MILES MILTON GARRETT 1872 - 1954
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Miles Milton Garrett was born near Kennedale, Tarrant Co., Texas, about a month after his parents, William Holden and Martha Whitlow Garrett arrived from McLemore's Cove, Walker County, Georgia to the frontier of Texas in October, 1872, along with other family members who wished to escape the oppression of Reconstruction in the Post-Civil War era. His first name was given for his maternal grandfather, Miles Washington Whitlow (1812-1885.) Milton came from the Garrett side, his paternal grandfather being Milton James Garrett.
Miles moved to the Pacific Northwest during the Gold Rush in the North Cascade Mountains. He is mentioned as a trapper in a historical document of the North Cascades National Park:
"A number of individuals trapped on the west side of the Cascades, along tributaries of the Skagit River. John McMillan, a miner who settled on Big Beaver Creek, was one of the first to run trap lines in the winter along that drainage and along the Skagit River in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. McMillan built a log cabin on Little Beaver Creek between today's Perry and Stillwell hiker camps. After McMillan died in 1922, friends continued to live on his ranch.
One was Miles Garrett, who attempted to box-trap marten there for two to three years; his venture proved unsuccessful. Frank Oakes was a homesteader along Bacon Creek who trapped for a living up that drainage. He too had a trapping cabin which was built farther up Bacon Creek. Other individuals known to be seasonal trappers in the early days included Jack Durand, who trapped Thunder Creek and the Cascade River; Gilbert Landre; Isaac La Rush, who trapped Thunder Creek extensively for several winters; and Milt Hickerson."
"The McMillan homestead on Big Beaver Creek, known as the McMillan Ranch, was located on the west side of the Skagit River, southwest of the creek. McMillan erected a cabin in a wooded area with a small natural meadow nearby. In this clearing McMillan raised hay for his three pack horses. At various times Frank and Glee Davis came to McMillan's specifically to purchase hay for use at their roadhouse at Cedar Bar, baling it by hand before packing it down on horses. McMillan also built a barn and root cellar and had a garden nearby. In an 1899 report on the Washington Forest Reserve, H.B. Ayres observed that McMillan's ranch was one of the most improved claims on the entire reserve. A later map depicts "McMillans Ranch"' as a complex of four or five structures, one marked "house," and a corral or fenced-in area (perhaps the pasture). For a time, McMillan was known to exchange homesteads periodically with fellow settler Tommy Rowland, who lived across the Skagit River to the east. Rowland had a fairly large hay field located along the river and McMillan often used this hay for his horses and roadhouse operation.
In his later years McMillan and his wife spent their winters in Marblemount, returning to the Big Beaver ranch each summer. When he died on July 29, 1922, he was on his ranch. Several friends gathered, including Ranger Thompson and fellow miner George Holmes. McMillan was buried two days later, near his cabin.
Three years after John's death, in 1925, Mrs. McMillan attempted to acquire homestead rights to the ranch, but the USFS rejected her application. The settlement case was closed and the old homestead was used as a guard station by USFS trail crews and packers for many years. Even into the 1930s a former USFS employee recalls picking McMillan's rhubarb which had grown wild. While the USFS utilized the ranch to a degree, several of McMillan's former acquaintances also resided there intermittently, including his partner Miles Garrett (who later married John's widow), miner George Holmes, and Bert Ferguson, a railroad conductor-turned-trapper who came to the upper Skagit ca. 1904 and settled farther up Big Beaver."
M.M. Garrett married Emma McMillan on 23 Sept 1929, in Skagit Co., WA (License # 8950.) Miles and Emma lived out their lives at Big Beaver. Emma died about 1939 and is buried next to her first husband, and Miles Garrett's lifelong friend, John H. McMillan. Miles Milton Garrett returned to Webb City, Tarrant Co., Texas briefly during the early 1940's but moved back to his beloved North Cascades Mountains before 1950. He died in Bellingham, Washington in 1954. His remains were transported back to the McMillan Ranch where he is buried in an unmarked grave near his wife Emma and former partner, John McMillan.
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Letter from Garrett relatives: Mary Ann (Hall) Whitlow, 1st wife of John Gholston Whitlow to Rev. Thomas Wm & Allie (Whitlow) Powell, Clinch Co., GA. Allie was sister of J.G. Whitlow and Martha Whitlow Garrett. "Billy" is Wm H. Garrett, husband of Martha. The "new baby" referred to is Miles Milton Garrett, the subject of this memorial:
"Kennedale, Tex.
December the 15th, 1872
Dear Brother & Sister,
As today is racing by, I thought I will answer your most welcome letter. You must excuse me & John for not writing to you sooner. You know, Biney, it is nice that people write and it is good to hear from all of our people but it has got to be a task, you know, to keep in touch with everyone. Well, Matt & Billy live in a half a mile of us. They have a new baby. John calls their baby Toby. It is a mighty good child. Biney, I wish you and Mr. Powell would come & see us. We have bought land and have a nice farm. John is going to build next summer. We have tolerable good houses for Texas. Billy & Matt seem mighty well pleased with this western country. I feel we are settled for life. We are doing well & you know we ought to let well enough alone. I doubt I know when I will go back home on a visit. Oh! Biney, I expect things have changed a great deal since I left. Biney, it seems like it would be more than I could bare to go back home & not meet my Dear Sister but I have one bright hope laid up & that is to meet in Heaven, where parting is no more. We have good society here with preaching every Sabbath. We have good schools here, too. Texas is good country. I think I would not leave here to be no where else to live. I have good health, that makes me so well pleased. I reckon you know where a person has health, Biney, they expect to be satisfied. You would not know me now. I am fleshy & red cheeked as a girl. Nobody but me and John, only a young man we have living with us. His name is Lotspeak. He had a brother living in the Cove. William & Sue is all well. Sue has a fine girl. She called it after me! She claims two hundred dollars off of me for the name sake. Sally Mean married a widower man with seven children. Biney, today is mighty cold & sleeting, so you will have to over look my badly composed & written letter. I wish, Biney, you and Mr. Powell would come and take Christmas with us. I will slay the fatted calf! Billy was here this morning, says he would love to hear you laugh! I would also! Love and respect to you & Mr. Powell. Let us hear from you soon & often.
Your Sister,
Mary A. Whitlow
John will write before long."
NOTE TO READER: Mary A. Whitlow was nee' Mary Ann Hall, dau. of Rev. Carswell Hall of TN and Walker Co., GA. The Cove is McLemore's Cove, Walker Co., GA. Biney is Albina Tabitha Whitlow Powell, sister of John Gholston Whitlow. She is FAG # 100791420. She is variously referred to as: Biney, Allie and Mary in correspondence among friends and family. Mr. Powell is her husband, Rev. Thomas Wm Powell (FAG # 96147953). Billy & Matt are William H. & Martha (Whitlow) Garrett, who moved to Kennedale, Tarrant Co. TX about the same time as John & Mary Ann Whitlow. Martha (Matt) is John Gholston Whitlow's sister. William & Sue are William A. & Susan (Mann) Williamson. Wm is the brother of Sanford Glenn Williamson, of Cherokee Co., AL, who mar. Nancy Jane Whitlow, sister of John G. Whitlow & Martha Whitlow Garrett.
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Los Angeles Herald, Volume 25, Number 168, 17 March 1898
An Insane Partner
NEW WHATCOM, Wash., March 16. — Word has reached here that John McMillan, the well-known placer miner of Ruby Creek, Whatcom county, has lost all his savings in his cabin on Ruby Creek through the insanity of a man named Tom Perry, whom he left in charge of the camp while he went to Mount Vernon for supplies. McMillan's savings aggregated $1,150 and were in the form of greenbacks and bank notes. After McMillan left the camp Perry became imbued with an insane spirit of destruction, and in hunting up the treasure, burned the whole stake.
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1920 Hunting magazine letter to editor:
John McMillan, an old and experienced hunter and trapper of the Upper Skagit, has during my 8 years acquaintance with him, been a strong advocate of large calibre rifles, and until a year ago always used a 45-90. I have been using a 40-65 for the past 5 years, and 2 years ago, while hunting goats with " Mac," I had many arguments with him as to the relative merits of our guns. He could not believe the 45-90 was not the proper # gun for big game.
Imagine my surprise, when on visiting him last month, I found he had discarded his old gun for a 30-40 Winchester. He has been doing some wonderful execution with it, on big game, and praises it more highly than he did the 45-90. I believe it is the best gun for big game, that is, with the soft nose bullet, and I shall discard my 40- 65 for one. My only objection to the '95 model is the hard trigger pull, and I have written to the Winchester people to find if that can be regulated.
I greatly admire the stand you have taken against the game and fish hogs, and hope your magazine will be the means of reducing the slaughter of game and fish, throughout this country.
J. S. Stangroom, New Whatcom, Wash.
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World War I registration, Skagit Co., Washington:
Name: Miles Milton Garrett
Born: November 12th, 1872, Tarrant Co., Texas
Lives: Marblemount, Washington
Nearest Relative: W.H. Garrett, Kennedale, Texas
Description: Short height, medium build, blue eyes, dark hair.
Date: September 12, 1918
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1920 Census, Skagit Co., Washington:
Township 38 North, Range 14 East:
McMillan, John H. age 65, born Canada, Trapper of Wild Furs
McMillan, Emma, age 54, born Penns., Landlady, Road House
Garrett, Miles M., age 47, born Georgia, Placer Miner
Township 37 North, Range 15 East:
Holmes, George, age 60, born Georgia, Trapper of Wild Furs
Note: George Holmes was born a slave in Georgia and immigrated to the North Cascades when a young man. He was a hard rock miner and fur trapper, along with his partners John McMillan and Miles Garrett. National Park Service records contain a touching story of how when George Holmes was on his death bed, his friends, to include Miles Garrett, carried him out of the Cascade Mountains into Marblemount, a distance of over twenty miles, on a handmade litter to receive medical attention.
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Miles Milton Garrett was born near Kennedale, Tarrant Co., Texas, about a month after his parents, William Holden and Martha Whitlow Garrett arrived from McLemore's Cove, Walker County, Georgia to the frontier of Texas in October, 1872, along with other family members who wished to escape the oppression of Reconstruction in the Post-Civil War era. His first name was given for his maternal grandfather, Miles Washington Whitlow (1812-1885.) Milton came from the Garrett side, his paternal grandfather being Milton James Garrett.
Miles moved to the Pacific Northwest during the Gold Rush in the North Cascade Mountains. He is mentioned as a trapper in a historical document of the North Cascades National Park:
"A number of individuals trapped on the west side of the Cascades, along tributaries of the Skagit River. John McMillan, a miner who settled on Big Beaver Creek, was one of the first to run trap lines in the winter along that drainage and along the Skagit River in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. McMillan built a log cabin on Little Beaver Creek between today's Perry and Stillwell hiker camps. After McMillan died in 1922, friends continued to live on his ranch.
One was Miles Garrett, who attempted to box-trap marten there for two to three years; his venture proved unsuccessful. Frank Oakes was a homesteader along Bacon Creek who trapped for a living up that drainage. He too had a trapping cabin which was built farther up Bacon Creek. Other individuals known to be seasonal trappers in the early days included Jack Durand, who trapped Thunder Creek and the Cascade River; Gilbert Landre; Isaac La Rush, who trapped Thunder Creek extensively for several winters; and Milt Hickerson."
"The McMillan homestead on Big Beaver Creek, known as the McMillan Ranch, was located on the west side of the Skagit River, southwest of the creek. McMillan erected a cabin in a wooded area with a small natural meadow nearby. In this clearing McMillan raised hay for his three pack horses. At various times Frank and Glee Davis came to McMillan's specifically to purchase hay for use at their roadhouse at Cedar Bar, baling it by hand before packing it down on horses. McMillan also built a barn and root cellar and had a garden nearby. In an 1899 report on the Washington Forest Reserve, H.B. Ayres observed that McMillan's ranch was one of the most improved claims on the entire reserve. A later map depicts "McMillans Ranch"' as a complex of four or five structures, one marked "house," and a corral or fenced-in area (perhaps the pasture). For a time, McMillan was known to exchange homesteads periodically with fellow settler Tommy Rowland, who lived across the Skagit River to the east. Rowland had a fairly large hay field located along the river and McMillan often used this hay for his horses and roadhouse operation.
In his later years McMillan and his wife spent their winters in Marblemount, returning to the Big Beaver ranch each summer. When he died on July 29, 1922, he was on his ranch. Several friends gathered, including Ranger Thompson and fellow miner George Holmes. McMillan was buried two days later, near his cabin.
Three years after John's death, in 1925, Mrs. McMillan attempted to acquire homestead rights to the ranch, but the USFS rejected her application. The settlement case was closed and the old homestead was used as a guard station by USFS trail crews and packers for many years. Even into the 1930s a former USFS employee recalls picking McMillan's rhubarb which had grown wild. While the USFS utilized the ranch to a degree, several of McMillan's former acquaintances also resided there intermittently, including his partner Miles Garrett (who later married John's widow), miner George Holmes, and Bert Ferguson, a railroad conductor-turned-trapper who came to the upper Skagit ca. 1904 and settled farther up Big Beaver."
M.M. Garrett married Emma McMillan on 23 Sept 1929, in Skagit Co., WA (License # 8950.) Miles and Emma lived out their lives at Big Beaver. Emma died about 1939 and is buried next to her first husband, and Miles Garrett's lifelong friend, John H. McMillan. Miles Milton Garrett returned to Webb City, Tarrant Co., Texas briefly during the early 1940's but moved back to his beloved North Cascades Mountains before 1950. He died in Bellingham, Washington in 1954. His remains were transported back to the McMillan Ranch where he is buried in an unmarked grave near his wife Emma and former partner, John McMillan.
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Letter from Garrett relatives: Mary Ann (Hall) Whitlow, 1st wife of John Gholston Whitlow to Rev. Thomas Wm & Allie (Whitlow) Powell, Clinch Co., GA. Allie was sister of J.G. Whitlow and Martha Whitlow Garrett. "Billy" is Wm H. Garrett, husband of Martha. The "new baby" referred to is Miles Milton Garrett, the subject of this memorial:
"Kennedale, Tex.
December the 15th, 1872
Dear Brother & Sister,
As today is racing by, I thought I will answer your most welcome letter. You must excuse me & John for not writing to you sooner. You know, Biney, it is nice that people write and it is good to hear from all of our people but it has got to be a task, you know, to keep in touch with everyone. Well, Matt & Billy live in a half a mile of us. They have a new baby. John calls their baby Toby. It is a mighty good child. Biney, I wish you and Mr. Powell would come & see us. We have bought land and have a nice farm. John is going to build next summer. We have tolerable good houses for Texas. Billy & Matt seem mighty well pleased with this western country. I feel we are settled for life. We are doing well & you know we ought to let well enough alone. I doubt I know when I will go back home on a visit. Oh! Biney, I expect things have changed a great deal since I left. Biney, it seems like it would be more than I could bare to go back home & not meet my Dear Sister but I have one bright hope laid up & that is to meet in Heaven, where parting is no more. We have good society here with preaching every Sabbath. We have good schools here, too. Texas is good country. I think I would not leave here to be no where else to live. I have good health, that makes me so well pleased. I reckon you know where a person has health, Biney, they expect to be satisfied. You would not know me now. I am fleshy & red cheeked as a girl. Nobody but me and John, only a young man we have living with us. His name is Lotspeak. He had a brother living in the Cove. William & Sue is all well. Sue has a fine girl. She called it after me! She claims two hundred dollars off of me for the name sake. Sally Mean married a widower man with seven children. Biney, today is mighty cold & sleeting, so you will have to over look my badly composed & written letter. I wish, Biney, you and Mr. Powell would come and take Christmas with us. I will slay the fatted calf! Billy was here this morning, says he would love to hear you laugh! I would also! Love and respect to you & Mr. Powell. Let us hear from you soon & often.
Your Sister,
Mary A. Whitlow
John will write before long."
NOTE TO READER: Mary A. Whitlow was nee' Mary Ann Hall, dau. of Rev. Carswell Hall of TN and Walker Co., GA. The Cove is McLemore's Cove, Walker Co., GA. Biney is Albina Tabitha Whitlow Powell, sister of John Gholston Whitlow. She is FAG # 100791420. She is variously referred to as: Biney, Allie and Mary in correspondence among friends and family. Mr. Powell is her husband, Rev. Thomas Wm Powell (FAG # 96147953). Billy & Matt are William H. & Martha (Whitlow) Garrett, who moved to Kennedale, Tarrant Co. TX about the same time as John & Mary Ann Whitlow. Martha (Matt) is John Gholston Whitlow's sister. William & Sue are William A. & Susan (Mann) Williamson. Wm is the brother of Sanford Glenn Williamson, of Cherokee Co., AL, who mar. Nancy Jane Whitlow, sister of John G. Whitlow & Martha Whitlow Garrett.
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Los Angeles Herald, Volume 25, Number 168, 17 March 1898
An Insane Partner
NEW WHATCOM, Wash., March 16. — Word has reached here that John McMillan, the well-known placer miner of Ruby Creek, Whatcom county, has lost all his savings in his cabin on Ruby Creek through the insanity of a man named Tom Perry, whom he left in charge of the camp while he went to Mount Vernon for supplies. McMillan's savings aggregated $1,150 and were in the form of greenbacks and bank notes. After McMillan left the camp Perry became imbued with an insane spirit of destruction, and in hunting up the treasure, burned the whole stake.
___________________________________________________________
1920 Hunting magazine letter to editor:
John McMillan, an old and experienced hunter and trapper of the Upper Skagit, has during my 8 years acquaintance with him, been a strong advocate of large calibre rifles, and until a year ago always used a 45-90. I have been using a 40-65 for the past 5 years, and 2 years ago, while hunting goats with " Mac," I had many arguments with him as to the relative merits of our guns. He could not believe the 45-90 was not the proper # gun for big game.
Imagine my surprise, when on visiting him last month, I found he had discarded his old gun for a 30-40 Winchester. He has been doing some wonderful execution with it, on big game, and praises it more highly than he did the 45-90. I believe it is the best gun for big game, that is, with the soft nose bullet, and I shall discard my 40- 65 for one. My only objection to the '95 model is the hard trigger pull, and I have written to the Winchester people to find if that can be regulated.
I greatly admire the stand you have taken against the game and fish hogs, and hope your magazine will be the means of reducing the slaughter of game and fish, throughout this country.
J. S. Stangroom, New Whatcom, Wash.
___________________________________________________________
World War I registration, Skagit Co., Washington:
Name: Miles Milton Garrett
Born: November 12th, 1872, Tarrant Co., Texas
Lives: Marblemount, Washington
Nearest Relative: W.H. Garrett, Kennedale, Texas
Description: Short height, medium build, blue eyes, dark hair.
Date: September 12, 1918
____________________________________________________________
1920 Census, Skagit Co., Washington:
Township 38 North, Range 14 East:
McMillan, John H. age 65, born Canada, Trapper of Wild Furs
McMillan, Emma, age 54, born Penns., Landlady, Road House
Garrett, Miles M., age 47, born Georgia, Placer Miner
Township 37 North, Range 15 East:
Holmes, George, age 60, born Georgia, Trapper of Wild Furs
Note: George Holmes was born a slave in Georgia and immigrated to the North Cascades when a young man. He was a hard rock miner and fur trapper, along with his partners John McMillan and Miles Garrett. National Park Service records contain a touching story of how when George Holmes was on his death bed, his friends, to include Miles Garrett, carried him out of the Cascade Mountains into Marblemount, a distance of over twenty miles, on a handmade litter to receive medical attention.
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MILES MILTON GARRETT 1872 - 1954
___________________________________________________________
Miles Milton Garrett was born near Kennedale, Tarrant Co., Texas, about a month after his parents, William Holden and Martha Whitlow Garrett arrived from McLemore's Cove, Walker County, Georgia to the frontier of Texas in October, 1872, along with other family members who wished to escape the oppression of Reconstruction in the Post-Civil War era. His first name was given for his maternal grandfather, Miles Washington Whitlow (1812-1885.) Milton came from the Garrett side, his paternal grandfather being Milton James Garrett.
Miles moved to the Pacific Northwest during the Gold Rush in the North Cascade Mountains. He is mentioned as a trapper in a historical document of the North Cascades National Park:
"A number of individuals trapped on the west side of the Cascades, along tributaries of the Skagit River. John McMillan, a miner who settled on Big Beaver Creek, was one of the first to run trap lines in the winter along that drainage and along the Skagit River in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. McMillan built a log cabin on Little Beaver Creek between today's Perry and Stillwell hiker camps. After McMillan died in 1922, friends continued to live on his ranch.
One was Miles Garrett, who attempted to box-trap marten there for two to three years; his venture proved unsuccessful. Frank Oakes was a homesteader along Bacon Creek who trapped for a living up that drainage. He too had a trapping cabin which was built farther up Bacon Creek. Other individuals known to be seasonal trappers in the early days included Jack Durand, who trapped Thunder Creek and the Cascade River; Gilbert Landre; Isaac La Rush, who trapped Thunder Creek extensively for several winters; and Milt Hickerson."
"The McMillan homestead on Big Beaver Creek, known as the McMillan Ranch, was located on the west side of the Skagit River, southwest of the creek. McMillan erected a cabin in a wooded area with a small natural meadow nearby. In this clearing McMillan raised hay for his three pack horses. At various times Frank and Glee Davis came to McMillan's specifically to purchase hay for use at their roadhouse at Cedar Bar, baling it by hand before packing it down on horses. McMillan also built a barn and root cellar and had a garden nearby. In an 1899 report on the Washington Forest Reserve, H.B. Ayres observed that McMillan's ranch was one of the most improved claims on the entire reserve. A later map depicts "McMillans Ranch"' as a complex of four or five structures, one marked "house," and a corral or fenced-in area (perhaps the pasture). For a time, McMillan was known to exchange homesteads periodically with fellow settler Tommy Rowland, who lived across the Skagit River to the east. Rowland had a fairly large hay field located along the river and McMillan often used this hay for his horses and roadhouse operation.
In his later years McMillan and his wife spent their winters in Marblemount, returning to the Big Beaver ranch each summer. When he died on July 29, 1922, he was on his ranch. Several friends gathered, including Ranger Thompson and fellow miner George Holmes. McMillan was buried two days later, near his cabin.
Three years after John's death, in 1925, Mrs. McMillan attempted to acquire homestead rights to the ranch, but the USFS rejected her application. The settlement case was closed and the old homestead was used as a guard station by USFS trail crews and packers for many years. Even into the 1930s a former USFS employee recalls picking McMillan's rhubarb which had grown wild. While the USFS utilized the ranch to a degree, several of McMillan's former acquaintances also resided there intermittently, including his partner Miles Garrett (who later married John's widow), miner George Holmes, and Bert Ferguson, a railroad conductor-turned-trapper who came to the upper Skagit ca. 1904 and settled farther up Big Beaver."
M.M. Garrett married Emma McMillan on 23 Sept 1929, in Skagit Co., WA (License # 8950.) Miles and Emma lived out their lives at Big Beaver. Emma died about 1939 and is buried next to her first husband, and Miles Garrett's lifelong friend, John H. McMillan. Miles Milton Garrett returned to Webb City, Tarrant Co., Texas briefly during the early 1940's but moved back to his beloved North Cascades Mountains before 1950. He died in Bellingham, Washington in 1954. His remains were transported back to the McMillan Ranch where he is buried in an unmarked grave near his wife Emma and former partner, John McMillan.
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Letter from Garrett relatives: Mary Ann (Hall) Whitlow, 1st wife of John Gholston Whitlow to Rev. Thomas Wm & Allie (Whitlow) Powell, Clinch Co., GA. Allie was sister of J.G. Whitlow and Martha Whitlow Garrett. "Billy" is Wm H. Garrett, husband of Martha. The "new baby" referred to is Miles Milton Garrett, the subject of this memorial:
"Kennedale, Tex.
December the 15th, 1872
Dear Brother & Sister,
As today is racing by, I thought I will answer your most welcome letter. You must excuse me & John for not writing to you sooner. You know, Biney, it is nice that people write and it is good to hear from all of our people but it has got to be a task, you know, to keep in touch with everyone. Well, Matt & Billy live in a half a mile of us. They have a new baby. John calls their baby Toby. It is a mighty good child. Biney, I wish you and Mr. Powell would come & see us. We have bought land and have a nice farm. John is going to build next summer. We have tolerable good houses for Texas. Billy & Matt seem mighty well pleased with this western country. I feel we are settled for life. We are doing well & you know we ought to let well enough alone. I doubt I know when I will go back home on a visit. Oh! Biney, I expect things have changed a great deal since I left. Biney, it seems like it would be more than I could bare to go back home & not meet my Dear Sister but I have one bright hope laid up & that is to meet in Heaven, where parting is no more. We have good society here with preaching every Sabbath. We have good schools here, too. Texas is good country. I think I would not leave here to be no where else to live. I have good health, that makes me so well pleased. I reckon you know where a person has health, Biney, they expect to be satisfied. You would not know me now. I am fleshy & red cheeked as a girl. Nobody but me and John, only a young man we have living with us. His name is Lotspeak. He had a brother living in the Cove. William & Sue is all well. Sue has a fine girl. She called it after me! She claims two hundred dollars off of me for the name sake. Sally Mean married a widower man with seven children. Biney, today is mighty cold & sleeting, so you will have to over look my badly composed & written letter. I wish, Biney, you and Mr. Powell would come and take Christmas with us. I will slay the fatted calf! Billy was here this morning, says he would love to hear you laugh! I would also! Love and respect to you & Mr. Powell. Let us hear from you soon & often.
Your Sister,
Mary A. Whitlow
John will write before long."
NOTE TO READER: Mary A. Whitlow was nee' Mary Ann Hall, dau. of Rev. Carswell Hall of TN and Walker Co., GA. The Cove is McLemore's Cove, Walker Co., GA. Biney is Albina Tabitha Whitlow Powell, sister of John Gholston Whitlow. She is FAG # 100791420. She is variously referred to as: Biney, Allie and Mary in correspondence among friends and family. Mr. Powell is her husband, Rev. Thomas Wm Powell (FAG # 96147953). Billy & Matt are William H. & Martha (Whitlow) Garrett, who moved to Kennedale, Tarrant Co. TX about the same time as John & Mary Ann Whitlow. Martha (Matt) is John Gholston Whitlow's sister. William & Sue are William A. & Susan (Mann) Williamson. Wm is the brother of Sanford Glenn Williamson, of Cherokee Co., AL, who mar. Nancy Jane Whitlow, sister of John G. Whitlow & Martha Whitlow Garrett.
___________________________________________________________
Los Angeles Herald, Volume 25, Number 168, 17 March 1898
An Insane Partner
NEW WHATCOM, Wash., March 16. — Word has reached here that John McMillan, the well-known placer miner of Ruby Creek, Whatcom county, has lost all his savings in his cabin on Ruby Creek through the insanity of a man named Tom Perry, whom he left in charge of the camp while he went to Mount Vernon for supplies. McMillan's savings aggregated $1,150 and were in the form of greenbacks and bank notes. After McMillan left the camp Perry became imbued with an insane spirit of destruction, and in hunting up the treasure, burned the whole stake.
___________________________________________________________
1920 Hunting magazine letter to editor:
John McMillan, an old and experienced hunter and trapper of the Upper Skagit, has during my 8 years acquaintance with him, been a strong advocate of large calibre rifles, and until a year ago always used a 45-90. I have been using a 40-65 for the past 5 years, and 2 years ago, while hunting goats with " Mac," I had many arguments with him as to the relative merits of our guns. He could not believe the 45-90 was not the proper # gun for big game.
Imagine my surprise, when on visiting him last month, I found he had discarded his old gun for a 30-40 Winchester. He has been doing some wonderful execution with it, on big game, and praises it more highly than he did the 45-90. I believe it is the best gun for big game, that is, with the soft nose bullet, and I shall discard my 40- 65 for one. My only objection to the '95 model is the hard trigger pull, and I have written to the Winchester people to find if that can be regulated.
I greatly admire the stand you have taken against the game and fish hogs, and hope your magazine will be the means of reducing the slaughter of game and fish, throughout this country.
J. S. Stangroom, New Whatcom, Wash.
___________________________________________________________
World War I registration, Skagit Co., Washington:
Name: Miles Milton Garrett
Born: November 12th, 1872, Tarrant Co., Texas
Lives: Marblemount, Washington
Nearest Relative: W.H. Garrett, Kennedale, Texas
Description: Short height, medium build, blue eyes, dark hair.
Date: September 12, 1918
____________________________________________________________
1920 Census, Skagit Co., Washington:
Township 38 North, Range 14 East:
McMillan, John H. age 65, born Canada, Trapper of Wild Furs
McMillan, Emma, age 54, born Penns., Landlady, Road House
Garrett, Miles M., age 47, born Georgia, Placer Miner
Township 37 North, Range 15 East:
Holmes, George, age 60, born Georgia, Trapper of Wild Furs
Note: George Holmes was born a slave in Georgia and immigrated to the North Cascades when a young man. He was a hard rock miner and fur trapper, along with his partners John McMillan and Miles Garrett. National Park Service records contain a touching story of how when George Holmes was on his death bed, his friends, to include Miles Garrett, carried him out of the Cascade Mountains into Marblemount, a distance of over twenty miles, on a handmade litter to receive medical attention.
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Miles Milton Garrett was born near Kennedale, Tarrant Co., Texas, about a month after his parents, William Holden and Martha Whitlow Garrett arrived from McLemore's Cove, Walker County, Georgia to the frontier of Texas in October, 1872, along with other family members who wished to escape the oppression of Reconstruction in the Post-Civil War era. His first name was given for his maternal grandfather, Miles Washington Whitlow (1812-1885.) Milton came from the Garrett side, his paternal grandfather being Milton James Garrett.
Miles moved to the Pacific Northwest during the Gold Rush in the North Cascade Mountains. He is mentioned as a trapper in a historical document of the North Cascades National Park:
"A number of individuals trapped on the west side of the Cascades, along tributaries of the Skagit River. John McMillan, a miner who settled on Big Beaver Creek, was one of the first to run trap lines in the winter along that drainage and along the Skagit River in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. McMillan built a log cabin on Little Beaver Creek between today's Perry and Stillwell hiker camps. After McMillan died in 1922, friends continued to live on his ranch.
One was Miles Garrett, who attempted to box-trap marten there for two to three years; his venture proved unsuccessful. Frank Oakes was a homesteader along Bacon Creek who trapped for a living up that drainage. He too had a trapping cabin which was built farther up Bacon Creek. Other individuals known to be seasonal trappers in the early days included Jack Durand, who trapped Thunder Creek and the Cascade River; Gilbert Landre; Isaac La Rush, who trapped Thunder Creek extensively for several winters; and Milt Hickerson."
"The McMillan homestead on Big Beaver Creek, known as the McMillan Ranch, was located on the west side of the Skagit River, southwest of the creek. McMillan erected a cabin in a wooded area with a small natural meadow nearby. In this clearing McMillan raised hay for his three pack horses. At various times Frank and Glee Davis came to McMillan's specifically to purchase hay for use at their roadhouse at Cedar Bar, baling it by hand before packing it down on horses. McMillan also built a barn and root cellar and had a garden nearby. In an 1899 report on the Washington Forest Reserve, H.B. Ayres observed that McMillan's ranch was one of the most improved claims on the entire reserve. A later map depicts "McMillans Ranch"' as a complex of four or five structures, one marked "house," and a corral or fenced-in area (perhaps the pasture). For a time, McMillan was known to exchange homesteads periodically with fellow settler Tommy Rowland, who lived across the Skagit River to the east. Rowland had a fairly large hay field located along the river and McMillan often used this hay for his horses and roadhouse operation.
In his later years McMillan and his wife spent their winters in Marblemount, returning to the Big Beaver ranch each summer. When he died on July 29, 1922, he was on his ranch. Several friends gathered, including Ranger Thompson and fellow miner George Holmes. McMillan was buried two days later, near his cabin.
Three years after John's death, in 1925, Mrs. McMillan attempted to acquire homestead rights to the ranch, but the USFS rejected her application. The settlement case was closed and the old homestead was used as a guard station by USFS trail crews and packers for many years. Even into the 1930s a former USFS employee recalls picking McMillan's rhubarb which had grown wild. While the USFS utilized the ranch to a degree, several of McMillan's former acquaintances also resided there intermittently, including his partner Miles Garrett (who later married John's widow), miner George Holmes, and Bert Ferguson, a railroad conductor-turned-trapper who came to the upper Skagit ca. 1904 and settled farther up Big Beaver."
M.M. Garrett married Emma McMillan on 23 Sept 1929, in Skagit Co., WA (License # 8950.) Miles and Emma lived out their lives at Big Beaver. Emma died about 1939 and is buried next to her first husband, and Miles Garrett's lifelong friend, John H. McMillan. Miles Milton Garrett returned to Webb City, Tarrant Co., Texas briefly during the early 1940's but moved back to his beloved North Cascades Mountains before 1950. He died in Bellingham, Washington in 1954. His remains were transported back to the McMillan Ranch where he is buried in an unmarked grave near his wife Emma and former partner, John McMillan.
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Letter from Garrett relatives: Mary Ann (Hall) Whitlow, 1st wife of John Gholston Whitlow to Rev. Thomas Wm & Allie (Whitlow) Powell, Clinch Co., GA. Allie was sister of J.G. Whitlow and Martha Whitlow Garrett. "Billy" is Wm H. Garrett, husband of Martha. The "new baby" referred to is Miles Milton Garrett, the subject of this memorial:
"Kennedale, Tex.
December the 15th, 1872
Dear Brother & Sister,
As today is racing by, I thought I will answer your most welcome letter. You must excuse me & John for not writing to you sooner. You know, Biney, it is nice that people write and it is good to hear from all of our people but it has got to be a task, you know, to keep in touch with everyone. Well, Matt & Billy live in a half a mile of us. They have a new baby. John calls their baby Toby. It is a mighty good child. Biney, I wish you and Mr. Powell would come & see us. We have bought land and have a nice farm. John is going to build next summer. We have tolerable good houses for Texas. Billy & Matt seem mighty well pleased with this western country. I feel we are settled for life. We are doing well & you know we ought to let well enough alone. I doubt I know when I will go back home on a visit. Oh! Biney, I expect things have changed a great deal since I left. Biney, it seems like it would be more than I could bare to go back home & not meet my Dear Sister but I have one bright hope laid up & that is to meet in Heaven, where parting is no more. We have good society here with preaching every Sabbath. We have good schools here, too. Texas is good country. I think I would not leave here to be no where else to live. I have good health, that makes me so well pleased. I reckon you know where a person has health, Biney, they expect to be satisfied. You would not know me now. I am fleshy & red cheeked as a girl. Nobody but me and John, only a young man we have living with us. His name is Lotspeak. He had a brother living in the Cove. William & Sue is all well. Sue has a fine girl. She called it after me! She claims two hundred dollars off of me for the name sake. Sally Mean married a widower man with seven children. Biney, today is mighty cold & sleeting, so you will have to over look my badly composed & written letter. I wish, Biney, you and Mr. Powell would come and take Christmas with us. I will slay the fatted calf! Billy was here this morning, says he would love to hear you laugh! I would also! Love and respect to you & Mr. Powell. Let us hear from you soon & often.
Your Sister,
Mary A. Whitlow
John will write before long."
NOTE TO READER: Mary A. Whitlow was nee' Mary Ann Hall, dau. of Rev. Carswell Hall of TN and Walker Co., GA. The Cove is McLemore's Cove, Walker Co., GA. Biney is Albina Tabitha Whitlow Powell, sister of John Gholston Whitlow. She is FAG # 100791420. She is variously referred to as: Biney, Allie and Mary in correspondence among friends and family. Mr. Powell is her husband, Rev. Thomas Wm Powell (FAG # 96147953). Billy & Matt are William H. & Martha (Whitlow) Garrett, who moved to Kennedale, Tarrant Co. TX about the same time as John & Mary Ann Whitlow. Martha (Matt) is John Gholston Whitlow's sister. William & Sue are William A. & Susan (Mann) Williamson. Wm is the brother of Sanford Glenn Williamson, of Cherokee Co., AL, who mar. Nancy Jane Whitlow, sister of John G. Whitlow & Martha Whitlow Garrett.
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Los Angeles Herald, Volume 25, Number 168, 17 March 1898
An Insane Partner
NEW WHATCOM, Wash., March 16. — Word has reached here that John McMillan, the well-known placer miner of Ruby Creek, Whatcom county, has lost all his savings in his cabin on Ruby Creek through the insanity of a man named Tom Perry, whom he left in charge of the camp while he went to Mount Vernon for supplies. McMillan's savings aggregated $1,150 and were in the form of greenbacks and bank notes. After McMillan left the camp Perry became imbued with an insane spirit of destruction, and in hunting up the treasure, burned the whole stake.
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1920 Hunting magazine letter to editor:
John McMillan, an old and experienced hunter and trapper of the Upper Skagit, has during my 8 years acquaintance with him, been a strong advocate of large calibre rifles, and until a year ago always used a 45-90. I have been using a 40-65 for the past 5 years, and 2 years ago, while hunting goats with " Mac," I had many arguments with him as to the relative merits of our guns. He could not believe the 45-90 was not the proper # gun for big game.
Imagine my surprise, when on visiting him last month, I found he had discarded his old gun for a 30-40 Winchester. He has been doing some wonderful execution with it, on big game, and praises it more highly than he did the 45-90. I believe it is the best gun for big game, that is, with the soft nose bullet, and I shall discard my 40- 65 for one. My only objection to the '95 model is the hard trigger pull, and I have written to the Winchester people to find if that can be regulated.
I greatly admire the stand you have taken against the game and fish hogs, and hope your magazine will be the means of reducing the slaughter of game and fish, throughout this country.
J. S. Stangroom, New Whatcom, Wash.
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World War I registration, Skagit Co., Washington:
Name: Miles Milton Garrett
Born: November 12th, 1872, Tarrant Co., Texas
Lives: Marblemount, Washington
Nearest Relative: W.H. Garrett, Kennedale, Texas
Description: Short height, medium build, blue eyes, dark hair.
Date: September 12, 1918
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1920 Census, Skagit Co., Washington:
Township 38 North, Range 14 East:
McMillan, John H. age 65, born Canada, Trapper of Wild Furs
McMillan, Emma, age 54, born Penns., Landlady, Road House
Garrett, Miles M., age 47, born Georgia, Placer Miner
Township 37 North, Range 15 East:
Holmes, George, age 60, born Georgia, Trapper of Wild Furs
Note: George Holmes was born a slave in Georgia and immigrated to the North Cascades when a young man. He was a hard rock miner and fur trapper, along with his partners John McMillan and Miles Garrett. National Park Service records contain a touching story of how when George Holmes was on his death bed, his friends, to include Miles Garrett, carried him out of the Cascade Mountains into Marblemount, a distance of over twenty miles, on a handmade litter to receive medical attention.
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