He won golden opinions among officers and settlers alike.
McGillivray was suspicious and selfish, so the records of the time state.

They came to the Red River in 1821, and Garry entered particularly into the arrangement of the Forts at the Forks.

The old Fort Douglas was retained as Colony Fort, and the small Hudson's Bay Company trading house as well as Fort Gibraltar were absorbed into the new fort which was erected on the banks of the Assiniboine between Main Street and the bank of the Red River.

All the letters and documents of the time speak of Governor Garry's visits as carrying a gleam of sunshine wherever he went and it was appropriate that the new fort built in the following year should bear the name Fort Garry.

This was the wooden fort, which still remained in existence though superseded as a fort in 1850.
At the time of Governor Garry's visit the population of the settlement may be considered to have been about five hundred.