H. H. Hardesty's History of Tyler County, West Virginia
John W. Garrison is a native of the "Old Dominion State," born in Loudon county, Virginia, August 3, 1830. He came to Tyler county, in April, 1849, and has lived in this county since that date, following the avocations of an agricultural life, and making his home in Meade district. In the years of the civil war he was a soldier in Company H, 1st West Virginia Infantry, from October 25, 1861, until November 25, 1864, and he was engaged in the following battles: Winchester, Port Republic, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Fredericksburg, New market, Piedmont, Lynchburg, Martinsburg, Halltown, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, and he was on detached service in the engagement at Gettysburg in 1864. In Tyler county, February 22, 1860, John W. Garrison and Emeline Baker were united in marriage, and they have three living children, while death has taken one from them. These children were born: Margaret E., March 17, 1861; Sarah E., January 21, 1863, died June 8, 1863; William H., August 17, 1865; and John F., September 14, 1871. French and Eleanor (Ellis) Garrison were the parents of John W. and his wife was a daughter of Meshach and Sarah (Smith) Baker. Her mother died at Sistersville, this county, February 15, 1883, and her father died in this county, at Middlebourne, February 22, 1866. The father of Mr. Garrison died in Tyler county in March 1859, and his mother now makes her home in Marietta, Ohio. John W. Garrison's post office address is Wick, Tyler county, West Virginia.
Presidents, Soldiers, Statesmen by H. H. Hardesty, 1898; page 570.
John W. Garrison, son of French and Ellen (Ellis) Garrison, was born Aug. 3, '40, in Londoun, Co., Va., and came to Tyler Co., W.Va., in '49, where he was living at the breaking out of the Rebellion; he enlisted, Nov. 25, '61, in Co. H, 1st Regt. W.Va. I; he fought in twenty-five battles, many of them being prominent battles of the war,
and in numerous skirmishes. In March, '62, he went to hospital in Cumberland, Md., with typhoid fever, and was there about six months, going home on sick leave of sixty days, and reporting back to hospital. At the battle of Morefield he was captured by the rebels, held five
days, and escaped. At Piedmont, Va., May, 1864, he was wounded by gunshot in left leg, and the following August he received a severe gunshot wound in his left hip, near Middletown, Va. In March, '64, he had a thirty days' furlough with the veterans of this regiment, and was discharged in November of that year at Wheeling, W.Va. During one of his furloughs, Feb. 22, 1864, Mr. Garrison married Emeline Baker, in Tyler Co., W.Va., who passed away, leaving three children, - Margaret E. (Mrs. Eddy), William H., and John F. His present wife, Helen F. Williamson, to whom he was married in October, '83, had three children by her former soldier husband. Comrade Garrison had two brothers in W.Va. regiments. Both his grandfathers served in the War of 1812. He has been school trustee for many years, a minister in the Methodist church, and is now a farmer, owning a fine, large farm on Sugar Creek; he was a charter member of George Smith Post, No 37, G.A.R. of which he is Past Chaplain; he draws a pension, and his address is Wick, Tyler county, W.Va.
