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1821 Born in New Hampshire

1847-ca.1853 Congregational pastor

1852 Married Julia Chapin

1854 Founded Grinnell, Iowa

1856 Active in organizing Republican Party in Iowa

1856-60 State Senator. Worked to establish public schools in Iowa

1858 Admitted to the Iowa bar

1860 Delegate to Republican convention which nominated Lincoln

1863-67 Representative (Republican) to U. S. House of Representatives

1854-84 Trustee of Iowa (Grinnell) College

1891 Death

Interests included religion, education, politics, railroading, stock breeding, and sheep raising.

More details in Dictionary of American Biography, National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Who Was Who in America, Charles Payne’s Josiah Bushnell Grinnell.

Grinnell, Iowa was founded in March 1854 by Josiah Bushnell Grinnell (1821-1891) who chose a site which surveys indicated would be the junction of two railroads. Grinnell was a minister, trustee and benefactor of Iowa College (later renamed Grinnell College), helped organize the Republican party in Iowa, was a Representative to the Iowa legislature and later to the U.S. House (1863), was active in agricultural development and railroad building. He and his wife, Julia Chapin, were both descended from old New England families; their daughter, Mary Grinnell Mears, may have assembled some of these papers.