Garvin, Ananias Lorenzo
(born: 1874 - died: 1952)Ananias L. Garvin was the first African American hired by the University of Kentucky Agricultral Extension Service. He was hired in July of 1918 as a (Colored) Emergency Assistant County Agent for Mercer County with a one year contract - $100 per month - ($66 2/3 per month paid by Emergency Fund) [source: p.4, University of Kentucky, Board of Trustees Minutes.].
A. L. Garvin and his wife Effie Williams Garvin (1879-1934), both Kentucky natives, were school teachers in the colored school in Harrodsburg, KY [source: 1910 U.S. Federal Census]. A. L. Garvin was the school principal and his wife was a school supervisor in 1920 when the couple lived on Price Avenue in Harrodsburg [source: 1920 U.S. Federal Census]. A. L. Garvin had been serving as the school principal since 1903 and he left the school in 1920 [see NKAA entry African American Schools in Mercer County, KY]. He and his wife moved to Louisville and lived on Chestnut Street; A. L. Garvin was working for Standard Life Insurance Company as the director of agents, and his wife was a homemaker [source: p.624 in Caron's Directory of the City of Louisville for 1924; and 1930 U.S. Federal Census].
Effie Garvin died October 16, 1934; she was from Lexington, KY, the daughter of Don W. Williams and Amanda Colerain Williams [source: Kentucky Certificate of Death File#25359].
In 1940, A. L. Garvin was teaching in the Jefferson County Schools and he was married to Ana Garvin, a school teacher in Louisville who was born in Virginia [source: 1940 U.S. Federal Census]. In 1941, he was principal of Orell School in Louisville [source: A. L. Garvin letter and correspondence within Dargan House collection (online) at Indiana University]. A. L. Garvin was born in Munfordville (Hart County), KY, the son of Emmitt and Catherine [Brawner] Garvin; and A. L. Garvin died at Central State Hospital in Louisville, KY on May 23, 1952 [source: Kentucky Certificate of Death File#1165210218; and 1880 U.S. Federal Census]. His death occurred a year before the 1953 Kentucky Court of Appeals decision in the case of A. L. Garvin et. al., Appellants v. Pythian Mutual Industrial Association et. al., Appellees [info at FindACase]. The case concerned the 1935 transfer of the Pythias Mutual Association building, at the corner of 10th and Chestnut Streets in Louisville, to the Pythian Dependent Widows and Orphans Aid.