The son of John Breese, Griffith was a native of
Wales who immigrated to the United States in 1798. He married a
Pennsylvania native, Mary Mowen, who bore him a son George in
Franklin County, Pennsylvania, before they moved to Ohio. Breese bought six
sections of land in present-day
Shawnee Township, on lands that had once been part of the Hog Creek
Indian Reservation. Moving his family to Section 10 of the township in 1834, they found that their new home was a former apple orchard: eighty apple trees and seven cabins of the
Shawnee former residents occupied the site. During their first winter, they lived in the reservation's former
council house, and Breese was elected to the first group of trustees of the Shawnee Township. By 1840, Breese had grown sufficiently prosperous that he was able to establish the present
homestead. The first of the four
Federal buildings on the property were erected in that year, and he bought additional land in northwestern Allen County's
Marion Township five years later. Breese continued to live on the farm until his death in 1848. ==Recent history==