Edward Martin Garnar, the eldest son, married Anne Elizabeth Hughes at St Mary, Bermondsey on 12 April 1830.  Their first two sons, Thomas born in 1832 and Edward born in 1834 were both baptised at St Mary's on 22 May 1836.  Just over three months later the family emigrated to America, travelling on the 'Gladiator' which left London for New York on 5 September 1836.

Edward Martin was a leather dresser like his father and his 2 sons followed their father's trade.

Thomas Garnar 1832-97

Thomas built a very successful business, with an office in Williams Street in Lower Manhattan and tanneries in Brooklyn and upper New York State.  For many years the United States government purchased fine sheepskin leathers for its law libraries from the Garnar tanneries.  When Thomas died in 1897 he left a fortune of $75,000.  Just before his death he had sold his New York office to Walsh Brothers who continued to operate under the name Thomas Garnar and Co at 181 Williams Street until the 1950's.

Edward Garnar 1834-98

Edward, after going to Australia in 1852, returned to America about 1869 with a wife Jane (nee Greenaway) and three children, William, Anne and Edward Jnr (Ned), and managed the Garnar tannery at Hadley-Luzerne.  He expanded the tannery, resulting in block-long two and three storey buildings being erected on both sides of the Main Street, and also a 100-foot chimney which still stands in Luzerne.

The tannery produced a fine grade of book-binding leather, mainly from sheep skins and by the 1880's 50-70 men were employed at the tannery, working a 12-hour day for 26 days a month, for a wage of $32.50 a month. 

In 1879 Edward acquired a quarter ownership which also included Stony Creek Tannery, managed by his son Ned until 1889, when Edward sold his interest back to Thomas, and Ned took over the management of both tanneries.

Edward then bought a hotel in Luzerne, renamed it 'Riverview' and according to one newspaper article 'catered to the moneyed class of society which filled it each summer'.  Another article said 'It became famous as a rendezvous for wealthy socialites from throughout the Eastern Seaboard.'

When the hotel burned down in 1895, Edward then founded the Garnar Water Company which provided water for the town.  He brought the water from spring-fed creeks into a reservoir about 2 miles south of Luzerne.  It was while collecting his rents on the morning of 1st November 1898 that Edward collapsed in the street and died of a heart attack. 

A dramatic end for the boy from Bermondsey who had made his fortune in the gold rush in Australia and then became a pillar of society in upper New York State.

The children of Edward and Jane remained in the Hadley-Luzerne area and there is still a reminder of the Garnar family in the town of Luzerne (as well as the 100 foot chimney!):

William Thomas Garnar, the elder son of Edward and Jane, married Mabel Ogden and became the proprietor of the General Store in Bridge Street, Luzerne. The photograph shows the store and William is on the right (the only one wearing a jacket).  William and Mabel had two children: Elizabeth Ogden Garnar born in 1900 who died at Hadley in 1972 (unmarried) and William Thomas Garnar Jnr born in 1906.

Anne Garnar, the daughter of Edward and Jane, known as Annie, married William Kinnear in 1892.  In her uncle Thomas' will, Anne was bequeathed the Garnar residence in Luzerne, which now houses the Frances G Kinnear Museum of Local History (see photo, with acknowledgements to Hadley-Luzerne public library). 

Anne and William's elder daughter Helen Garnar Kinnear, born in 1897, married Robert Laprelle and moved to San Diego, California where she died in 1980.  The younger daughter, Frances Garnar Kinnear, was born in 1900 and lived all her life in Luzerne.  It was Frances who donated the Garnar home to become the local history museum.  In 1923 she and another Wellesley College graduate Dorothy Baldwin founded Pine Log Camp for girls which flourished for many years before the two leaders retired in 1959.  Frances also endowed a scholarship at Hadley-Luzerne school for a student interested in local history.

Edward Garnar Jnr (Ned) became manager of the Luzerne and Stoney Creek tanneries in 1889 and in 1897 the tannery was bequeathed to him and his uncle Augustus Brombacher in his uncle Thomas' will.  However by 1910 both tanneries had closed because of dwindling supplies of hemlock bark.  Ned then continued to run the Water Company founded by his father.  He married Grace Blanchard and they had 2 children, Catherine who married Joseph Appleton and Thomas who became a Luzerne Supervisor.

The other children of Edward and Ann:

Edward and Ann settled in Brooklyn and had 6 more children:

• Ann Elizabeth Garnar born 1838 married John Campbell and had two children, John born 1866 and Ann born 1868 (two others died young)
• Charles Garnar born in 1841 died when he was only 44, leaving a wife Mary Ann and 3 children, Robert, William and Charles.  One of his descendants still lives in Long Island, NY.
• William Hewes Garnar born in 1843 married Eliza Jane Cuscaden and had 12 children (see below).  It is interesting to see that his mother Anne's maiden name of Hughes is spelled as Hewes from now on in the USA branch of the family. 
• George William Garnar born in 1845 had 3 children between 1873 and 1878, George Lester, Archibald and Harriet. George Lester Garnar's son, Lester Howard Garnar lived in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and his granddaughter is living in Morristown, NJ. 
• Caroline Garnar born in 1848 married Augustus Brombacher and had 4 children, Carrie, Frank, Annie and Charles. In Thomas Garnar's will, the leather works at Luzerne was left jointly to his nephew Edward (Ned) Garnar and his brother-in-law Augustus Brombacher,  
• Mary Frances Garnar born in 1852 did not marry but acted as housekeeper for her parents and brother Thomas; in his will Thomas left her all his personal possessions and an income of $18,000.

The many children of William Hewes Garnar and Eliza Jane Cuscaden deserve separate mention:

1. Mary Frances Garnar, born 1862 married John Scott in 1893 but died aged 42 in Brooklyn in 1904.

2. Edward Thomas Garnar, born 1865 was already worked in a tannery in 1880 (possibly the one owned by his uncle Thomas).  He married Lavinia and lived in New Jersey.  They had 3 children:  Thomas who married Anne Stratton and lived in Florida; Edward who died young, and Lydia who married Asa Salvador and lived in New Jersey.

3. Caroline Garnar born 1869 married William Evans.

4. Elizabeth Garnar (known as Bessie) born about 1871 had a daughter Harriet Griffiths.

5. Charles Garnar born about 1873 married Emma Hauptmann.  They had 2 children: William Hewes Garnar born in 1911 and Charles Lester Garnar born in 1912. 

6. William Hewes Garnar born 1877 married Frieda and had a daughter Mabel.

7. George Washington Garnar born in 1879.

8. John Campbell Garnar born about 1881, died 1953.

9. Harry Garnar born about 1883 married Matilda Jagels and had 3 children: Mary, Caroline and Grace.

10. Thomas Edward Garnar born about 1885, died 1945.

11. Langdon Scott Garnar born in 1888 and died in 1972.

12. Mabel Garnar born about 1890 married Frederick Day and had 2 children, Frederick and Caroline.

Many of these are buried in Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetery and this photograph shows myself and a descendant of Charles Garnar (number 5 above) at the Garnar plot at Greenwood.  Near where we are standing are the headstones of Edward Martin and Ann, who first went to America in 1836 and who died in 1889 and 1891.