Historic pewter dinner plate gets new home at Fort Montgomery - 12 April, 2009

By Adam Bosch
Times Herald-Record
April 12, 2009

FORT MONTGOMERY — For history buffs, the pewter plate that's been added to the artifact collection in Fort Montgomery holds a lot of significance.

Historical records show that George Washington might have eaten dinner off of it. And the plate was kept at a tavern where Benedict Arnold was living when his Loyalist plot was cracked.

But the antique dinner plate is especially treasured by almost anyone who carries the surname "Garrison."

That's why nearly 30 people, including 11 Garrison descendents, gathered at the Fort Montgomery Visitors Center on Saturday to celebrate the plate's arrival.

The plate belonged to Isaac Garrison, a local militiaman and cannoneer who was captured by the British at Fort Montgomery during the Revolutionary War and later released.

Isaac Garrison kept the plate at an inn where many of the Continental Army's officers lived and broke bread.

Future generations of Garrisons did not realize the plate existed until 33 years ago, when Laura Lent had to write a 7th-grade paper on her family's history. While researching the school assignment, Laura's mother, Doris Lent, a Garrison descendent, found the plate on display at Washington's Headquarters in Newburgh, where it had been donated in 1957 by two antique collectors.

The plate was moved from Newburgh to the New Windsor Cantonment and a state archive in Albany before Doris Lent and her husband, Garry, began hunting it down for the Fort Montgomery collection.

"We thought, 'What ever happened to that plate?' " said Doris Lent, a member of the Fort Montgomery Battle Site Association.

Lent advertised the plate's arrival in the newspaper, and soon she was getting calls from Garrisons in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

Marge Garrison, 86, of Hackensack, N.J., was thrilled by the discovery. Her family is proud of its lineage. So proud, in fact, that Marge happily flaunted her family tree dating back to 1710, which she kept in a manila envelope.

"We've got the whole history right here," she said, pulling out the papers. "My great-great grandchildren are the 10th generation of Garrisons."

After everyone had a chance to view the 9-inch-diameter plate, inscribed with Isaac Garrison's initials and a sign of the Holy Cross, the descendents made a keepsake of their own. They all lined up for a picture and a photographer shouted: "Everyone say 'Isaac Garrison!' "

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