John Augustus Griswold was an American manufacturer and congressman.
Background
John Augustus Griswold, the son of Chester and Abbey (Moulton) Griswold and a descendant of Edward Griswold who settled in Windsor, Connecticut, United States in 1639, was born in Nassau, New York in November, 1818. His father was at one time a member of the New York Assembly.
Education
Griswold was educated for commercial pursuits.
Career
Young Griswold entered the hardware house of Hart, Lesley & Warren, of Troy, N. Y. , when he was seventeen but left at the end of a year to accept a position as book-keeper for C. H. & J. J. Merritt, cotton manufacturers.
After establishing a wholesale and retail drug business, John Augustus Griswold became an agent for the Rensselaer Iron Works and, later, head of the Bessemer Steel Works, the Rensselaer Iron Works, and other blast furnaces.
After the fall of Fort Sumter he presided at a mass meeting to raise troops; and he later assisted in the organization of several regiments, one of which, the 21st New York.
As a substantial citizen, well-established socially through his marriage, Griswold was elected mayor of Troy on the Democratic ticket in 1855.
In 1857 Mr. Griswold became a large owner of the iron mills of Troy having been granted the US Bessemer steel process patents important for expanding the Rensselaer Iron and Steel Works business.
Griswold first received the Democratic nomination for Congress in 1857, but was defeated by Abram B. Olin. However, he was later elected as a Democrat to the 38th and as a Republican to the 39th and 40th United States Congresses, serving from March 4, 1863, to March 3, 1869.
In 1868, he was the Republican candidate for Governor of New York, but was defeated by Democrat John Thompson Hoffman.
Griswold was interested in education, particularly in the areas of science and technology, and served as a trustee of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; he led the reconstruction movement after RPI and parts of Troy were destroyed by the Great Troy Fire of 1862. Griswold was elected a Regent of the University of the State of New York on April 29, 1869.
Achievements
Politics
John Augustus Griswold was a Democrat. He was a member of the Griswold political family, his father the Hon. Chester Griswold filled several positions of public trust, serving a number of years as supervisor of Nassau. Throughout his public career, he was an ardent supporter of the Union.
Connections
On September 14, 1843 John Augustus Griswold married Elizabeth Hart, daughter of Richard P. Hart.