Biography and Family Tree (with a Timeline of and Poems by A. R. Griggs, Jr.)
Up until just a few years ago, scholars and students struggled to find information about Sutton Griggs and the Orion Publishing Company, which he founded in Nashville in 1901. Recent scholarly investigations and the digitization of historical newspapers, both African American and white, have made it possible to compile the Griggs Log, still under construction, which appears immediately below, and the Sutton E. Griggs Family Tree at the bottom of this page.
THE GRIGGS LOG
(Compiled and copyrighted by John Gruesser)
SUTTON E. GRIGGS FAMILY TREE
(compiled and copyrighted by John Gruesser)
Elbert/Sutton (b?-d?)-Beazillia/Brussillar Griggs (b?-d?) [Hancock/Fayette Co., Georgia]
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Jane Suggs (b NC?-d 1867)
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Sutton Griggs (b GA '48?-d TX '71)-Angline (b '47-d TX '70) Allen Ralph Griggs (b GA '52?-d TX '22)-Emma Hodge (b KY '53?- d TX '19)
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Lucy Emma Griggs (b TX '67-d TX 1870) Emma Ohelia Griggs (b TX '71-d TX '87)
Sutton Elbert Griggs (b TX '72-d TX '33)-Emma Jane Williams (b VA '73-d TN '48)*
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Eunice C. Griggs (b TN '98?-d TN '4_?)-Edward F. White (b TN '00-d TN '3_?)**
William Henry (Willie) Griggs (b TX '74-d TX '29) [widowed at the time of his death]
Jessie U. Griggs (b TX '76-d TX 79)
Martha Ann Griggs (b TX '78-d TX '82)
Mary E. Griggs (b TX '80-d TX '01)
Allen R. Griggs (b TX '82-d TX '43)-M. M. (Mattie) Phillips [divorced]
Alberta T. (Sweetie) Griggs (b TX '84-d TX '01)
*According to the Griggs Family Bible (in the Dallas Historical Society) and early census records, Sutton E. Griggs was christened Elbert Sutton Griggs.
**In Tennessee around 1900, Eunice Griggs was adopted at about two years of age by Sutton E. and Emma J. Griggs. In 1930, she married Edward White, a dentist in Memphis, living with him there until at least 1933; however, in the 1938 Memphis City Directory, she is listed as living with her mother, suggesting that her husband may have died. There is no evidence that the couple had children.
Timeline of Poet, Playwright, Songwriter, and US Army Veteran Allen R. Griggs, Jr.
March 1882 Born in Dallas, Texas, the seventh of Allen R. and Emma Hodge Griggs's children
1897-1901 Attends Roger Williams University in Nashville (grad. 1900; special student 1900-01)
1900 US Census: Living at 328 Hall St., Dallas, with his parents and siblings (at school 1900)
1908 Dallas City Directory: Still living with his parents at 328 Hall
1910 US Census: Single, rooming with J. Walter Williams at 1313 9th St. NW, Washington, D. C.
June 1911 Marries Pearl Freeman in Navarro County, Texas
1914 Works as a teacher in Wills Point, Texas
1918 WW I Draft card lists him as "Field Secty Public Welfare League," 569 E. Georgia Ave., Memphis
June 1918 Publishes a letter in the Washington Bee from Bismark, OK, praising the editor
Oct. 1918 Enlists in US Army; Dec. 1918 is honorably discharged; military records designate him as "Sgt S(tudent) A(rmy) T(raining) C(orps)" at historically black Philander Smith College in Little Rock, AR
Jan. 1919 Ads for "Sergt." Griggs' Theo. Roosevelt poems in Memphis News Scimitar and Dallas Express
July 1919 Copyrights the song "Are They Equal in the Eyes of the Law" with L. E. Campbell
Dec. 1919 "Sergt." Griggs' play Out of the Storm is published and performed in Memphis
1920 US Census: Living at 591 E Georgia Avenue in Memphis, TN; married
March & May 1920 "Sergt." Griggs' Madam Walker poem is printed in the Chicago Defender
1920 or 1921 19-page book of nine poems, The Soul of a Soldier, is published in Memphis
1921-1922 Ads for "Sergt." Griggs's Theo. Roosevelt poems appear weekly in National Baptist Voice
1921-1923 Ads for Soul of a Soldier (play) appear weekly in the National Baptist Voice
1925-1931 Dallas City Directory: Residing at 1724 Hall St., Dallas, and working at the Griggs Printing Co.; in 1931 is married to Mattie and also works at the Knights of Liberty Working Girls Exchange
1932 Sues his older brother Sutton over properties in Dallas formerly owned by Allen R. Griggs, Sr.
Nov. 1935 "Sergt." Griggs' "The Black Boy at the River Rhine" is published in the Pittsburgh Courier
1937-1942 Works for the Crawford Undertaking Co. at 814 Good St. in Dallas
Dec. 1943 Death Certificate: Died of broncho-pneumonia in Dallas; divorced; resided at 817 Good St., Dallas; worked at Griggs Printing Co. (Buried in Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, Dallas)
Dec. 1943 Mrs. S. E. Griggs' application for his military headstone or marker lists him as "Pvt"
(To access Allen R. Griggs, Jr.'s 1920 collection The Soul of a Soldier: Poems of the Great War Volume I, click on the link below.)
From: The Race Question in a New Light (1909):
For our part, we wear with satisfaction, even delight, our badge of racial connection, and would gladly see our progeny wearing the hue of our father and mother unto the end of time. We believe in the Negro, the majesty of his patient soul, in the brilliancy of the future that awaits him as a distinct branch of the human family. We believe he is but waiting his call to the center of the stage whence he will pour forth in inimitable sweetness and surpassing grandeur his special message from the many sided heart of the Great Creator.
We especially protest against the disappearance of the American Negro as a Negro. Who knows but that he is being evolved as the special guide of the host of dark millions across the waters? With the loss of color might go the loss of special feeling of kinship. Feeling all this in every fibre of our soul, we cannot view with equanimity the forces at work tending to whiten the race. Hence the sounding of this alarm.
We live in the hope that the future will reveal the white man and the black man jointly working for the glory of the South, for the honor of each, for the good of the nation, for the uplift of the submerged millions of the colored world, for the advancement of the entire human family, for the glory of the one God who made us all.