JAMES GARRETT

GARRETT

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/20/2020 at 13:55:48

JAMES GARRETT, who resides on a farm of 160 acres in section 19, Carl township, Adams county, is one of the well-known citizens of this community.

Mr. Garrett was born at Paterson, New Jersey, in 1837, son of John Garrett, who was born in county Tyrone, Ireland. His father was a weaver by trade, and after coming to America established the looms at Paterson, New Jersey. He was a man of education and marked business ability, and for some years was successfully engaged in business at Paterson. Owing, however, to a combination of circumstances over which he had no control, he failed. He then moved to Ohio and settled on the St. Mary's river, at St. Mary's; where he engaged in the general merchandise business, selling goods to the laborers who were at work on the great reservoir. He subsequently moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where his death occurred, at the age of forty-six years. The mother of our subject was before her marriage a Miss Margaret McCristell. She, too, was a native of county Tyrone, Ireland. Her death occurred at St. Mary's, Ohio, when James was eight years old.

Mr. Garrett was reared in Ohio and Indiana, and received his education in those States. In early boyhood he assisted his father in the store, and later worked on a farm. During the war he enlisted, in January, 1865, in the One Hundred and Forty-Ninth Indiana (Park county) Infantry Volunteers, Company I. After a service of six months he was honorably discharged on account of disability. He contracted a severe cold, which settled in his throat and lungs, and from the effects of which he has never recovered. He now receives a pension. After the war he came to Adams county, Iowa, and purchased the farm on which he has ever since lived. This land was all wild then, and Mr. Garrett states that deer would frequently come to his barn-yard and eat corn and hay. He is now comfortably fixed and his farm is well improved.

February 22, 1860, Mr. Garrett married Miss Martha Ann Harlan, daughter of Joshua Harlan, a native of Ohio, and a second cousin of Senator Harlan. Her mother was Sarah Maddock. She was a native of Virginia, and died at Mrs. Garrett's in 1888, aged seventy-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Garrett have seven children, viz.: Edward Grant, who is married and lives in Carl township, this county; Oliver P., Sarah, Margaret M., Oscar, Nancy E. and Daisy Willard. Margaret M. is a successful and popular teacher. Two of their children died in infancy. July 31, 1862, Mr. Garrett enlisted in Company D, Seventy-Eighth Regiment Indiana Volunteers, and was captured at Uniontown, Kentucky. He is a member of the G. A. R., Post No. 334, of Mount Etna, and is Quartermaster of the Post. He and his wife and children are members of the Baptist Church.