Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2006 19:03:44 -0700
From: Brian D Core <greenhouseguy@juno.com>

Marshall,

I went to the library today and took notes on the story about John
Garrison that you queried about. I came home and tried to place him, and
found the following in Ancestry.com. It tells the same basic story that
was told in the Fireland Pioneers story. His father was Ephraim Garrison;
his grandfather was mentioned, but not by name. The F. P. story mentioned
that Ephraim Garrison was born ca. 1738, and married Elizabeth Watts in
1764. John Garrison, son of Ephraim, married Rebecca Mills in NJ in 1794.
Interesting?

Brian



Ancestry.com Michigan Biographies, 1878 [database online]. Provo, UT:
MyFamily.com, Inc., 2000. Original data: American Biographical History
of Eminent and Self-Made Men, Michigan, Volumes I-II. n.p.: Western
Biographical Publishing Company, 1878.

Name: John J. Garrison 
for over fifty years a prominent citizen of Detroit, was born in the
county of Cayuga, New York, August 11, 1808. His great-grandfather came
from Holland about the year 1735, and settled in New Amsterdam, New York.
His grandfather, Ephraim Garrison, at the breaking out of the French War,
in 1760, enlisted in the English army, and was with the troops sent to
take possession of Detroit after peace was declared. He took part in
the battle of Bloody River, against the Indian chief Pontiac, in which
he was wounded, and his two brothers--Alpheus and John Garrison--were
killed. At the close of the war, he returned East and settled on a farm
in New Jersey. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he disposed of
his farm, and removed to Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. He was an
officer in the militia, and took part in the war under Washington. John
Garrison, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in New
Jersey, in 1772. After becoming of age, in the spring of 1793, he started
for Cayuga County, New York, which was, at that time, on the frontier.
There he settled on six hundred and forty acres of land, which he
had purchased at twenty-eight cents an acre. Soon after, he opened the
first store in that vicinity. In 1810 he sold his farm and store for ten
thousand dollars, cash; and, with his family, started for Huron County,
Ohio, where he had previously bought four thousand acres of land. On his
arrival, not being satisfied with his purchase, he sold it, and went to
Sandusky. He built the first store in that place, which he stocked with
goods he had brought with him. He was soon, however, driven away by the
Indians, who burned his buildings. He finally settled in Fredericksburg,
Ohio, where he became a merchant, banker, and mill owner, accumulating a
fortune, which was swept away in the panic of 1816-17. After paying all
his debts, he removed to Detroit, to begin life anew, with a large family
and sixty dollars in money. In a few years, he was again prosperous, and
soon took a prominent part in the city affairs. In 1824 he was Street
Commissioner; and, in 1830, a member of the City Council. In 1836 he
returned to Ohio; and, in 1848, settled in Joliet, Illinois. In 1853
he removed to Cedar Falls, Iowa, and laid out a part of the town. Here
he died, in 1865, at the advanced age of ninety-five years. Before his
death, he traveled by railroad to his old home in Cayuga County. He had
been an eyewitness of the building of the great cities and improvements
in all the vast country between New York and Western Iowa. John J.
Garrison received his early education in the schools of Detroit; and
afterwards learned the mason's trade. He soon abandoned it, however;
and, in 1829, commenced mercantile business. He confined himself almost
entirely to groceries, and was the first merchant, west of New York
State, to engage in an exclusively wholesale grocery business. He was
very successful, and passed safely through the panies of 1837 and 1857.
He retired from active business in 1864. He devoted his time almost
exclusively to his business, and took but little part in politics. He
was a member of the Common Council in 1837; and held one or two other
offices under the city government. After his retirement from business,
until his death, which occurred May 14, 1876, he spent most of his
time in traveling through the United States and the West India Islands.