BIOS: William A. GARMAN, M.D., Berlin, PA, Somerset County, PA

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BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Vol. XXXII, Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of 
Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania. Boston, Biographical Review 
Publishing Company: 1899, pp 48-51.

  William A. Garman, M.D., physician and surgeon, Berlin, Pa., was born in 
Stoyestown, in the county of Somerset, June 9, 1829, son of John and Sarah 
(Hite) Garman.  The father emigrated from Switzerland in company with his 
brother, Joseph S. Garman, who settled in Johnstown, Pa.
  John Garman located in Stoyestown, and followed the trade of a carriage-maker 
until his death, which occurred in 1835, at the age of sixty years.  He married 
Sarah, daughter of Conrad Hite.  He father was a Revolutionary soldier and a 
representative of an old Virginia family of English descent.  She became the 
mother of five children, of whom William A. is the only one living.  The others 
were: John B., who resided in Pittsburg, where he enlisted in Colonel Samuel 
Black's Regiment, and, serving under General Scott in Mexican War, was killed at 
Jalapa; Joseph A., who was sutler [sic] of the Fifty-fourth Regiment 
Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War and died from the effects of hardships 
endured while captive in Confederate prisons; Mary Amelia, who married George 
Hinish, and died in Wooster, Ohio; and Sarah A., who died in Philadelphia.
  William A. Garman received his early education in the public schools of 
Stoyestown and at the Normal School taught by Professor Stutzman.  After 
teaching school at Shadetown for one winter, he began the study of medicine 
under the direction of Robert H. Patterson, M.A., of Stoyestown, with whom he 
remained three years.  He received his medical degree at the University of 
Pennsylvania in the spring of 1850.  He is also a graduate of the Baltimore 
College of Physicians and Surgeons.  He is a member of the Tri-State Medical 
Society of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland.  Entering upon the practice of 
his profession in Stoyestown in 1851, in 1857 he removed to Berlin, where he has 
since resided, and is at the present time actively pursuing the regular duties 
of his calling in company with his son.  He has held various township and 
borough offices, including those of Burgess and School Director, and was a 
United States Pension Examiner four years.  In politics he acts with the 
Democratic party.  He is a member of the Lutheran church.
  In 1850 Dr. Garman married for his first wife Mary Ann Burnett, daughter of 
Dr. Burnett, of Stoyestown.  She died in 1861.  Of this union there were seven 
children; and of these, four are living, namely: John S., M.D., a practicing 
physician of Berlin, Pa.; Amanda, wife of Dr. G. B. Masters, of Rockwood; 
Caroline, who married James Johnson, and resides in Cumberland, Md.; and Mary 
Catharine, who resides at home.  Dr. Garman married for his second wife, in 
1864, Sarah A., daughter of George Heffley, of Berlin.  She is the mother of 
three daughters: Leora and Mildred, both of whom are attending the State Normal 
School in Indiana County; and Ida Grace Garman, who was a victim of the 
Johnstown flood.  She was in charge of the telegraph office there at the time, 
and sent out the last dispatch prior to the destruction of the building in which 
the office was located.  Her body was buried with the unknown dead, but five 
months later was identified by her father.
  Dr. Garman belongs to the Meyersdale Lodge, No. 554, F.& A.M. and the Chapter 
of Royal Arch Masons in Uniontown.