gas pipe company. He intro- duced and has done much to perfect the auto- matic fire extinguislier and alarm, taking out about forty patents in connection with it.

GRISWOLD, Alphonso Miner, journalist, b. in Westmoreland, N. Y., 26 Jan., 1834; d. in New York city, 14 March, 1891. He was educated at Hamilton college, and became a journalist in Buf- falo, Detroit, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. His (lara- graphs and humorous essays, under the pen-name of "The Fat Contributor," won him reputation, and he spent the years 1865-'78 in the lecture field, his topic being " American Antiquities " and " Queer Polks." In 1872-'83 he owned the Cincin- nati " Satuday Night," a humorous literary jour- nal, and after 1886 he was an editor and one of the proprietors of " Texas Siftings."

GROSSCUP, Peter Stenger, jurist, b. in Ash- land, Ohio, 15 Feb.. 1852. His lineage on his father's side runs back to Holland, on his mother's to Ger- many, but all the ancestors have been in this coun- try from a period before the Revolution. Ho was educated in the schools of Ashland, and in Wit- tenberg college, one of the educational institutions of the Lutheran church, graduating in 1873 at the head of his class. He obtained his degree of bach- elor of laws from the Boston law-school. Mr. Gross- cup practised law in Ashland, Ohio, from 1874 to 1883, being city solicitor for six years of that time. In 1876 he was a cantlidate of the Republican party for congress, but was defeated. Going to Chicago in 1883, he entered the law firm heailed by Leonard Swett, a former law partner of Abra- ham Lincoln. From this time he partici- pated in many of the most important trials occurring in the west, and attained wide reputation as a law- yer. He was appoint- ed to the U. S. dis- trict bench by Presi- dent Harrison, 12 Dec. 1892. Soon after he attracted the at- tention of the country in his decision upon the application of the government to close the World's Colum- bian exposition on Sundays. His most widely known service, however, was the issuance of the injunction in the Debs riots of 1894, and his charge to the grand jury in the midst of the riots. He has in the meantime handed down many decisions of wide- spread interest to large portions of the public and the legal profession generally.

GRUBB, Edward Burd, soldier, b. in Bur- lington, N. J., 13 Nov., 1841. He was graduated at Burlington college in 1860, entered the Natiimal army in 1861, and rose from the rank of 3d lieu- tenant to that of colonel of New Jersey volunteers, receiving the brevet of brigiidier-general of volun- teers in 1865. He engaged in the mining and coal business after the civil war, in 1877 built and 0])erated the first coke furnace in Virginia, and became president of the Lynchl)urg iron company. He was president of the common council of Bur- lington, a member of the Loyal legion, and de- partment commander of the Grand army of the re- public, lie represented this country at the court of Madrid for four years. Gen. Grubb is the au- thor of " What I saw of the Suez Canal," which was the first account of that enterprise published in this countrv (Pliiladelphia, 1H69).

GUERNSEY, Rocelliis Sheridan, lawyer, b. in Westford, Otsego co., N. Y.. 10 April, 1836. He was educated at a district school and by pri- vate instruction, has practised law for forty years, and has been a member of the bar of the U. .S. su- preuie court since 1863. Mr. Guernsey has been counsel for the Western Union telegraph com- pany and for the Postal telegraph cable com- pany for many years. Ilis more important works are "Mechanics' Lien Laws," relative to the counties of New York. Kings, and Queens (New York. 1873) : " IIow Shakespeare's Plays were written" (1874); ".Suicide: History of the Penal Laws relating to it" (1885); "Corporation Code" (1884); "Ecclesiastical Law in Hamlet" (1885): " New York City and Vicinity during the War of 1812-15 " (2 vols. 1889). and " Taxation and its Relations to Capital and Labor" (1897).

GUINEY, Louise Imogen (gui -nv), poet, b. in Boston, Mass., 7 Jan.. 1861. Her father. Patrick R. Guiney, served in. the Nat ional army during the civil war, was brevetted brigadier-general of volun- teers in 1864, and died in 1877 from the effects of