by Charles W. Bowman

Biographies

JAMES GARDNER

   Mr. Gardner was born near Manchester, England, in 1840. He left his native country when he was seventeen years of age and came to America. Previous to this time he attended school, but not after he was twelve years old. Before leaving home he learned the carpenter's trade, which he has followed many years since he came to the New World. It was his intention when he decided to leave England to sail for Australia from Liverpool, but the vessel at that port was detained and he took passage in another for New York City, arriving there August, 1857. From New York he went to Providence, R. I., where he was employed in a bleachery, remaining there until the war broke out. He then enlisted in the First Rhode Island Light Artillery, and served in the Army of the Potomac for three years and at the front all the time. He was in the first battle of Bull Run, and after the fight he was fortunate enough to encounter a Congressman's abandoned mess wagon, in which he found liberal stores of both a solid and liquid nature. He was engaged in all the large battles and came out of them unhurt. June 18, 1864, he was discharged, having served his adopted country faithfully for thirty-six months. At this time he made a short trip to Europe, remaining there only three weeks before returning to America. He then sought a fortune in the oil regions of Pennsylvania. His efforts were of a short duration; he remained there only a few weeks, having made an investment of all his funds, from which dividends were extremely meager. He was rich enough to ride to the oil fields, but he walked away. He then went to work for the Government, building bridges and supply depots in Tennessee and Georgia until the spring of l865. Afterward he found employment at various places in Kansas and Nebraska at his trade, which he followed until 1871. At Omaha, Neb., he married Miss Lottie Hesse. In the spring of the same year (1871), he went to St. Joseph, Mo., where he left his family and went to the Indian Territory and Texas, where he worked on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, remaining there during the winter of 1871—12. He came to the Arkansas Valley in the spring of 1872. The following winter he hunted buffalo, making a success of his trip, killing 1,300 in one month. In the spring of 1873, he went to Granada and built the first house in the place. There he has made it his home until the present time, working at his trade. Since 1878, he has found constant employment with H. S. Holly & Co., at their home ranch six miles east of Granada, on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad.