Today is the first time I have ever seen this photo. It is also the oldest photo of a member of my family that I have ever seen.
That is a man of evident prosperity, well-earned pride, with an intelligent face that promises covert humor and great benignity. That is Peter Garman, my great-great-grandfather, and my son's namesake, in 1900 when he was 78 years old.
Peter's granddaughter, my maternal grandmother*, and great-granddaughter, my mother, were also namesakes. And then there is the eponymous Garmantown, formerly the village of Garman, originally Garman's Mills.
Circa 1940, with identifying turret top from the top of the road leading into Garmantown.
Same angle from the Sulfur Creek, aka the Shit Creek (acid mine drainage).
The beshrouded road leading into Garmantown recently.
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Across the street from the mill was the family homestead which lodged employees at the mill and had a dining table that seated twenty-two. The Garman House also hid runaway slaves as a "documented stop on the Underground Railroad."
Peter died at age 87 in 1909. Obituary "from The Indiana Democrat of March 10, 1909 (page 1)":
It does have the look of an English cemetery.
The name Garman is scattered throughout the generations of my family and Peter Garman's legacy still is present in tangible form in the area where he settled. It is strange that I never was taken to, visited, or even knew where the Garmans were buried.
Peter and another man owned all of the land that became Northern Cambria, originally Barnesboro (named for the co-founder of the Barnes and Tucker Coal Mine), my hometown. Peter had another home, a large brick house where he retired, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. That structure also still stands and has for many years been an administrative building of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Peter Garman, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of this county died at his residence in this place Wednesday evening, March 3, 1909, aged 87 years, his death being caused by pneumonia and complications.
The deceased was born and reared at Chambersburg, Franklin county. Later he moved to Garman's Mills, on the west branch of the Susquehanna river and in Cambria county just across the line, where he engaged extensively in the lumber business. He retired from the lumber business in 1881 and moved to Indiana (county), where he has since lived a quiet and useful life keeping in close touch with church and business circles. Mr. Garman was married August 14, 1845, to Lucinda Dunkle [or Dunckle], and after her death to Carolyn W. Bracken [sic, Caroline] (note - abt 1861)...All the children with the exception of Mrs. Kirdendall [Spokane, Washington] , attended the funeral which was held at the Garman home, Friday afternoon, with the interment following in Greenwood cemetery.
Peter Garman died as he lived, in honorable prosperity. Greenwood Cemetery: "The cemetery’s design and layout were the work of a professional gardener from London whose plan featured lots and sections arranged in unique shapes with wide, graceful driveways."
*In 1971 "Gram", as we called her, wrote a family history. One line in particular on the Garman family's origins has always tickled me:
"The Garman family came from around the Dutch border of Germany and in Ireland there is a Loch Garman indicating that the name was common there. This gives us a Dutch-German-Irish descent, and, of course, we are Yankees."
