I'm a product of the merger of the Garrison, Kitch, Buckwalter, and Harbaugh (Herbach) lines on my father's side, primarily from Germany and Holland and immigrating to this country in the 1600 and 1700s, and the Haigh, Larmour, Hamilton, and Rhoads lines on my Mother's side, from Ireland and Scotland and England.                                             

My father was born in Rozel, Kansas on February 1, 1907 (he died 12/7/1992 in Toms River, NJ), the fourth child of Alvin Joseph GARRISON (3/22/1867-5/22/1949) and Clara Arcela KITCH (10/12/1871-10/25/1960).  His older sisters (going backwards in age) had been Thelma Viola Garrison (just died, March 2003) [married Earl Presley-lived in Houston, Mo.], Esta Garrison (married Gus Degen-lived mainly in Ft. Smith, Ark.), and Edith Marguerite Garrison (married Loy Barton-lived mainly in Princeton, NJ.) 

Alvin Joseph GARRISON and Clara Arcela KITCH were married on May 10, 1899.  Alvin was one of 7 children, the son of Freeborn GARRISON and Ann Elizabeth Buckwalter, and was born on March 22, 1867, in Lanark, Il. Clara was a twin (her twin, Minnie, died in 1895), one of 13 children of Samuel Axtel KITCH and Julia Ann Harbaugh, and was born in Richland Twp., Shelby, Illinois.  They had both been schoolteachers at Burdett, Ks., until about 1903, when they moved to Greenland, Ark.  They moved to Rozel, Pawnee, Kansas in 1906 (until 1913) when Alvin became silo manager for the Union Grain Co. in Rozel.  In January, 1913, they went back to Greenland, Ark. for farming.  Around 1926 they moved to Fayetteville, Ark. where Alvin worked on the Building Services staff of the University of Arkansas, and they took in students for boarding.  For a story of the trip to Kansas in 1886 by the Kitchs, see Cora (KITCH) Brown's talk in 1949.