Garth Family

Thomas Garth (c. 1740-1812) was the first of the Garth family to settle in Albemarle County, Virginia in 1762. A contemporary of Thomas Jefferson, the two men shared several business connections. By the time Thomas Garth Sr. died in 1812, the Garth family had assembled a large amount of land and wealth within the county. They were active members of the local government, militia and wealthy land-owning class. The culture of the county had changed over the 18th century, moving from frontier settlement to an area of established agriculture, and the Garth’s changed with it.

Excerpt from Edgar Woods' 1901 publication Albemarle County in Virginia: Giving Some Account of what it was by Nature, of what it was Made by Man, and of Some of the Men who Made it.

Garth

The first of the Garth family in Albemarle was Thomas, who in 1762 bought from Samuel Taliaferro four hundred and fifty acres on the Indian branch of Buck Island Creek. In 1770 he purchased from John Lewis, of Halifax, nearly a thousand acres on Blue Run, not far from Barboursville. The next three or four years he was employed by Mr. Jefferson to buy the Lego estate from William and James Hickman, sons of Edwin Hickman, the second Sheriff of the county. In 1779 he bought another thousand acres of the Lewis estate on Ivy Creek, and continued his purchases in that section, till he owned all the land stretching from near the Staunton Road, opposite Jesse Lewis's place, to the forks of Mechum's and Moorman's Rivers. On this tract he resided until his death. He was appointed a magistrate in 1791, and served as Sheriff in 1807. He died in 1812. His wife, it is said, was Judith Long, and his children Thomas, John, Elijah, Jesse, Garland, Ann, the wife of Richard Gaines, whose daughter Margaret was the wife of George Crank, and mother of R. G. Crank, a representative of the county in the Legislature twenty years ago, Sarah, the wife of Samuel Poindexter, who removed to Bed ford County, Susan, the wife of Isaac Dalton, who emigrated to Stokes County, North Carolina, and Mildred, the wife of John Fretwell.

Thomas succeeded his father on Chesnut Ridge. He died in 1834. He married Susan, daughter of Richard Durrett, and his children were Jesse Winston, Willis, William, Elizabeth, the wife of Dr. Thomas K. Clark, and mother of Cornelia, the wife of Drury Burnley, and of Catharine, the wife of George McIntire, and Frances, the wife of James Michie. Jesse W. was deputy Sheriff, was admitted to the bar, was for six years Commonwealth's Attorney, was member of the Legislature, sold Birdwood to his brother William, and in 1818 removed to Alabama. His wife was Unity Dandridge, of the same kindred as Patrick Henry's second wife. Willis lived at the place occupied by the family of Legh R. Waddell, married a Miss Graves, and was prominent in the establishment of Mount Harmony Church. He died without children in 1851. William resided at Birdwood, built the spacious brick dwelling it contains, and by his improvements made it one of the principal country seats of the county. He married Elizabeth, daughter of George Martin and Barbara Woods. He died in 1860, leaving eleven children, J. Woods , Edgar, Lewis, George, Eugene, Georgiana, the wife of Rollin Kirk, Gabriella, the wife of James Kirk, Susan, the wife of Smith P. Bankhead, Elizabeth, the wife of William S. Bankhead, Celestine, the wife of Marshall Walker, and secondly of John Stockton, and Alice, the wife of Philip Gilchrist.

John married Ann, daughter of John Rodes, sold the land on Blue Run which was given him by his father, and near the close of the last century removed to Kentucky. Elijah received from his father a plantation of more than five hundred acres southwest of Still House Mountain, and in the early years of the century acted as deputy Sheriff. He was twice married, first to Susan Fretwell, and secondly to Catharine, widow of George Wayt. He died in 1817. His children were Littleton, Paschal, Elizabeth, the wife of a McGarvey, and Virginia, the wife of a Cross.

Jesse lived on a plantation his father gave him, lying west of the Barracks. His wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Bezaleel Brown, and his children Thomas, William T., Brightberry, Bezaleel, Mary, the wife of John H. McKennie, and Sarah, the wife of Willis C. Goodman. He died in 1836.

Garland resided on the old Barracks place, where he built the large brick mansion recently occupied by the late George Carr. He married Susan Crenshaw, and his children were Dr. Garland A., Burwell, Isaac, Harriet, the wife of Isaac Davis, and Hardenia, the wife of Dr. Waller Head, who re moved to Missouri. Mr. Garth was deprived of his home by business reverses, and spent his last days with one of his children in Nelson County.

• William M. “Billy” Garth (September 12, 1863 - June 15, 1934), a noted turfman and prominent resident of the county. A breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses, he is best known as the winning trainer of 1920 Kentucky Derby victor Paul Jones. One of several in the family named William, he owned “Ingleside” Stock Farm which had its own training track and a 5,000 square-foot horse barn. In 1923 he purchased 1911 Kentucky Derby winner Meridian to stand as a sire at his stud farm. Interment was in the burying grounds at St. James Chapel (Garth Chapel Cemetery) on Garth Road one mile beyond Owensville.