Griffith Jenkins Griffith^{[1, 2]}

1850 - 1919  (69 years)

• Name	Griffith Jenkins Griffith  [3]
  Birth	4 Jan 1850	Bettws, Glamorganshire, Wales   [3]
  Gender	Male
  Residence	1861	Bettws, Glamorganshire, Wales   [4]
  Arrival	1870  [5]
  Residence	1900	Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA   [5]
  Death	6 Jul 1919	Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA   [3]
  Burial	Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA   [3]
  Person ID	I44953	Master
  Last Modified	18 Sep 2022

  
  

  Father	Griffith Morgan Griffith,   b. Jun 1832, Bettws, Glamorganshire, Wales d. 7 Apr 1919, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA (Age 86 years)
  Mother	Mary Elizabet Davies,   b. 21 Nov 1832, Llangynwyd, Glamorgan, Wales d. 25 Nov 1902, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA (Age 70 years)
  Marriage	1 Oct 1854	Bettws, Glamorganshire, Wales   [6]
  Family ID	F10307	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Mary Agnes Christina Mesmer,   b. 29 Feb 1864, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA d. 11 Aug 1948, , Los Angeles, California, USA (Age 84 years)
  Marriage	27 Jan 1887	Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA   [7]
  Children	1. Vandell Morgan Griffith,   b. 29 Aug 1888, , Los Angeles, California, USA d. 14 Jul 1974, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA (Age 85 years)
  Family ID	F10306	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	13 Jun 2022

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 4 Jan 1850 - Bettws, Glamorganshire, Wales Residence - 1861 - Bettws, Glamorganshire, Wales Marriage - 27 Jan 1887 - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA Residence - 1900 - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA Death - 6 Jul 1919 - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA Burial - - Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Arcadia Hotel, Santa Monica - 1890 Location where Griffith J Griffith shot his wife, Mary Agnes Christina Mesmer, in the face during an argument.
  		Griffith Jenkins Griffith
  		Griffith J Griffith Prison Mug Shots

  
  

  Maps		Griffith Park (Current)
  		Griffith Park (Historic)

  
  

• Notes

  Griffith Jenkins Griffith Life Story Birth: Jan. 4, 1850 Death: Jul. 6, 1919 Philanthropist. He was the founder of Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Born in Bettws, Wales, he came to the United States in 1866 and studied mineralogy in New England and San Francisco. As a journalist for the Daily Alto Californian, he covered the West's growing mining industry and used insider tips to invest in newly-discovered Mexican silver mines. He was a millionaire by age 30. In 1882 Griffith settled in Los Angeles, which was on the verge of becoming a major city, and spent the next two decades trying to buy his way into local society. Soon after his arrival he purchased the Rancho Los Feliz and made another fortune selling its acreage and water rights. He also married into money, taking as his wife Christina Mesmer of the noted Verdugo Family, despite their religious differences (he was a Protestant, she was a Catholic). On December 16, 1896, Griffith secured his claim to fame when he donated 3015 acres of his property to the city as parkland; this gave Los Angeles a public recreational area five times the size of Manhattan's Central Park. Griffith's largesse was welcome but the man himself was scorned as a pompous upstart by L.A.'s upper crust, who derisively called the diminutive Welshman "The Midget Egomaniac". He dressed like a dandy, bribed people to listen to his long-winded speeches on everything from prison reform to prohibition, and insisted on being called "Colonel Griffith" even though he had no military record to speak of. He refused to run for public office, he claimed, because popular demand would then force him to seek the Presidency. Heavy drinking exacerbated his already eccentric behavior and he grew obsessed with the delusion that the Catholic Church was out to get him and his money as part of a plot to overthrow the government. On a rest cure in Santa Monica in September 1903, Griffith suddenly went beserk, accused his wife of being a spy for the Pope, and shot her in the eye. Mrs. Griffith miraculously survived and The Colonel served two years in San Quentin for attempted murder. As a symbol of his downfall the name of his park's highest point was changed from Griffith Peak to Mount Hollywood. In prison he appeared genuinely remorseful for his crime, refusing preferential treatment and time off for good behavior. Upon his release in 1906 Griffith returned to Los Angeles, still wealthy but shunned and alone. Only a handful of people attended his funeral at Hollywood Memorial Park. But Griffith was not through leaving his mark on his adopted city. In 1912 he had offered to donate $150,000 for the construction of an observatory and an ampitheatre on the park grounds, but the City Council, mindful of his unpopularity, stalled in accepting. He then set up a trust fund for this purpose, the money to be used after his death. The Colonel's dream projects, the Griffith Observatory and the Greek Theatre, were finally completed in the early 1930s. Today Griffith Park remains the largest municipal park in the United States. Its other attractions include the Los Angeles Zoo, the Autry National Center Museum, and the world-famous Hollywood Sign. Originally a part of the Spanish land grant, Rancho Los Feliz, the park was named for its former owner, Colonel Griffith J. Griffith. Born in Glamorganshire, South Wales, Griffith immigrated to the United States in 1865, eventually, making a personal fortune in California gold mine speculation. In 1882, Griffith settled in Los Angeles, and purchased a 4,071-acre portion of the Rancho Los Feliz, which stretched northward from the northern boundaries of the Pueblo de Los Angeles. On December 16, 1896, the civic-minded Griffith bequeathed 3,015 acres of his Rancho Los Feliz estate as a Christmas gift to the people of Los Angeles to be used as parkland. The enormous gift, equal to five square miles, was to be given to the city unconditionally - or almost so. It must be made a place of recreation and rest for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people," Griffith said on that occasion. " I consider it my obligation to make Los Angeles a happier, cleaner, and finer city. I wish to pay my debt of duty in this way to the community in which I have prospered." This is nice, but not really “cursed-worthy” material. Luckily, the truth of Col. Griffith Jenkins Griffith is bit more sordid than LAcity.org would like you to believe. To begin, the “colonel” was a fake title, like “Blogger” or “Administrative assistant.” Self-inflicted by a man whose only true military title was “Major of Riflery Practice with the California National Guard.” His weaponry skills, however, do come in handy later in life. But let’s start at the beginning. Mr. Griffith did come to America as a Welsh Immigrant 1866, but the story of how he made his money is what we nowadays call “illegal”, more specifically, insider trading. After teaching himself a bit about mining and mineralogy he received a job as a reporter covering the mines for the Daily Alto California, a San Francisco newspaper. Meanwhile, he was writing confidential mining reports and selling them to rich investors. But before he doled out the reports, he just happened to invest in these same mining operations himself. Probably not a coincidence, seeing that it made him a millionaire. In 1882 he cashed out and moved down to Los Angeles, buying the 4071 acre Rancho Los Feliz. You may be saying to yourself, ‘That must have cost a big chunk of money back then, even for him.’ It was, which is why, two years later he sold some of its water rights to the city two years later recouping his investment. In your face, doubter. According to one reminiscing reporter, “He was a sensation...He wore the longest of cream-colored overcoats in an age when overcoats usually came to the heels, and he carried a gold-headed cane and wore moss agate cuff buttons, big round ones.” I assume that gold-headed canes were the tiny designer dogs of their day, because Griffith became known as one cocky fella. Dissed by locals as a “roly-poly, pompous little fellow” with “an exaggerated strut like a turkey gobbler” and a “midget egomaniac”. He even created an Ostrich farm on his property. Usually, Ostrich farms were used for making women’s hats, however Griffith only used it to lure in and awe local residents. One story tells of the “col” performing a favor for a young entrepreneur by agreeing to walk arm in arm with him down the street, so that he may be seen with Griffith and thereby helping his stature. Purportedly, he also refused to run for local public office, afraid he would then be begged to run for president of the United States. And back then if you weren’t Grover Cleveland you didn’t have a very good chance of being elected. Back to the facts, on January 27th, 1887 Griffith married into more money, and respect, wedding the daughter of the owner of the hotel where he was residing. The daughter was Mary Agnes Christina Mesmer. A sidenote: while researching this piece I found that depending on the publications of the day she was better known as “Tina” or “Tena”, which brought up a variety of questions. Like, did editors of old newspapers not know how to spell? Or did reporters have so little accountability they never had to check any facts? Maybe from 1887-1913 were some newspaper’s “i” or “e” broken, depending on the publication? Or is Tena an antiquated version of Tina that evolved over time in some form of Darwinian etymology where Tena was killed off because it’s weak “e” couldn’t facilitate a heart on top, leaving Tina to rule. Either way, to get back on track, Ti/ena and the “Col” were the joining of “two immense estates” and they went on a European honeymoon that was “the most extensive ever contemplated by any bridal party in Los Angeles.” Things seemed to be going well and being seemingly legitimately civic-mindedly on Christmas week in 1896 Griffith donated 3,105 acres to the city for a “great park” so that Los Angeles could become a great city (read B.S. LAcity.org quote from above). However, as he became more rich and powerful Griffith also became more paranoid and crazy. According to his manicurist he compulsively bit his nails. I wonder how much the TMZ of the day paid for that bit of highly coveted information? He BIT his NAILS? Who cares? Fine, biting your nails isn’t crazy enough. How about drinking? No, how about drinking, on average, two quarts of whiskey a day while being publicly aligned with the city’s strong temperance movement. His lawyer would later call him a “sneak drinker.” He sneaks two quarts a day? That’s impressive, I think that’s officially a magician. Still not convinced he’s nuts, that maybe he’s just a neurotic, hypocritical drunk? Here ya go… As things worsened he began switching his and his wife’s food and drinks, believing that his Catholic wife was in league with the Pope and that they were trying to poison him for his money. Boom! There’s your crazy. In August of 1903 Ti/ena suggested he take a break, that a vacation would do him some good. They ended up going to the Arcadia Hotel in Santa Monica to relax for a month. Yeah, vacationing a full 23 miles away outta cure anybody. They checked into the Presidential Suite overlooking the palisades, Ti/ena hoping the cool ocean breeze would fix her husband’s strange behavior right up. And it did, for the entire vacation! Well, almost the entire vacation. On the last day, Sept 3rd, while Ti/ena was packing her things Griffith entered the room holding a Bible in one hand an a revolver in the other. He told her to get down on her knees. She did and asked him if she could pray. Then he shot her. In the face. With the gun, not The Bible. The bullet caught her eye, bloody and terrified, she jumped out the window landing on an awning that saved her life. The papers called her “the society wife that wouldn’t die.” A catchy Lifetime movie title if I’ve heard one. At their divorce proceedings (Oh hells yeah there were divorce proceedings) Dr. Moore explained, “There was a bullet hole in her eyebrow…I discovered that a part of the bullet had been deflected upward into the forehead. She was given stimulants. The next morning she was driven to the California Hospital. The eye was removed and the bullet extracted from the socket.” Neither the bullet nor the eye would ever work again. It seemed like a pretty open and shut case, but never underestimate the rich and crazy. Griffith’s side of the story, at first, was that his lovely wife shot herself and then jumped out of a window...for some reason. So, the Mesmer family procured a team of popular trial lawyers including Henry T. Gage, former California governor. Griffith secured himself Earl Rogers, the most celebrated trial attorney of the time. Rogers set up a case based on Griffith acting under the delusions of “alcohol insanity”, where one moment he would be an average loving husband, but after a few drinks he would turn into a violent monster who didn’t know any better, all inspired by the popular new story Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Seriously. This defense worked much better than his first idea, using another the new book, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” explaining Griffith shot his wife for eating his parsley and was just trying to bake her into a pie. Not seriously. The trial began January 11th, 1904. Rogers wanted a full acquittal; Henry Cage wanted the death penalty. According to the Los Angeles Sunday Times during the trial Mrs. Griffith told the jury how she explained to the hotel manager that her husband shot her and “must be crazy”. Rogers replied with, “You knew, didn’t you Mrs. Griffith, that your husband couldn’t have shot you or tried to kill you if he hadn’t been crazy, drunk and insane from alcohol?” She agreed, and with that Gage ended his cross-examination. Gage’s one good moment would be overshadowed, however, when later in the trail Cage lifted Mesmer’s veil to reveal her disfiguring scar to the jury and Griffith began grimacing and laughing, causing a ruckus. A ruckus and a losing case. After a parade of witnesses and various “brain disorder experts” the jury was dismissed. They deliberated for two days before finding Griffith Jenkins Griffith guilty, sentencing him to two years in the San Quentin penitentiary with medical attention for his alcoholic insanity. [A bit of irony to add to this story is that Rogers himself was a big drinker and his daughter tried to have him institutionalized. According to her reports he said to her, “Nora, you don’t believe I’m insane, do you? She responded “No no, Papa, no no — of course not”, and dropped it. Shortly after, Rogers succumbed to his indulgences, and died at the age of fifty-two.] While incarcerated, Col. Griffith paid his dues. Denied alcohol, he turned down the easier prisoner duties like working in the library for the harshest one like making burlap sacks, which even back then I assume were only used as jokes for when people wanted to dress “poor”. When he was up for parole he refused to apply. Instead, he served out his full two-year sentence. And good for him, spending an entire two years in prison after shooting his wife in the face. When released, in 1906, he was said to be quieter and much less pompous. Living in a concrete room will do that to you, I bet. Even if it is for just a couple years. Again during Christmas week, his “philanthropy time”, Griffith wrote a letter to the mayor and the city council with an offer of $100,000 to build an observatory upon the former, Mt. Griffith, which had since been changed to Mt. Hollywood, you know, because he shot his wife’s eye off her face. He wrote, “Ambition must have broad spaces and mighty distances.” But the city wasn’t buying it, probably the whole shot-wife-face-drunk thing. The people refused the money. A citizen’s letter in response to Griffith’s offer ran on the front page of a local newspaper reading, “On behalf of the rising generation of girls and boys we protest against the acceptance of this bribe…This community is neither so poor nor so lost to sense of public decency that it can afford to accept this money.” As the official Greek theater website puts it, with no mention of his nasty little two-year incarceration “It was an idea whose time had not yet come”. But the colonel, either actually having fallen in love with astronomy and realizing how small and insignificant his life was in the vastness of the cosmos, as according to much of the literature at the observatory, or not really having changed at all and being desperate for a better legacy and the cities admiration again, pressed on. He offered an additional $50,000 to build the Greek Theater. He even went so far as to start construction on his own, until the park Commission brought suit, forcing him to stop. At this point, Griffith seemed to know there was no chance of him becoming the city’s golden child again. No chance he could win them back and construct his additions. At least…not while he was alive. Booya! According to the official Griffith Park Observatory website “[In December 1912] The City Council accepted Griffith's gift [of $100,000] and appointed him head of a three-person Trust committee to supervise the construction of the observatory…Bogged down by further political debate, the project continued to be delayed.” In reality, it seems more likely that Griffith started a trust himself in hopes the city would use the funds after he died and still name it after him. Griffith died on July 6th, 1919. Happy day! The city’s rich grandpa was dead and they wasted no time. They immediately started creating blueprints for the amphitheater so they could spend that cash. The first cornerstone for the Greek Amphitheater was finally laid in late 1928 and the project was completed in 1929. Astronomers were called in to begin the blueprints for the Observatory in 1930, its groundbreaking ceremony was on June 20, 1933 and it officially opened on May 14, 1935. All by using the trust fund of a crazy dead guy, because hey, its still money! I mean, sure he did a lot of bad things, but he was dead now. Sixteen long years was plenty of time for memories to fade and an eye to grow back, right? So, the city let bygones be bygones and re-named the park and the observatory after Griffith, giving a man his posthumous dream; and letting his cursed ghost ride bareback across the land. Booya. Currently a tangible Griffith Jenkins Griffith, sans the “col.”, stands at the entrance to Griffith Park between Los Feliz Blvd and Crystal Springs Dr. in statue form. He wears his sexy, pompously long big buttoned coat, holding his gold headed cane and the inscription reads: “Public parks are a safety valve of great cities and should be made accessible and attractive where neither race, creed nor color could be excluded.” According to the Griffith park website, “Griffith Park stands today a monument to the dedicated vision of one man--Griffith Jenkins Griffith, Park Commission, civic philanthropist, advocate of parklands, and fervent speaker of recreation for the health of Los Angeles.” Personally, I like to think of him as he truly was, that guy who paid for the park I try to exercise at, drank two quarts of whiskey a day, went crazy and shot his wife in the face and told people she shot herself, blamed the pope, barely went to jail for it and tried to sucker the city into loving him again, which he did successfully. Oh, and bit his nails—compulsively! In the great words of The Decemberists, “Los Angeles I’m Yours.” the first! to sucker the city into loving him again, which he did successfully. Oh, and bit his nailOriOriginally a part of the Spanish land grant, Rancho Los Feliz, the park was named for its former owner, Colonel Griffith J. Griffith. Born in Glamorganshire, South Wales, Griffith immigrated to the United States in 1865, eventually, making a personal fortune in California gold mine speculation. In 1882, Griffith settled in Los Angeles, and purchased a 4,071-acre portion of the Rancho Los Feliz, which stretched northward from the northern boundaries of the Pueblo de Los Angeles. On December 16, 1896, the civic-minded Griffith bequeathed 3,015 acres of his Rancho Los Feliz estate as a Christmas gift to the people of Los Angeles to be used as parkland. The enormous gift, equal to five square miles, was to be given to the city unconditionally - or almost so. It must be made a place of recreation and rest for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people," Griffith said on that occasion. " I consider it my obligation to make Los Angeles a happier, cleaner, and finer city. I wish to pay my debt of duty in this way to the community in which I have prospered."

  
  

• Sources

  [S973] Ancestry.com, California, U.S., County Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1849-1980, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), California Department of Public Health, courtesy of www.vitalsearch-worldwide.com. Digital Images. [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. [S751] Ancestry.com, U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.). https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9251/griffith-jenkins-griffith [S1389] Ancestry.com, 1861 Wales Census, (Ancestry.com Operations Inc), Class: RG9; Piece: 4072; Folio: 5; Page: 6; GSU roll: 543229. [S233] Ancestry.com, 1900 United States Federal Census, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.), Year: 1900; Census Place: Los Angeles Ward 3, Los Angeles, California; Roll: 89; Page: 3; Enumeration District: 0020; FHL microfilm: 1240089. [S1392] Ancestry.com, Glamorganshire, Wales, Anglican Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1570-1994, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), Glamorganshire, Wales, Anglican Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1570-1994 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2020. (Reliability: 3). Name: Griffith Griffith Gender: Male Marriage Age: 23 Record Type: Marriage Birth Date: 1831 Marriage Date: 1 Oct 1854 Marriage Place: Bettws, Glamorganshire, Wales Father: Morgan Griffith Spouse: May Davis Page number: 21 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1491480:62105?ssrc=pt&tid=183164770&pid=142390379548 [S973] Ancestry.com, California, U.S., County Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1849-1980, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.).