After the recent post on the Garnerville Terminal and the comments of tearing it down, I figured it may be time for a history lesson on the family that the little town that I grew up in is named for. Having joined the navy in 1984 I became quite familiar with the question, “Where are you from”. And no I don’t know what its like to live in “The City” nor do I care to. The Garner children moved from Leicesteshire England to America after the British Empire started to decline. The era of raping and pillaging the rest of the world had become a thing of the past and the wars with Spain and France for world supremacy had brought a large debt to the empire. Taxing the colonies, to pay the debt, ended with the revolution and so England would pass the expense on to its citizens and business owners. America would quickly become the land of opportunity and the Garner family would come here to be part of it. The brand new country brought brand new possibilities and the Garner parents, James and Sarah, would also follow their children to America. Henry Garner would profit in his business ventures and in 1827 would build the beautiful 27 room mansion that sat at Railroad Ave and Route 9W. Henry is believed to be the first to settle in the area that would take his family name. Along with keeping the books for the family textile mill, he was credited with building the railroad, that Railroad Ave is probably named for. It brought goods from the textile mill and goods from the Pecks Rolling Mill, that was located where Hi-Tor Bowling Lanes now stand, to the river for transport to NYC. Henry would also build a boat dock, a boat yard and was involved along with Peck in brick manufacturing. Tragic incidents in Henry’s life, an armed robbery of his home where he had to jump from a second story window to summon help, the death of a child, and his wife leaving him caused Henry to sell his interests in the area and plan a move to the city where the family business was headquartered. Henry called his coachmen, to summon the carriage to bring him to the city, when he stepped back into the foyer of his mansion and shot himself. Henry would be one of the first to be buried at the new Mt Repose Cemetery in December of 1852, according to the Rockland Messenger, but I have never been able to find his grave. I believe he is buried in the area of his parents, James and Sarah Garner. On the reverse side of James and Sarah Garner’s grave is a note of their son Edward, that lost his life at the Massacre at Goliad, March 22nd 1836, during the Texas War for Independence. Edward was 22 years old. The note on the rear of the marker, I believe, indicates he is not buried there. Thomas Garner would make the family fortune with the purchasing of textile mills up and down the Hudson River. The business was started in 1832 with the purchase of the mill in Wappingers Falls. Thomas worked at the mill making textile and would later save enough to purchase it. He would follow with the purchase of the Garnerville mill in 1838 and in 1850 would purchase The Harmony Mill in Cohoes from Peter Harmony, the founder of the mill that was losing money in the business. Thomas would bring in the best managers and newest equipment from Europe and the mill would become the largest textile mill in the country. With the start of the civil war, it would become a million dollar business. During the civil war, Thomas would sit in on the Republican meetings with the biggest names in business, Astors, Vanderbilts, Carnegies and guest speaker Frederick Douglas, a freed slave would talk about the need for support of the war between the states. The Garner mills made uniforms for the northern soldiers and most likely the Rockland Print Works would make them “Bonnie Blue”. Thomas would pass away in 1867 and his son Thomas Jr, that was always a skinny sickly man, would pass in 1869. A statue of Thomas Garner still stands on the façade of The Harmony Mill that has been turned into condo units. The death of Thomas and Thomas Jr would put Garner & Co into the hands of William T Garner and in his short life, turned his fathers business from a million dollar business into a multi million dollar business and expand the Harmony Mill into the largest textile mill in the country. The town that was built on the hill above the mill in Cohoes, that was home to thousands of workers makes the few streets in Garnerville look miniscule in comparison. The Garner textiles would be the blue ribbon standard of the day winning awards at expositions and competitions. William’s life would become the “Great Gatsby” story of his time as he enjoyed the wealth of the industrial revolution and prosperity of the times only to have it all come to an abrupt end on a stormy day on Staten Island Bay. William was the Vice Commodore of New York Yacht Club and fought with Commodore Vanderbilt over his monopoly of the Staten Island Ferry Line. The turmoil with Vanderbilt turned violent when goons were sent to stop people, at the docks, from using Garners boats to bring them to the city. The police had to intervene and the issue was brought to court. On July 20th 1876, William and his wife Marcellite or Mary as she was known, had guests on their yacht “Mohawk” (probably named for the Mohawk falls that powered Harmony Mill). They were in process of setting sail for a day out on the Staten Island Bay when a freak gail swept across the bay. The topsails were set and the gail caused the yacht to keel over. The women onboard had went below to escape the rain and now were trapped by the shifting furniture. William was topside when the yacht had laid over on its side but went down below to try to save his wife. A cabin boy pulled the glove and then the wedding ring from her hand as he tried to free her. William and his wife would lose their lives that day on the Staten Island Bay at Kill Van Kull. The Garner Summer Residence on Staten Island where the Garners were waked, were the offices for St Vincents Hospital or Richmond University Medical Center as it is known today. The beautiful pre-civil war mansion which was the original St Vincents Hospital Staten Island was offered to President Ulysses S. Grant after his leaving the presidency but a bout with mosquitoes on the island made his wife decline the offer. William, Marcellite, and his parents Thomas and Frances are buried at Green-Wood Cemetery along with Caroline Garner-Johnson, that was married to Samuel W Johnson that the firehouse on Bridge St is named for. Caroline would die in child birth in 1864 and Samuel would remarry Mary Verplanck another prominent name in the Hudson Valley. Samuel would take the reigns of Garner & Co after the tragic death of William Garner, until his untimely death from a hunting accident on Long Island’s Great South Bay in 1881. Samuel and Mary Verplanck are buried in Fishkill Rural Cemetery in Fishkill NY, along with their family, including Samuels son Edwards Johnson that married Helen Sloat of Sloatsburg NY. William and Marcellites daughters would all marry European royalty, Marcellite Garner would marry Henri-Charles Le Tonnelier the Marquis de Breteuil of France in March of 1891, Florence Garner would marry Sir William Gordon-Cummings of Scotch royalty in June of 1891, and Edith Garner would marry Count Moltke Huitfeldt of Denmark in March of 1898. The full circle of Europe and back was complete. The company would be kept going in the interest of the heiresses but by 1910 Garner & Co was sold off and would be no more. Deering and Milliken would purchase the Garnerville Dye Works in 1909 and it would run it till the Great Depression would cause the terminal to be abandoned. It was bought by William Larkin of the Garnerville Ice Co that would become the Low Tor Ice Rink on Route 202. The Terminal as would become known would be a place for small businesses and in the 1970’s the dye house would no longer operate as it had for over 150 years. The Rockland Print Works, Haverstraw Prints Works, Garnerville Print works, Garnerville Holding Company or Garnerville Terminal is as big a part of Garnerville as anything we have left of Garner’sville as it was once known.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 16:50:59 +0000