Edmund Augustus Garrison was born on August 20, 1837, in Gloucester County, New Jersey, to Edmund F. Garrison and Rebecca Dare. His father was a merchant who owned $15,000 of real estate in 1850. He worked as a sutler’s clerk during the Civil War. He married Emma Louisa Clark in Gloucester County on February 15, 1865, and their daughter Bettie was born around 1867. In 1870, he was working as a farmer, and he owned $300 of real estate and $3,200 of personal property. He employed a white domestic servant and at least three farm laborers. By 1880, the family was living in Swedesboro, New Jersey, and Garrison was working as a produce dealer. His wife Emma died around 1882. By 1910, he was living in the “Old Man’s Home” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He died there on September 18, 1917.