Submitted by: John Monk

Dr. James Marion Garrison

            Dr. James Marion Garrison aged 87, for the last 12 years a resident of LaPaz, Ind., and for many years a resident of this city, died at 9:45 o’clock Tuesday night in his LaPaz home.  His death was the result of a stroke of paralysis.  Dr. Garrison had been in poor health since about two years ago when he was injured in an automobile accident.

            Dr. Garrison, who was born in Penn Township Feb 3, 1847, spent most of his life here and was widely known as a veterinarian.  He was a veteran of the Civil War and a member of Auten post No. 8, Grand Army of the Republic, and the only veteran left in LaPaz.

            Surviving Dr. Garrison are three daughters and one son, Mrs. George Harper, of Elkhart, Ind.; Mrs. Arthur Fordham, of South Bend, Mrs. Roy McKnight, of St. John’s Ontario, and Frank Garrison, of Elkhart.  Mrs. Garrison died about a year ago in LaPaz.

            The body was brought to the A.M. Russell chapel here where it will lie until the funeral at 2 o’clock Friday afternoon in the chapel, Rev. Elmer Ward Cole, D.D., pastor of First Christian church will read the service and internment will be in Southlawn cemetery.

            Dr. Garrison was born in Penn Township, son of Lewis and Catharine (Meade) Garrison, the latter of French descent although her father was born in Vermont.  Mr. Garrison, the father, was a native of New York and was numbered among the early pioneers of St. Joseph county, but in 1849 he joined the tide of emigration to California and his death occurred during his residence in that state.  In their family were two sons, the elder being George A., a real estate dealer in Guthrie, Okla.

            Dr. Garrison on Oct. 17, 1861 enlisted in the civil war, becoming a member of company F, 48^th Indiana Volunteer Infantry.  He was only 15 years old when he enlisted and was one of the youngest soldiers to carry a knapsack.  He subsequently reenlisted in the same company and regiment and took part in many of the historic battles of the war, including Corinth and Malvern Hill, and was then transferred to Sherman’s army and went with him in the celebrated march to the sea.  He was never seriously wounded, although on one occasion he was hit by a piece of shell.

            After the war Dr. Garrison became a farmer but a short time afterward resumed his practice as a veterinary surgeon in Penn Township.  For two years he was in Warsaw, Ind., returning to Mishawaka and later he went to Marcellus, Mich.  In 1893 he came to South Bend where for 13 years he engaged in the practice of veterinary surgery.  In 1921 he moved to LaPaz.

            Obituary: South Bend Tribune, May 9, 1934  Section 2, p. 6