SLC referred to him as “a Maryland slave by birth,” but according to the 1880 Census, he was born in Virginia. During the Civil War he was body servant to General Charles Devens. He was the Clemenses’ butler from at least 1875 until 1891, when the family went to Europe. Griffin moved to New York, where SLC met him in 1893; at that time (according to SLC) he was a Union League Club waiter and a private banker for other waiters.