Ira Chapman Garrison (c. 1819-1892) was the manager of Monticello for Uriah Levy by March 1853. In that month, he reported the birth of Augusta, daughter of Aggy West, at Monticello. Between 1853, when births and deaths started being recorded in Virginia, and 1859 he reported all the births and deaths at Monticello as "agent" or "manager" for Uriah Levy.
Chapman married Ann (Nancy) C. Collins on December 8, 1840. In 1852 he was appointed guardian of the children of his brother, Ralph Garrison.[1] Ralph’s children and Burwell Collins, an older man, lived with him.
In a June 4, 1858, letter from Uriah Levy to George Carr, his attorney, Levy wrote in part: "[I] hope you will see that he [Garrison] is economical in his expenditure of money and materials. He has always done well in this particular and I have found a very good man whose services I wish you to retain unless you think it advisable to change.... Mr. Garrison is an excellent man but he will need your counsel and advice...." In a September 17, 1858, letter from Levy to Carr, Levy stated, "Mr. Garrison has written to me [and] afflicts me very much by the announcement of the death of my faithful servant Aggy [West].... shall I ever hear that our part of Virginia has produced good crops? The wheat has turned out badly, the tobacco crop will or has failed, the oats are all straw."
By the fall of 1860 Ira Garrison had left Monticello.[2] He continued to live in Albemarle County, and in the 1870s bought 30 acres on the Rivanna River opposite the Ferneyhough Mills, near Stony Point.[3] Garrison died in 1892. By the terms of his will, his estate went to his wife for the remainder of her life and then his farm was to go to his nephew, James Marsh.[4]
- Sam Towler, 5/2009
