Cap's Life From Age 0-14
  Oscar "Cap" - Aged 15-18                                                                                                                     Cap - Aged around 25/26
  Oscar  Edmund Garland was born
  on December 27th, 1864 in Avoca,
     Wisconsin. His parent's were
   Margaret Francis Petit and
Walter Bell Garland. He  had two
   living older sisters, Sarah
Lovenia - known as"Vena" -, who was born in 1856, and Florence Adelia, born on
May 15th, 1862. Cap was known
as Eddie, when he was a little boy, and he was the second son of his mother and father.
The Garland's, Margaret and Walter, had had a son, Walter, who was born on May 29, 1855, but who tragically died on July 23rd of the same year.
Then, 3 years after Vena was born, the Garland's were expecting another baby daughter, baby Josephine was born on August 18th, 1859, but sadly died on April 12th, 1863, just over a year before Cap was born; so the only siblings he knew were Vena, who was 8 years older than him, and Florence, who was 2 when Cap was born.

Cap's father, Walter Bell Garland had been born in the tiny town of Port Ballantrie, near Balleymoney in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1832, to William and Margaret Garland.
When Walter was 1, the small family immagrated to the USA, and arrived at Baltimore on July 1st, 1833.
Before the summer of 1850, when Walter was 18, his mother died, and his father, William, was re-married, to a "Sarah".
From there, the family moved to Wisconsin and Walter married Margaret Francis Petit.

When Cap was 10, Walter became ill, most likely with consumption, and died on September, 29th 1874, leaving behind not only his father, but his 3 children and widow.
So, Margaret was left without her husband, without money, and with land to keep.
Margaret's father-in-law, William Garland dies in 1877 and left money to Walter's children, Vena, Florence and of course, Cap.
Within a year or so of his death, Margaret and her children, and Walter's brother, John, and his family packed up and left. They spent the winter of 1879/1880 in Eastern Minnesota - at the end of the railroad - and Margaret sold her Wisconsin land while living there. Then, when the weather got a little warmer, they moved on west to De Smet, South Dakota.  Margaret's brother-in-law, John, kept going and became the first mayor of Aberdeen, South Dakota - a little farther north and west - but Margaret stayed in De Smet, and had a boarding house built at the corner of Joliet Avenue and Second Street, opposite the Ingalls store building; and Cap started at the local town school.

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