Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana, 1903. pp. 420-421.

HENRY J. GARTON

One of the prominent farmers of Lancaster township, Wells County, Indiana, is Henry J. Garton, who was born in New Jersey, January 28, 1835, a son of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Souders) Garton, also natives of New Jersey and of Irish and Dutch descent. Jonathan and Elizabeth (Souders) Garton were married in New Jersey, and there made their home until 1837, when they removed to Franklin county, Indiana, and rented land for about five years, after which they came to Wells County, Indiana. He had come here the previous year and entered one hundred and sixty acres of government land in Lancaster township, from which he developed an excellent farm on which he and his wife died some years ago, in the Universalist faith. They were the parents of eight children, namely: Catherine, who died at the age of twelve years; Eliza, deceased wife of Lemuel Paynter; Louis, a resident of Lancaster township; Lydia, deceased wife of James Dailey; Oliver P., deceased; Andrew J., deceased; Henry J., to whose interests this sketch is principally devoted, and a daughter that died in infancy. Jonathan Garton, the father of the above named children, was judge of the common pleas court for four or five years, and also served for several years as county commissioner, and likewise for a long time as justice of the peace.

Henry J. Garton was but seven years of age when his parents settled in Lancaster township, Wells County. Here he attended school until twenty-one years of age and later supplemented the education thus acquired by study at home during the winters for some considerable time. At the age of nineteen he had begun to work for himself, and at the same time made an agreement with his father, under which there was fifty dollars a year to be turned over to that gentleman as long as this agreement remained mutually satisfactory. Under such circumstances, Henry J. worked out at farm work by the day, or month, for three years or longer, and then rented the homestead, paying for its use and occupancy one-half the products annually. This arrangement held good until 1864, but in the meantime, in 1861, Henry J. had purchased eighty acres of the farm on which he now lives, but bought it on credit; yet he worked at clearing it up during the winter months, and in 1864 had earned sufficient means from his labors on his father's place to pay for his own property. In 1864, Henry J. Garton moved upon his own place, eight acres of which he had cleared off. He at once erected his present dwelling and put up a shanty for his horses and cattle and the same year he built his first frame barn; subsequently he put up another barn, and has since kept adding to his improvements until at the present time he has as neat and tidy a place as there is in Lancaster township. Of his own eighty-acre tract, secured by purchase, Mr. Garton has cleared seventy-five acres and has placed it under cultivation and thoroughly ditched it. He also owns eighty acres of the old home place, seventy acres of which have been cleared, and thus has a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, all in one compact body.

H. J. Garton was united in marriage January 5, 1860, with Miss Anna M. Trullender, who was born in Lancaster township, this county, October 2, 1842, and was a daughter of Hiram and Ruth Trullender, who came from New Jersey and settled here in an early day. Mrs. Anna M. Garton was a most amiable lady and a true helpmate to her husband, but was called hence July 31, 1878, having borne her husband six children: Marion, Ida, Adella, Robert, Lucinda and Frank. Of these children Marion married Nancy Wilkins, who has borne him five children; Chloe, Emma, Hiram, Hazel and Fay. The father of these children, Marion Garton, lives on and cultivates the southern eighty acres of the old homestead. Ida, the second child, Della, the third child, and Robert, the fourth child of Henry J. Garton and wife, as mentioned above, are all deceased; Lucinda, the fifth child, is the wife of Harvey Diehl, of Marion, Indiana; Frank, the sixth child, is married to Margaret Wasson, who has borne him three children: Haldie, Harry and Donald, and all make their home on the old home place.

H. J. Garton is a Universalist in religion and in politics he is a Democrat. Socially he stands very high in the community, as he descends from one of the oldest families in the county, and his own personal merits have won for him an esteem which is seldom accorded spontaneously to any citizen.