Muscogee County GaArchives Photo Place.....George J. Garrett, Fox Hunter 
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Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 June 2, 2007, 7:33 pm

Source:             Sesquicentennal Supplement IV, Ledger-Enquirer
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                      G.J. Garrett: Fox Hunter

                        By Beverly Greer 
                        Ledger Staff Writer

  The late George J. Garrett of Columbus was often called the dean of Southern 
fox hunters, and did much to fan the desire of a young Ben H. Hardaway III to 
search for and breed the ultimate fox hound.
  Garrett died three weeks before his book, "Fifty Years with Fox and Hounds," 
appeared, and dictated the last pages from his bed before his death in 
September of 1947. He left a legacy of memorable foxhunts of bygone years, and 
much information valuable to hunters and breeders on the geneaology of famous 
hounds, notably the celebrated July, which forms the basic stock for the 
Midland Fox Hounds, now famous and sought after in the hunting world.
  Garrett and his life with the hounds has been included in the National 
Cyclopedia of America BiographY, and although he was 85 at the time of his 
death, his mind remained clear and his interest in his subject keen.
  He was born at Union Springs, Ala., the son of Col. Joseph S. Garrett, a 
former Columbus postmaster. In his youth, he attended an academy then located 
at Waverly Hall, and later Emory University at Oxford. Later he became active 
in the wholesaling business in Columbus, and still later formed his own 
company, Garrett-Williams, distillers and importers of whiskey and tobacco. 
When he retired, he resided on the Garrett family plantation on Macon Road 
until his death.

  He was expert at all things relating to hounds, and was widely known for the 
champion bloodlines he developed. And though he could have become wealthy from 
the sale of his champion stock, it is said, he preferred to treat fox hunting 
as a sport and hobby.
  His dogs, bred for performance rather than show, took prizes in field trials 
and his book was praised by critic Harry Stillwell Edwards as the "most 
colorful sporting book of  the present time." 
  Nostalgia and love of the past tinged Garrett's  writings, and he told not  
only of exciting chases, but of fellowship enjoyed at fox hunts in Georgia, 
Maryland and New England, in days when the woods were wilder and game was 
plentiful. 
  Writing leisurely and reminscently, his book recounts his acquaintances with 
many well-known southern gentlemen, among them Joel Chandler Harris, and in 
addition to-becoming almost a Bible for fox hunters and hound breeders, his 
book also became a diary of keen interest to many well known and respected men 
of his day, and to their descendants.

Special Sesquicentennal Supplement IV
Ledger - Enquirer, Sunday, May 7, 1978, S-31



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