Q.David Bowers
Early History of the Garrett Family
Born in Lisburn, County Down, Ireland on May 2, 83, Robert Garrett was the youngest of John and Margaret MacMachen Garrett's six children. He came to America with his family in 1790 and settled on a farm in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. In 1798 a move was made to another farm near Middletown in the same state. In the following year Robert Garrett, then 16, and his older brother traveled down the Ohio River to trade with the Indians. After spending the winter with Indian suppliers they returned in the spring of 1800 with many furs.
In 1801 Robert came to Baltimore where he was employed by Patrick Dinsmore for three years as a clerk in a produce and commission firm. He then formed his own company, Wallace & Garrett, which sold produce and other items from the Ohio River valley and in turn supplied settlers with manufactured Eastern goods. Robert married Martha Hanna of Baltimore in 1811. In December of the same year Sarah Margaret was born. Martha, age 21, died the following October. Garrett, a widower, dissolved the firm of Wallace & Garrett and returned to Middletown, Pennsylvania where he operated a retail store and became justice of the peace.
He traveled to Baltimore often to visit old friends and see again his favorite surroundings. There he met Elizabeth Stouffer, the daughter of a Baltimore city councilman and merchant. A courtship, mostly conducted by letters (preserved today in the Library of Congress), followed. They were married in May 1817 and made Middletown their home. Two years later Garrett sold his store and moved back to Baltimore. With the help of his father-in-law, Henry Stouffer, he established Robert Garrett & Co. in 1819. Drawing upon connections made earlier he purchased items along the frontier in western Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Beeswax, snakeroot, wool, dried apples, butter, feathers, ginseng, and whisky were shipped to Baltimore. In exchange Garrett sent to the West items which frontier merchants needed: medicine, chocolate, powder, hats and bonnets, shovels, flints, shoeblacking, shaving soap, chalk, and other supplies. In 1823 the business had prospered to the extent that a move was made to expand the firm into a three-story warehouse.
At the time most products were shipped westward by Conestoga wagon over the Cumberland Road, the first route built through the mountains to connect the seacoast with the frontier lands of Ohio. From Baltimore, rates for these wagons, huge conveyances pulled by teams of six horses, ranged from 11/2c to 21/2c per pound to Pittsburgh and from 31/2C to 5c per pound to places further west than Ohio. Each wagon had a capacity of 4,000 to 5,000 pounds. From Baltimore it took 4 days to travel to Hagerstown, Maryland, 16 days to Pittsburgh, 18 days to Wheeling! Virginia (later to become West Virginia), and 24 days to Centerville, Ohio.
Baltimore had over 70,000 citizens in the year 1825. Garrett's firm was one of the most prominent in the city. Baltimore, the third largest city in America, Was viewed as having a very bright future as a commercial link with the developing western states. Robert Garrett became interested in other ventures and was an investor in the York & Gettysburg Turnpike Co. and may have participated in the financing of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Co. From his second marriage several children were born: Henry Stouffer, John Work, Elizabeth Barbara, and Robert Close (who died at age five).
Young Henry and John Garrett attended the Voisseau Academy in Baltimore. At the age of 14 John W.Garrett was sent to Easton, Pennsylvania, to attend the preparatory school operated by Lafayette College. There he stayed two years and learned Latin, French, history, surveying, and other skills. In the meantime the Garrett business grew. By the late 1830s the firm was buying shiploads of fish from New England, importing coffee from Haiti, shipping flour to Boston, and doing business with the United States Army in Florida. As a leading dealer in commodities, Robert Garrett established close contacts with other merchants in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston as well as other commercial areas. When the Panic of 1837 came many businesses went bankrupt. Robert Garrett & Co. survived. John Garrett, travelling in western Pennsylvania, wrote home, "I much regret to learn of the bad state of affairs in Baltimore. At the time was much gratified to learn of the state of comfort ability of Messrs. R. G. & Co."
In February 1840 Henry Garrett, 21 years of age, and John W. Garrett, 20, became partners with their father, then 56 years of age, in Robert Garrett & Sons. The Robert Garrett & Co. name which had been in use for 21 years was discontinued.
The firm made its first transaction outside of the commission and merchandise business in August of 1843, when it acquired $5,000 in Pennsylvania state 5 % bonds at 491/2. Less than a year later they sold them at 721/2, making an attractive profit. The commission business expanded and grew to include cotton, tobacco, and hemp. In 1841 a second warehouse was constructed. 1845 saw the purchase of the Eutaw House, one of the finest hotels in Baltimore, for $58,500. Several years later the Wakefield Inn was acquired, razed, and a new hotel, the Howard House, was erected on the site. The new structure was connected to a house built in 1798 by Henry Stouffer, Robert Garrett's father-in-law. The Stouffer structure became the Fayette Street entrance to the hotel.
Robert Garrett & Sons invested in the Baltimore Gas Light Co., the Baltimore Water Co., the Union Manufacturing Co., the Merchants' Fire Insurance Co., the Merchants' Shot Tower (which manufactured lead shot by dropping molten metal from a height into a pool of water), the Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal, and the Ocean Mutual Fire Insurance Co., among others. Robert Garrett was the founder of the Western Bank in 1837 and continued on its board until his death. In 1847 he founded the Eutaw Savings Bank. Later he was a director of the Savings Bank of Baltimore.
By the late 1840s Robert Garrett & Sons had a diversified business with an extensive overseas trade, particularly with England. The firm chartered ships and engaged in international banking. Often they would handle the foreign exchange notes, payments, and other transactions of other Baltimore merchants. In 1846 the company sent $8,000 worth of supplies to the United States Commissary Department for use in the war with Mexico. Shipments of coffee, salt, and molasses were sent to Texas and from there were forwarded to American troops in Mexico. The arrangements continued through 1850.
Following the discovery of gold in California in 1848 and the boom which ensued in 1849, Robert Garrett & Sons became active in shipping provisions to San Francisco. Payment was received in gold bullion. In 1850 the Monumental City, a steamship of 733 tons, the largest ocean-going vessel built in Baltimore up to that time, was financed by Garrett. In December 1850 it left on its maiden voyage, a trip to California. The Samuel Hicks, a square-rigged sailing vessel, was purchased soon thereafter and was lost at sea on its first voyage. The Garretts then constructed the Atlas, which went to California with a cargo of white pine, bringing guano (bird dung for use as fertilizer) from Peru on the return voyage.