Letter to the Family

To Sarah, Ann, Susan, John, Bill and Hilary:

This is my second Garland book. As you know I did my first one in 1989, in loose leaf form, with many photocopied pictures. Since then, I have done two more books on the Chandler and Otis families, spiral bound and using the velox process for copying photographs, which have resulted in far better reproductions and a more professional result. Thanks to help from Uncle Guil and from John, I have also learned how to put everything together better on the computer. There will be many accounts that have not changed, since the story is the same, but there is more history and more genealogical detail. I hope you enjoy the improved version. It has been exciting to put it together.

The first section of the book consists of accounts and pictures of the lives of your grandfather, John Jewett Garland, his parents, William May Garland and Blanche Hinman Garland, his grandparents, Jonathan May Garland, and Rebecca Jewett Garland, Marshall Littlefield Hinman, and Amanda Josephine Miller Hinman, and his great-grandparents, Jonathan Garland and Olive Johnson Garland, Moses Jewett and Mary Heagan Jewett, Simeon Benjamin Hinman and Keziah Bullis Hinman, Ezra Miller and Amanda Josephine Miller.

The second section which begins on page 119, deals with the families of the eight great-grandparents: the Garlands, Johnsons, Jewetts, Heagans, Hinmans, Bullises and Millers. By unfolding the Garland and Hinman family charts on the last pages of the book, you can follow the family lines.

As I said in November 1989:

It has often been said that in the United States, those people who had vision and determination were the ones who made the often difficult and even dangerous moves to the west. Those lacking these qualities stayed home. The spirit of adventure and daring can certainly be seen in those who journeyed to California in the last century. However, it was seen even earlier in the story of Samuel Garland riding his horse for sixteen hours straight through the Maine woods in 1792 to start a new life far from his family and friends in Hampton, New Hampshire. It is also seen in the account of Ezra Miller moving to Janesville, Wisconsin where he lived in a log cabin and surveyed government lands for several years.

It is interesting to note that you are the only descendants of William May Garland and Blanche Hinman Garland, Jonathan May Garland and Rebecca Jewett Garland, and Marshall Littlefield Hinman and Amanda Josephine Miller Hinman. In other words, you have no second or third cousins on this side of your family. Luckily you have lots on every side of your family tree.

I hope that you enjoy learning about your Garland heritage.