THE GARMAN-GILL FAMILIES, Elizabeth Garman Gill, January 1971.

My grandfather was a successful business man. He lived too far up the river to engage in rafting timber down the Susquehanna in which many men made fortunes, but he had many men engaged in cutting and hauling lumber. He owned and operated a saw mill and a grist mill. He had a general store and had the post office. So many men were employed that the place became a village and assumed the name Garman's Mills which was also the name of the post office.

Before the Civil War Grandfather had built a large new house part of which still stands, now used as a hotel. It was necessary to have accommodations for boarding many men as they rode their horses in on Sunday evening and stayed all week for work until Saturday when they rode home to spend the night and Sunday. The long dining table seated 22 men and there were bedrooms for all. Grandfather became a well-to-do-man. The Susquehanna turned the wheels of his mills as they sawed the lumber and ground the feed and flour. Men with teams cut and hauled lumber.

Image: Peter Garman's mill today.