Eber N Garvin

GARVIN

Posted By: County Coordinator (email)
Date: 5/4/2010 at 09:42:29

Many substantial evidence of the enterprise, laudable ambition and the handiwork of Eber N Garvin are seen in good buildings of Ogden and the surrounding country, for during an extended period he was connected with building operations and did important work as a contractor. At length, with the gratifying success which was the merited reward of his labors, he retired and is to connected with business enterprises to any active extent at the present. He was born in Caledonia county, Vermont, May 25, 1845, and is a son of Allen and Elsie (Powers) Garvin. His father was a native of New Hampshire, while the mother’s birth occurred in Vermont. She represents one of the oldest New England families, it being possible to trace the ancestry back to the Mayflower. Allen Garvin followed farming in Vermont for many years, but before entering into active connection with agricultural interests he engaged in freighting by team across the country from Boston. In 1874 he came to Boone county, where he resided for five years, or until 1879, when he removed to Guthrie county, Iowa. There he made his home with his son until 1886, when he returned to Boone county to live with his son Eber, with whom he continued until his death which occurred May 17, 1888, when he was eighty-six years of age. For a few years he had survived his wife , who died on August 23, 1885.
Eber N Garvin was a resident of the Green Mountain state to the age of ten years and during that period began his education in the public schools, He then went to Wisconsin, where he continued his studies and in which state he remained until 1873,. I the meantime his patriotic spirit was aroused by the continued attempt of the couth to overthrow the Union and on August 29, 1864, when but nineteen years of age, he enlisted for service at the front as a member of Company C, Forty-third Wisconsin Infantry, with which he was on duty for one year, or until after the close of the war.
When mustered out Mr Garvin returned to Wisconsin, where he engaged in farming until 1873. He then came to Iowa, settling is Osceola county, where he secured a homestead, upon which he resided for a year and a half before coming to Ogden, Boone county. Following his removal he engaged in teaming for a few years or until 1881 and then began working at this trade, that of carpenter and builder. In Ogden he erected for his residence on of the model hoes in the northeastern part of the town, and he has built many good dwelling in his part of the county. Thoroughness has ever characterized his workmanship, and he has paid due heed to both utility and beauty in construction.
On November 12, 1868 Mr Garvin was untied in marriage to Miss Orphia A Potts, a daughter of Samuel a and Lydia (Tillotson) Potts, the former a minister of the Gospel, devoting much o his life to the preaching of Christian doctrines. He died in 1880 and for almost a quarter of a century was survived by his wife, who passed away in the spring of 1913, at the age of ninety-three years.
Unto Mr and Mrs Garvin have been born five children: Mary the wife of Samuel Dana, residing in Boone, Orland D who died in November 1904, Myrtle, the wife of George Anderson, a resident of South Dakota, Roscoe, residing at home and John who is in Boone. The wife and mother passed away in September 1903, after a brief illness, and her death was deeply regretted by all who knew her.
Mr Garvin votes with the republican party which he has supported since age conferred upon him the right of franchise, but he has never sough office as a reward for party fealty. He belongs to Buford Post, G A R of Ogden, and he thus maintains a close and pleasant relation with those who wore the blue while he, too, was a soldier upon the tented fields of the south. He has always been as loyal to his country in times of peace as in times of war and has the deepest attachment for the nation’s tarry banner.

1914 Boone County History Book