Jacob Henry Garrigus was born on March 25, 1838, in New Jersey to Isaac Garrigus and Sarah Shepard. His father worked as a farmer. Garrigus grew up in New Jersey and moved to Waterbury, Connecticut, sometime in the 1850s. Garrigus enlisted in the Union army on September 23, 1861, and mustered in as a private in Company E of the 8^th Connecticut Infantry on September 25, 1861. The regiment fought in the Battles of New Bern, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Cold Harbor and the Siege of Petersburg. Garrigus was promoted to corporal on July 1, 1862, and he mustered out in Lynchburg, Virginia, on December 12, 1865. Garrigus returned to Connecticut, and he married Sophronia Upson in Wolcott, Connecticut, on December 24, 1865. They had at least seven children: Walter, born around 1869; William, born around 1874; Harry, born around 1877; Bessie, born around 1879; Minnie, born around 1880; Annie, born around 1880; and Jessie, born around 1883. They lived in Wolcott after the war, and Garrigus worked as a sash and blind maker. He died in Connecticut on February 14, 1919.

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