James M. Griffin, planter and proprietor of a grist and saw mill and cotton-gin, resides in Bolivar, near the county seat of Poinsett County, and has been a resident of this county from his birth, which occurred in 1850, being the fifth of seven children born to Theophilus and Eliza Ann (Thrower) Griffin, who were born in the "Old North State" and the "Blue Grass State," respectively. They both removed from Poinsett County, Ark., at a very early day, and after their marriage settled near where our subject is now residing, where they cleared and improved a farm. The father was also a practicing physician and surgeon, and in early times he was called upon to attend the sick in all parts of the county, and well as in the counties adjoining. He was successful in alleviating the sufferings of his fellow mortals, and was a man who was esteemed for his many worthy qualities of mind and heart. His wife was called to her long home in 1877. James M. Griffin received such education as Poinsett County afforded in his youthful days, and from his earliest recollections he has been familiar with the details of farm labor. At the age of twenty years he began doing for himself, and after his marriage, in Poinsett County, in November, 1874, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Freeman, of Alabama, he settled down to tilling the soil, and now owns an exceedingly fertile tract, embracing 200 acres, with eighty acres under cultivation. He devotes the greater part of this to the raising of cotton and corn, and has 100 acres under fence. He is a Democrat, and socially is a member of the K. of H. He and wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Pleasant Valley, of which he has been steward, trustee and superintendent. He has been an active worker for churches, schools and, in fact, all worthy enterprises, and is in every respect a public-spirited citizen. He and wife became the parents of the following children: Eva Engenia, Louis Christopher, Mattie Lon, Jim and Hubbard Hugh, living, and Nora Bettie, who died September 2, 1888, at the age of four years.