WILLIAM DEGARMO, who for fourscore years was a resident of Washington county, was a grandson of Paul DeGarmo, a Frenchman, who immigrated to America and died in Washington county, Penn. Jacob DeGarmo, father of subject, was a native of the Keystone State, and was united in marriage with Hannah Ames, who was born in 1790, a daughter of Joshua Ames, a shoemaker by trade. She became the mother of fourteen children, viz.: Elizabeth, William, Sarah, Hannah, John, Mary, Martin Smith, Absalom, Jacob Johnson, Jabez Gifford, Maria (wife of William Bell), Hiram, Jerome and an infant daughter, twelve of whom lived to maturity. Jacob J., Jabez G. and Maria are in West Virginia. She died in 1882. One son, Hiram, entered the "Ringgold Battalion," and served three years under Capt. Gibson. William DeGarmo, the subject proper of this sketch, was born December 11, 1810, in Pennsylvania, and was two years of age when his parents moved to Washington county, where he was reared and educated. On April 15, 1830, he was married to Elizabeth Case, a native of' this county, daughter of Stephen Case, who died when she was a child, and their children were Julia A., wife of Isaac Hartman (she died July 3, 1864, leaving one child, six weeks old, named Lizzie, whose home was afterward made with her grandparents; her father married, for his second wife, Adeline Dague, who bore him two children: Charles Lindsey and Anna May; the father died about the year 1872); Hannah, Mrs. Thomas Lytle, of Nottingham township; Elizabeth, married to M. Hartley, of Amwell township; Lucinda, wife of Adam Fergus, of Somerset township; and Maria, who all her lifetime remained at home with her parents, caring for them in their declining years, and now that they are gone, her niece and herself remain at the old home which has been left to her by her father. On September 6, 1892, Mrs. DeGarmo passed from earth at the age of eighty- three years, and six months later, Feb. 28, 1893, her husband, at the same advanced age, followed her over the "dark river." They had been married nearly sixty-three years. Mr. DeGarmo was a Democrat and had filled several local offices. They commenced life in a very humble way, and all their possessions were accumulated by hard work and judicious economy. Mr. DeGarmo in addition to his farming pursuits made many sleds out of the roots of trees, and this industry he followed in connection with agriculture till his eyesight began to fail him. He was generally in the enjoyment of good health, was of medium size and at the time of his death his hair and beard were as white as the driven snow. The old homestead contains sixty acres of prime land.

Text taken from page 1130 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed March 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project. Published March 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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