Career
Garrett married Eliza Clark in 1825 and moved to Chicago from New York in 1834. He had a small auction house near the Chicago River and by the following year had formed a partnership with the Brown Brothers, which allowed him to become a leading land speculator and auctioneer. By October 1836, he had sales of more than $1.8 million.
During his terms in office, Garrett pushed to have the first brick school in Chicago, Dearborn School, turned into either a warehouse or an insane asylum, believing that the building was too large for use as a school.
Following his death, Eliza established the Garrett Bible Institute, now Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, in nearby Evanston, Illinois.