| The Highland
Township Historical Society THE DEGARMO FAMILY |
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This photograph was taken in 1915 when members of the family assembled at the ancestral home in Highland to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of A. D. and Emily (Olmsted) DeGarmo. A. D. DeGarmo died six years later, on May 11, 1921 [Note 1]. His widow Emily survived another nine years, dying on September 18, 1930. Both are buried in Highland Cemetery, just south of their home.
[1] - Members of the Ulysses S. Beach family who attended A. D. DeGarmo's funeral often told an interesting story concerning the event. As noted above, the DeGarmo home was located north of Highland Cemetery. In between lay the farm's south pasture, separated from the cemetery by a fence that ran parallel to and just a few yards north of the cemetery's north drive. It is thus said that as the casket of A.D. DeGarmo was carried into the cemetery along this drive, his beloved cattle silently gathered at the fence and thereafter followed the funeral procession all the way to the gravesite. While such behavior might be explained as simple bovine curiosity, it was seen by many as a fitting tribute to the man who had done so much to promote and improve Michigan's cattle industry.