1925 Biography - John K. Griffith

John Keller Griffith, M. D. The early Colonial settlers in America were undoubtedly men of courage and resourcefulness. Among those who braved the perils of the sea and the dangers of an unknown land three brothers of the name of Griffith set sail from their native Wales, and after months of voyaging reached the country where their descendants still live and prosper, in lives and character reflecting credit on the name. One Griffith brother settled finally in Pennsylvania, one in Kentucky, and the third in Mississippi. It is from the Kentucky branch that Dr. John Keller Griffith, a representative citizen and leading physician and surgeon of Slidell, Louisiana, and a veteran of the World war, traces his ancestral line.

Doctor Griffith was born at Port Hudson, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, October 16, 1882. His parents were William P. and Henrietta (Williams) Griffith, and his paternal grandfather was William Griffith, who was born in 1803 near Paducah, Kentucky, and died at Port Hudson, Louisiana, March 12, 1888. In 1828 he came from Kentucky to East Feliciana Parish, removing later to East Baton Rouge Parish, where he became an extensive farmer. He married Sarah Croft, who was born in 1815 in South Carolina, and died at Port Hudson in 1894.

William P. Griffith was born in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, September 12, 1845, and died at Port Hudson, March 3, 1910. He was a veteran of the war between the states, having interrupted his preparatory school course to become a soldier in the Confederate army, with which he served throughout the war. During the remainder of his life he was mainly concerned in the operation of his large estates, although at times the duties of public office also engaged him. For two terms he was a member of the Police Jury, representing the Fourth Ward of East Baton Rouge Parish. An ardent democrat all his life, he possessed considerable influence in local political circles, was a Royal Arch Mason, and a member of the Baptist Church. He married Henrietta Williams, who was born November 30, 1860, in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, and died November 8, 1908, at Port Hudson. Their children were: Willie, who died in infancy; John Keller; Eugenia, who died at the age of thirty-six years, the wife of W. S. McKowen, a merchant and farmer at Lindsay, Louisiana; Pearl, who is the wife of Hon. Delos R. Johnson, of Franklinton, Louisiana, a lawyer and member of the State Senate; and Henrietta, who is the wife of Alec C. McKowen, a farmer and stock raiser near Lindsay.

Doctor Griffith received his early educational training in both private and public schools in East Baton Rouge Parish, then attended the Louisiana State university, through his junior year, when he entered Tulane University, where he had four years in the medical department, and after two years of practical experience as ambulance surgeon in the Charity Hospital, New Orleans, was graduated from Tulane in the class of 1907 with his degree of M, D. During University life he had taken an interested part in its various activities, of which the Greek letter fraternities are so prominent a feature, and is a member of the academic Kappa Sigma, and of the medical 155 Phi Chi. In 1907 he opened his first office at Slidell, and engaged in medical practice here for fourteen months, when he was appointed assistant superintendent of the East Louisiana Hospital for the Insane at Jackson. After an experience of fourteen months he resigned this office and returned to private practice at Slidell, where he has remained as one of the town's most valued exponents of medical science.

Answering the call of the Government during the World war for expert medical service, on March 8, 1918, Doctor Griffith volunteered and was sent to Fort Sill. Oklahoma, was commissioned lieutenant in the Medical Corps and served on the medical staff of the base hospital at Fort Sill until he was honorably discharged April 4, 1919. He is identified with the representative medical organizations of the country, being a member of the Louisiana State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Southern Medical Association, the Sixth Congressional Medical Society, and the St. Tammany Parish Medical Society, of which he is president.

Doctor Griffith was married at Slidell, Louisiana, December 21, 1912, to Miss Vivian C. Comfort, a lady of many accomplishments, a graduate of the Moffett McLaurin Institute at Meridian, Mississippi. She is a daughter of the late Frank and Carrie (Hackett) Comfort, the former of whom was a railroad man in Mississippi, where his death occurred. Dr. and Mrs. Griffith have two children: John Keller, born December 14, 1918; and Carolyn Vivian, born November 3, 1920. Doctor Griffith owns a handsome residence situated on Teddy Avenue, and his offices are in the Bank of Slidell Building. He is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of Slidell Lodge No. 311, A. F. and A. M., and Pontchartrain Chapter No. 68, R. A. M., and belongs also to Bonfouca Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men, and Rathbone Lodge No. 104, Knights of Pythias. In political life he is a democrat, and at times has served in positions of public responsibility, at present being chairman of the New Orleans Chef Menteur Highway Commission.

Note: An autographed portrait accompanies this narrative in the referenced source.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, page 155.