In 1855, Jesse J. Griffith arrived in the area that would become 

Hamilton County. When the first Hamilton County officials were elected, 

on August 2, 1858, the 80 qualified voters in the county chose Griffith

to be the first County Treasurer. In 1860, Griffith started a private 

school, the 3rd school on record in the county, in his home on the 

banks of the Leon River, east of the town of Hamilton. The school was 

in existence only a very short time because Elder Griffith was killed 

not long after he established the facility.



Griffith may have been the first Primitive Baptist preacher in Hamilton

County. The book "The History of the Primitive Baptists in Texas, 

Oklahoma, and Indian Territory", by J. S. Newman, contains the 

following account of Griffith's death from an Indian attack. 



"Elder J.C. White, who was known in his day as Uncle Jackie, left 

Alabama October 11, 1856, and landed in Coryell County January the 

second 1860. At this time the county was sparsely settled and of course

our people were few and widely scattered. A short while after Elder 

White settled in Coryell County he heard of an Old Baptist preacher by 

the name of Griffith that lived over in Hamilton County on the Leon 

River, so Elder White started to hunt Elder Griffith and as there were 

Indians in the county at that time. Elder White buckled his six-shooter

around him and his gun to the horn of his saddle with his old saddle 

bags containing a hymn book and Bible, so when Elder White found Elder 

Griffith he was soon informed that there was a Primitive Baptist Church

over in the northeast corner of Coryell County by the name of Raineys 

Creek. Arrangments were soon made and the two Old Baptist preachers 

were on their way to said church, and near where Turnersville now is, 

the Indians came upon them wounding both of them, Elder Griffith died 

nine days after he was wounded. Elder White's wounds were so severe 

that life was despaired of by his family and his brethren. For seven 

weeks he was turned on a sheet in his bed. He finally survived, his 

wounds got well. He died at Lampasas on February 13, 1884. Thus passed 

away one of the best pioneer preachers of Texas. Peace be to his ashes."