This collection includes items from Charles and Elva’s time spent as missionaries in South America from 1895 to 1906. The collection includes a journal kept by Elva R. Griffith as well as a photo album dated from their time in South America. There are also professional certificates from the Western South America Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church deeming Charles M. Griffith qualified as a missionary and a certificate of location. Also included are photocopies of newspaper clippings about the International Missionary Union meeting at Clifton Springs, N.Y. and excerpts from a letter written by Charles to Elva dated ca. October 1900.
Charles Minot Griffith was born April 14, 1863 in Silver Springs, New York. He earned his M.A. and Ph. B. in Modern Language from Cornell University. He later taught at both the college and high school levels, and he also served as principal of a public school. Griffith was a preacher and a missionary in both New York and in South America. He married Elva Roxana Kniffin of Perry, N.Y. on November 28, 1894. Griffith joined the Western South American Mission Conference of the M.E. Church in 1897 while serving as a teacher and preacher in Chile, South America. Griffith passed away in 1941.
