Garry Sarles, Jr.

Anxious to populate the Northwest Territory with white settlers, the United States government made treaties with the Native Americans living there,“buying” their land and then selling it at low prices to pioneers wanting to settle in the west. With the completion of the Erie Canal, travel to the Territory was easier. The Treaty of Chicago, signed in 1821, opened what would become Hillsdale County to white settlers. 

The west was settled by ordinary people who left home for the promise of a better future where inexpensive land might be the bedrock for prosperity. The Garry Sarles, Jr. family saga was like many others and can serve both as the special story of their family as well as the generic story of many families who came from New York State to Michigan Territory to establish a farm in the wilderness. 

Garry’s education was sketchy. His strength resided in his knowledge of farming, his strong work ethic and his fearlessness in the face of the unknown. In September 1836 he came to Hillsdale County without financial resources. It’s not known how he amassed enough money to purchase 80 acres in the Bankers area, but by 1888 a glowing account of his farm was included in the Portrait and Biographical Album of Hillsdale County, Michigan. By then a great part of his land was “under good cultivation, and is embellished with a tasteful impressive dwelling, ample barns and other outhouses, fruit trees and shrubbery, and all the other appurtenances of a modern farm. This land is well watered with living springs and the home presents one of the most attractive spots in the landscape of Hillsdale County.”

Garry, Jr. was from Tiago County, New York and was born on Oct. 25, 1824. His parents were Garry, Sr. (1803-1840) and Nancy Eddy Sarles (1804-1866). Following Garry, Jr., they moved to Hillsdale Township and lived there the rest of their lives. Land was wealth, but equally important were children. They were essential to the running of the farm and served as Social Security when the parents got old. In the offspring department Garry, Sr. and Nancy did well. Their children were Lewis, Garry, Jr., Ann, Margaret, Samantha, Malvina, John and Jane. When Garry, Sr. died Nancy married William Cleveland. It was quite common for widowed spouses to remarry. That may have had something to do with the separation of men’s and women’s work, so that each needed the other. There was probably a bit of a business arrangement to marriage, with love happening as a bonus rather than a basis to the union.

Like many young men seeking a future in the wilderness, Garry Sarles, Jr. needed to return to New York for a wife. At the age of 36, he married Elizabeth Warren, who was 19 years old. She was one of 11 children, and she and Garry had six children: Frederick, Edward, George, Charles, Anna and Albert. Anna married John Herring, and it is from her granddaughter, Norma Herring, that the Hillsdale County Historical Society received a beautiful Sarles family photo album from the 1800s—unfortunately with no one identified. 

Norma’s grandfather, John Herring lived in Quincy with his family when he met and fell in love with Anna Sarles. They married and worked their own farm. They had two children, Leon and Maybelle. Leon married Gertrude and moved to Bronson to farm. Maybelle married George Wood, moved with him to Kansas to farm, had a child, but then died in the Influenza Epidemic in 1918. Her body was shipped back to Bankers, where she was buried in the cemetery donated by Garry Sarles, Jr. across Bankers Road from his farm.

And so this story circles back to Garry Sarles, Jr. who came to Michigan Territory and found a positive future for himself and his descendants.