John M. Griffith was born about 1815 in North Carolina and married Jane Ann Rogers, daughter of Hugh and Anna Bryson Rogers. They relocated to the part of Gilmer County, Georgia that later became Fannin County, built a house and raised their family on the opposite side of the River from where Big Creek enters the Toccoa River. The chimney of the old homeplace still stands in 2012. It can be accessed by boat going directly across the River from Herman Long's Toccoa Campground.

No parents or siblings of John M. have ever been found! DNA result show him to be in the same family as William Griffith from Guilford, NC, but exact lineage not determined.

Children of John M. and Jane Ann are William L. "Bill", who married Mary 'Pol' Mathis and moved to DeKalb County, Alabama; John 'Jay' who was shot and killed by ambush in his own front yard; Meredith 'Polk', who went away to the Civil War and was immediately 'blown to bits by cannon fire"; Lucy, must have been a child who died, is in the 1850 census and never appears again; Albert 'Clint' married Mary Ray, lived in the old Griffith home, raised a large family there, moved to Blue Ridge, served as Sheriff of Fannin County 1906; Josephine Paralee, married Wiley Bailey and had ten children; Zilpha Jane, married Stephen Calvin Bailey, a brother to Wiley, relocated to Benton in Polk County, TN when the Blue Ridge Lake and Dam were being built in 1926. Susannah, married Will Ledford, is buried in the Dial Cemetery; Mary Elizabeth, married Mart Jones, went to Alabama with her brother, William.

John M. Griffith was shot by ambush in June of 1863 near Persimmon Creek while serving in the Georgia Home Guard trying to protect his family and neighbors from guerrilla attacks during the Civil War. His wife, Jane Ann died soon after in the typhoid epidemic. The children were just farmed out with neighbors or trying to survive on their own until William came home from the war and gathered them back up.

There is no paper proof that John M. and Jane Ann are actually buried in Dial Cemetery, but letters from family members who have seen the family Bible says it gives their burial place as the old Woody/Dial cemetery. Since their daughter Susannah is buried there, it is an appropriate location for their final resting place. May they rest in peace!