Anthony Garnett, Patriot

In October 2013, I took my mother on a 3300-mile road trip from her home in northern Minnesota through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. One of the highlights of our trip was going to the Garnett Farm in Adair County, Kentucky and meeting more cousins.

During our visit Wanda Beard remarked that with my love of family history and my lineal descent from Anthony Garnett, I really should join the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). After I returned my mother to her home in the north woods, I began the DAR application process.

The last woman in my branch of the family to join the DAR through our ancestor Anthony Garnett was Fannie (Sarah Frances Garnett) Scruggs in 1944. She was the daughter of Judge James Garnett of Adair County, Kentucky. Her brother, James Garnett II was the Kentucky Attorney General 1911-1915 as well as the author/publisher of a small pamphlet entitled Judge James Garnett 1834-1905 His Ancestors and Descendants. Using Mrs. Scruggs’ previously-accepted application as a starting point, I thought that my DAR application process would be smooth sailing.

However, on April 28, 2014 I received a letter from the head of the DAR Genealogy Department informing me that they were unable to complete the verification process for my membership. Shocked and disappointed, I found that
1)  I needed to bring all of the generational proofs up to current DAR standards,
2)  the patriot Private Anthony Garnett (of Daniel Morgan’s Rifle Company) used by Mrs. Scruggs was not actually our ancestor and
3)  the ancestral line from Robert/Robin Garnett through his son Oliver would be closed to future DAR applicants pending documented proof of Oliver’s residence and his wife’s first name.
What was supposed to be an easy trek was looking more like an uphill challenge.

How difficult could it be to bring all of the proofs up to current standards? So, back to Kentucky I traveled in July of 2014. For two weeks, I read files at local libraries, poured over volumes at county courthouses, scrolled through films at the state historical society, accepted rides from strangers to cross farm fields, tramped through overgrown cemeteries, and asked questions of everyone that I met.

I found proofs for everything except the marriage of Oliver Garnett. James Garnett wrote in his 1934 pamphlet that his grandmother’s name was Sarah Weatherall. Robert/Robin Garnett’s will specifically mentions “daughter-in-law Frances, wife of Oliver.” Clearly, the DAR genealogy department believed that Frances and Sarah were two different women and I needed to prove that Oliver Garnett was the husband of one of them.

Fast forward five months to the week before Christmas. I received an interlibrary loan notice that my requested book was ready for pick-up. What book did I order? “In the Shadow of Ragged Mountain” details historical archaeology in Shenandoah National Park. This was not typical leisure-time reading for me. Honestly, I did not remember ordering the book.

Before I walked out of the library with this mystery book, I flipped to the index. There, I discovered listings for George Weatherall, his daughter Frances and her husband Oliver Garnett. In 1816, Frances and her three sisters sold land they inherited from their father; this parcel is now a part of Shenandoah National Park. That Madison County, Virginia property sale and the accompanying Power of Attorney paperwork initiated in Adair County, Kentucky were the proofs that I had been chasing after.

My ancestor Anthony Garnett of Culpeper County, Virginia provided one gun and 876 pounds of beef for the Virginia Militia and thereby qualified as a revolutionary war patriot in the eyes of the DAR. Much time and many, many miles had passed from the time we first visited my cousins in Adair County KY to when my and my mother’s DAR applications were accepted.

This article was previously published by the Willis, Gordon Garnett and Allied Families’ Association in the Willis Gordon Garnett Reunion Journal and Addendum, Vol 1, No 27, August 11, 2018.

SOURCES

Abercrombie, Janice L. and Slatten, Richard, comp. Virginia Revolutionary “Publick” Claims. 3 vols. Athens, GA: Iberian Pub. Co., 1992. Vol 1, pp 271, 278.

Garnett, James. Judge James Garnett 1834-1905 His Ancestors and Descendants. Louisville KY: self-published, 1934.

Horning, Audrey. In the Shadow of Ragged Mountain, Historical Archaeology of Nicholson, Corbin and Weakley Hollows. Luray VA: Shenandoah National Park Assn, 2004.

Weatherall Sisters and Their Husbands Selling Property Inherited from Their Father. Madison County VA Deed Book 6, page 54-57, 1816

Will of Robert Garnett. Cumberland County KY Will Book C, pages 9-10.