California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


 WILLIAM H. GARDNER. A prominent wheat grower of the Upper Kings river country, William H. 
Gardner is widely known throughout this section of Fresno county. He was born in Orleans 
county, Vt., November 24, 1838, a son of Roswell Gardner, of Massachusetts, who located first 
in Canada and later crossed the line into Vermont, where he made his home for many years. He 
came to California on a visit to his son in 1879, and died that year at the age of seventy-two 
years. His wife, formerly Eliza Hussey, a native of Maine, died in Newport, Vt. They were the 
parents of twelve children, of whom ten attained maturity, five sons and five daughters, while 
three sons and one daughter are now living. William H. Gardner was the oldest of this large 
family of children, receiving his education in the common schools of both Canada and Vermont, 
while he was trained to the practical duties of a farmer's son. Deciding to try his fortunes in the 
remote west, he came to California in 1866 by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and upon his safe 
arrival located near Santa Clara and engaged in grain farming. For sixteen years he remained in 
that locality, when he came to Fresno county, purchasing a ranch of one hundred and sixty 
acres, where he engaged in grain farming. He has since added by purchase until he now owns 
three hundred and twenty acres in the home place, forty acres near by, and four hundred and 
eighty acres west of Fresno, near Huron. He has also a stock ranch of six hundred and forty 
acres in the mountains, where he raises horses and cattle. The greater part of his land is 
devoted to the cultivation of wheat, in which he has met with a gratifying success. 

In Santa Clara, Cal., Mr. Gardner was united in marriage with Imogene Riker, a native of New 
York, and they are the parents of two sons, Harry P., a rancher, and Frederick J., a blacksmith at 
Sanger. Politically Mr. Gardner is a Democrat and in the interests of this party held the office of 
school director while a resident of Santa Clara county.