Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Nathan F. Garwood
Nathan Folwell Garwood is the owner of the Forest Home, one of the most beautiful country-seats of Wayne county. It is pleasantly located only a mile and a half from the city. The residence, built fifty-three years ago, is a very commodious structure, and its light, airy rooms, tastefully furnished, are most restful and attractive. Ease and comfort have supplemented richness in the adornment of Forest Home, and the house is one of the old-time mansions which, in this day of cramped city quarters, prove most inviting. The house is surrounded with a well kept lawn adorned by fine old shade trees; commodious barns and outbuildings in the rear afford ample shelter for grain and stock; well tilled fields indicate coming harvests, and fine orchards, embracing five acres, are not the least attractive features of this ideal country- seat. The farm contains sixty-seven acres in all.
The owner, Nathan Folwell Garwood, is one of the most highly respected citizens of the community and a leading representative of the agricultural and horticultural interests of this section of the state. He was born October 18, 1831, at Mullica Hill, Gloucester county, New Jersey, and is the eldest child and only son of Amasa and Esther (Iredell) Garwood. The father was twice married, the mother of our subject being his second wife. He was a blacksmith by trade and conducted a smithy in the village, while Nathan Garwood assisted in operating the farm. The former died in 1853, and the following year our subject, in connection with Ephraim Tomlinson, proprietor of saw and grist mills, known as the Laurel Mills, extensively engaged in the manufacture of flour and lumber at White Horse, Camden county, New Jersey, Mr. Garwood having charge of the mercantile department for one year. Throughout the following year he carried on general merchandising at Bridgeport, New Jersey, in partnership with a Mr. Jordan, and the summer of 1856 he spent in eastern Iowa. He afterward went to Omaha, Nebraska, and during the financial panic of 1857 he lost, through the failure of one of the banks there, a thousand dollars. This was a great blow to a young man just starting out upon a business career; but with great energy and determination he set to work to retrieve his lost possessions. Afterward going to Gentry county, Missouri, he there remained until 1859, when he went to Hannibal, that state. Having no money, he was obliged to accept any work that he could secure, and while in Gentry county, in connection with a young man by the name of Chambers, a cabinet-maker, he took a contract for making one hundred bedsteads. When the contract was completed, in the spring of 1859, he had twenty dollars above and beyond his expenses. He then accepted a clerkship in the freight office of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, at Hannibal, where he remained two years.
In the meantime Mr. Garwood came to Wayne county, Indiana, and was married, near Richmond, to Anna E. Iredell. He then returned with his bride to Hannibal and continued to till his position in the freight office until after the inauguration of the civil war, when, railroad business being largely suspended, he returned to Richmond. In the spring of 1863 he went to Nashville, Tennessee, and entered the quartermaster's department in the United States service, under Colonel Crane, having charge of the railroad transportation south of that city, for at that time the government was in control of all lines south of Nashville. Mr. Garwood was engaged in office work there until all the government business was closed up, in 1866, when he accepted a position with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, in the former city. He had his trunks all packed ready to return to Indiana, but the agent persuaded him to join the company, and he remained with the road at Nashville and at Chattanooga until 1876, attending to the transfer of all freight.
At length his health failed him, and Mr. Garwood determined to make a change. He visited the Centennial Exposition, at Philadelphia, and then came to Wayne county, where, in the spring of 1877, he purchased his present property, Forest Home. The farm formerly belonged to Benjamin Stratton, who built the house from brick manufactured on the place and from timber there cut, all the work being done by hand. The Friends' cemetery, located one hundred years ago, occupies a corner at the southern end of the farm. For some years Mr. Garwood has made a specialty of the raising of small fruits, including raspberries, blackberries, etc., and now has some five acres planted to fruit. He has given much study to the best methods of cultivation and to the requirement of the plants and has been an active worker in the Wayne County Horticultural Society, where his opinion is received as authority on many subjects. He is a member of the Wayne County Agricultural & Horticultural Society and has been an exhibitor at many of its fairs.
It was on the 5th of March, 1861, that Mr. Garwood wedded Miss Anna E. Iredell, daughter of Samuel E. Iredell, who was born in Gloucester county, New Jersey, and in 1835 came to Richmond, where he worked at the tailor's trade until 1850. He then retired to a farm near Middleboro, Wayne county, where he spent his remaining days, his death occurring in 1866. Even after his removal to the country many of his former patrons went to his farm in order to get him to make their clothes. He married Marinette L. Suffrain, a daughter of John Suffrain, a native of France, and her death occurred in 1896, she having survived her husband thirty years. Their children were Anna E., who was born in Richmond in 1837; John S., in the insurance business at Richmond; Hannah Josephine, who married Benjamin Starr, and died at the age of twenty-five; Virginia E., wife of John Kosgle, of Richmond; Samuel Ellis, a farmer of Wayne township, Wayne county; Horace Greeley, a resident of Richmond; and Lizzie M., wife of Henry Shuman Jones, a piano salesman of Richmond. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Garwood have been born four children: Nettie M., the eldest, is the wife of Albert Kirby, a farmer and dairyman of Hebron, Nebraska, and they have one child, Cora Marie; Esther C. is the wife of Henry C. Hill, a real-estate and insurance agent of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and they have a son, Eugene G.; Josephine S. is the wife of Frederick R. Charles, assistant city engineer of Richmond; Eugene C., the youngest, is with his brother-in-law, in the firm of Hill & Garwood, at Minneapolis.
In his political views Mr. Garwood is a Republican, and he served on the election board for some years. He cast his first presidential vote for Fremont, in 1856, and has since supported each presidential candidate for the "Grand Old Party," yet is not aggressively partisan either in politics or religion. His ancestors were Friends, who when the church separated became Hicksites. His wife is a member of that organization, and both Mr. and Mrs. Garwood attend services in that church. Throughout the community they are held in the highest regard, for their sterling characteristics commend them to the confidence and good will of all. Success has crowned the well-directed and enterprising efforts of our subject, and it is the wish of his many friends that the master of Forest Home may be numbered among the valued citizens of Wayne county for many years yet to come.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899
Nathan Folwell Garwood, oldest child and only son by second wife of Amassa and Esther (Iredell) Garwood, was born Oct. 18, 1831, in Gloucester County, N. J. He was educated in the schools of his native county, and followed farming and dealing in stock on his father's farm till he grew to manhood. His father followed blacksmithing in the village, also farming, while his sons worked on the farm. He died in 1853, and the following year Nathan, in connection with Ephraim Tomlinson, proprietor of the "Laurel Mills" (grist and saw mills), carried on an extensive business in flour and lumber, near White Horse, Camden Co., N. J., our subject having charge of the mercantile department one year. He then engaged in general merchandising in his native county, but at the end of a year sold his interest to his partner. He was then variously engaged in different places till the spring of 1859, when he engaged in the freight office of the Hannibal & St. Joe Railroad, at Hannibal, Mo., continuing there till 1861, when the war troubles suspended business on the road. He then returned to Richmond, Ind., and in February, 1863, he removed to Nashville, Tenn., and was engaged in the Government Quartermaster's office, in the railroad shipping department, until the spring of 1866, after which he was engaged in the freight department of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, at Nashville, Tenn., until June, 1876. He then visited the Centennial at Philadelphia, with his family, and returned to Wayne County, Ind., in November, 1876. In the spring of 1877 he purchased his present farm and residence near Richmond, known as "Forest Home," where he has since followed farming. Mr. Garwood was married March 5, 1861, to Anna E. Iredell, born in Wayne County, Ind., in 1837, and daughter of Samuel E. and Marietta L. (Suffrain) Iredell, and granddaughter of John Suffrain, a native of France. They have four children — Nettie M., Esther C., Josephine S. and Eugene C. Mr. Garwood and wife attend the religious society of Hicksite Friends. Mrs. Garwood's father came to Richmond, Ind., in 1835, and followed the tailor's trade a number of years. He then bought a farm near Richmond, where he farmed and worked at his trade till 1856. He then sold his farm and purchased another near Middleboro, Wayne Co., Ind., where he followed farming till his death in 1866. His widow is still living.
Source:
History of Wayne County, Indiana. Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co. 1884. Volume 2