Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/228

 1T6 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY cream color and is used in large quantities for building pur- poses, tombstones and monuments. George W. Garrard is the owner. The Frontenac stone quarry has been operated more or less since the early fifties. Its light cream stone, used for general ornamental work, is no'ted throughout the United States, and is used in the interior of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the great church of the Episcopal denomination in New York, and one of the handsomest church edifices in America, which will cause its praises to be sung by countless generations to come. Among three hundred samples of stone submitted, from the best quarries in the world, the Frontenac stone was selected as being the most suited for interior work of the most exquisite nature. Other smaller contracts have all shown the adaptability and beauty of this stone. George "Wood Garrard, the owner and manager of the quarry, has taken an artistic as well as a busi- ness interest in the Frontenac product. General Israel Garrard, for nearly half a century the patri- archal sage and patron of Frontenac, was probably a man of wider and more distinguished fame than anyone else who has resided in this county. Of him it lias well been said: "General Garrard was beloved by all who knew him, for his kindly and courtly manner toward all — for he was a peer among the finished gentlemen of his age — and by many he was regarded with a love that could but spring from hearts that had been soothed in times of tribulation and distress by his more than generous sympathy and substantial assistance. The extent of his benevo- lence, touching the needs of scores of the distressed in this region and elsewhere, will never be fully known. For. though his lib- erality to all who were in distress is known to have been munifi- cent and far-reaching, he was one who never permitted his loving kindness to be noised about." Israel Garrard was born in Lexington. Ky., October 22, 1825, the oldest son of Jeptha D. Garrard and Sarah Bella Ludlow, his wife. He was descended on the paternal side from James Garrard, one of the earliest settlers and governors of Kentucky, and on the maternal side from Israel Ludlow, one of the original proprietors of the townsite of Cincinnati. As a boy Israel Gar- rard was a pupil of Ormsby M. Mitchell, afterward attending Cary's Academy and also Bethany College in "West Virginia. He read law with Judge Swayne. at Columbus, Ohio, and gradu- ated from the Harvard law school, at Cambridge. Mass. At the age of twenty-nine, in company with Dr. Louis H. Garrard, General Garrard came into the wilds of Minnesota on a hunting trip. For several weeks he camped on the shores of Lake Pepin, and being impressed with its beauties, determined to make the