Robbert Garret was an American merchant. He was not only became a director of the Baltimore Water Company, the Gas Company, and the Shot Tower Company.
Background
Robert Garrett born on May 2, 1783, at Lisburn, County Down, Ireland. He combined the industry and Calvinistic principles of his Scotch mother, Margaret MacMechen, with the generous spirit of his Irish father, John Garrett.
Though he was only seven years old when his family emigrated to America, the death of his father placed some responsibility on his young shoulders when his mother bought a farm in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. A move in 1798 merely transferred the family to another farm in Washington County.
Career
At sixteen, Garrett experienced his first venture into the business world when he accompanied his elder brother on a trading expedition among the Indians. They were forced by the intensely cold weather to spend the winter in an Indian hut near the Ohio River, an experience which gave Robert an enduring interest in the development of the West.
Shortly after 1800, he went to Baltimore and became a clerk for four years in a produce and commission house. Later, he formed the partnership of Wallace & Garrett, which afforded him further experience in handling the western trade.
In 1812, when this partnership was dissolved, he moved back to Middletown, Pennsylvania, but returned finally to Baltimore about 1820. He opened a business house which soon assumed the name of Robert Garrett & Sons.
Before long he made himself an important factor in the wholesale grocery, produce, forwarding, and commission business. Although he was brought into competition with some of the strongest local firms of Baltimore, he was able to hold his own.
He appreciated the strategic advantage of Baltimore’s geographical position in lying nearer the frontier than any other seaport and resolved to capture western trade by developing superior transportation facilities for the farmers of the West.
The slow method of shipping produce by pack horses over the Alleghany Mountains he improved upon by establishing fast wagon trains which ran day and night over turn-pikes and plank-roads connecting with the Pennsylvania Canal.
When the project of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began to materialize, he came to its support and invested heavily in its stock. To meet the demands of the frontier trade, he established direct connections with Latin America at the same time seeking an outlet for American products in Europe.
For greater convenience the house developed its own banking operations and became the American correspondent for such firms as George Peabody & Company of London and other houses abroad, winning for itself a position as one of the leading houses of the city.
The operations in finance gradually overshadowed the commission and shipping business. Entering loyally into the enterprises for the expansion of his adopted city, Garrett took an active part in developing local business interests.
He became a director of the Baltimore Water Company, the Gas Company, and the Shot Tower Company. Already a director of the Savings Bank of Baltimore, he became in 1836 one of the organizers of the Western Bank, serving in this capacity until his death.
Achievements
In 1847, to meet the needs of another portion of the city, Garrett played a leading part in founding the Eutaw Savings Bank, serving it as a director throughout the remainder of his life.
Keeping constantly in mind the desirability of attracting the western trade to Baltimore, he purchased first the Eutaw House, in order to provide comfortable hotel accommodations in the city, and five years later the Wheatfield Inn, which he replaced by a new hotel in the vicinity of the jobbing trade.
Shortly after the close of the Mexican War, he built the Monumental City, the largest steamship so far constructed in Baltimore, to link the trade of that city with the trade of San Francisco.
Connections
On May 19, 1817, Garrett was married to Elizabeth Stouffer, daughter of Henry Stouffer, who was long prominent in Baltimore as a merchant and member of the city council. It was to their son, John Work Garrett, that the father’s mantle descended.
