Isaac Garrigus was born around 1798 in Morristown, New Jersey, to John Garrigus and Elizabeth Shipman. He married Sarah Shepard, and they had at least ten children: Mary, born around 1823; Euphronia, born around 1826; Lewis, born around 1834; Cyrus, born around 1836; Jacob Henry, born on March 25, 1838; Sarah, born around 1840; Charlotte, born around 1842; Horace, born around 1844; Ellen, born around 1846; and Aaron, born around 1849. The family lived in Chatham, New Jersey, and Garrigus worked as a farmer. He moved to Connecticut by the early 1860s, and he died in Wolcott, Connecticut, on September 2, 1865.