Horace Garland

As printed in 1906

HORACE W. GARLAND, starting out in life for himself at the age of twenty-two years, is now numbered among the sub-

7o6 stantial farmers of Bainbfidge to\vnship, having a good property well equipped with modern conveniences and accessories. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, March 5, 1855, his parents being Horace and Catherine Garland, the former a native of New Hampshire. The family was founded in America by five brothers, who came from England and settled at Rye, New Hampshire. Horace Garland, Sr., was a fruitraiser, and on leaving.New England removed to Iowa in 1855. After eight years he came to Berrien county in 1863 and settled one mile south and a mile east of Benton Harbor. There he engaged in farming until he removed to California, where for three years he remained at Petaluma. On the expiration of that period he went to Kansas, where he spent his remaining days. He secured about forty acres of land near Benton Harbor and was one of the pioneer residents of this section of the state. His wife died in Iowa, leaving two children: Horace; and Edgar Garland, of Berrien Springs, who is president of that village. He sold his farm near Berrien Springs, where the Adventist College now stands, for ten thousand dollars. He is now comfortably situated in life and is living retired in Berrien Springs, having a competence sufficient to supply him with all of the comforts and luxuries of life without recourse to further labor. He owns several buildings in Berrien Springs and these return to him a good rental. A half sister of the family is still living.

Horace W. Garland, spending the days of his boyhood and youth under the parental roof, was educated in the common schools and gained practical experience in farm labor through the assistance which he rendered in the care and cultivation of the fields. When twenty-two years of age he was married toMissFloraKirkpatrick,a daughter of P. C. Kirkpatrick, a well known farmer of this county, who had come from Iowa to Michigan. Mr. Kirkpatrick and Mr. Garland removed from this state to Texas, and after a year spent in that state and in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Mr. Garland went to Kansas, settling in Harper county in 1879.

He proved up a claim of government land and continued his residence in Kansas for fifteen years. He also went to Oklahoma, where he opened up a farm and during the fifteen years mentioned he made considerable progress in business life, his financial resources increasing as the result of his careful management and discrimination in business affairs. While living in Kansas his wife died and in 1894 he returned to Michigan, while two years later he located on his present farm near Spink's Corners in Bainbridge township, securing eighty acres of land about half of which is set out to fruit, there being thirty acres planted to peaches, grapes and berries. Mr. Garland sold goods in the town of Harper, Kansas, for nine years. He went to that state when it was largely a new and undeveloped region and he lived in a sod house without doors or windows. His attention in later years has been devoted to fruit-raising and he is a horticulturist with good orchards, to the care of which he gives his supervision. He secures the best nursery stock and the fruit which is shipped from his place is noted for its excellent size, quality and flavor.

Mr. and Mrs. Garland were the parents of four daughters and one son: Carrie, now the wife of Charles Bishop, of Benton township; Lillian, the wife of Harry Grossman, of Bainbridge; Florence, who wedded Ruben Sutherland of Pipestone township; Ollie, the wife of Ed. Chivis, of Bainbridge township; and Fred, at home. Mr. Garland has been again married, his second union being with Mary Line, of Ohio. He exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Republican party but the honors and emoluments of office have had no attraction for him. His life has been somewhat eventful in its experiences in the west and the southwest and he is familiar with all that goes to make up a frontier existence, for in pioneer days in Kansas he contributed to the early development and progress of the locality in which he lived. He is now concentrating his energies upon horticultural pursuits in the care and management of his farm here, and although his residence in Berrien county has not been con-

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

As printed in A twentieth century history of Berrien County, Michigan (1906). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.