All things Gardner

We haven't had a post on this theme that pulls thing together. So, this is it. We have used 'all things Gardner' since 2016. For now, let's just have a list of posts that refer to the concept which we will use as source for a review.

• Gardners and Gardners (Sep 2010) - Early on, we had queries about Gardner. In some cases, we helped people identify their families. In lots of cases, we pointed people to the most likely place to look for information. Say, tracking all of the Gardner references in the Mormon records. That is, those who did the trek by foot, say. Some took the loafing way around by boat, except one had to go through Central America, by one method. And, once to the west coast, there was the journey to Utah. Lots of other examples. 
• Historical genealogy (Nov 2010) - First look at some early stuff. Turns out that Richardson has looked at this, too. 
• Places (Nov 2014) - First place was Gardiner, Oregon. After that, several more. An open bit of research is to get several viewpoints documented. Then, we can see which might be more true than not. Interesting conundrum? 
• DNA and genealogy (May 2016) - We have had queries about DNA for a long time (we'll get the first of those references). Having a technology focus, we have been slowly diving in. Heavy in? Not really, until a bunch of questions are answered. Questions? Yes, we'll have those. In time. 
• Bosworth and more (May 2016) - This has the theme related to things in the old countries. Early on, we ran into stories. They are still being considered. 
• Gardiners Island (Jul 2016) - We have looked at places with the name. As well, we have looked at people with the name. A recent post? Gardner River. 
• Continuing work (Sep 2016) - MHGardner, as an example. We need to link in some recent material related to a house that he owned (had built - 1800s) that is being remodeled. 
• Privileged or not (Nov 2016) - Loyalists. We've barely scratched the surface here. 
• U.S. and us (Feb 2017) - We have several open research projects going. Our focus deals with the collateral issue, not just Gardner (and variations on that theme). One basic piece of the territory is Cape Ann and all matters related to that effort. BTW, we mention some of the names that are being studied. 
• Summaries (Nov 2018) - Like we're doing here. 
• ... we will have more ... 

... more edits on the way ...

We got news that a book on Gardners has been printed. It is Vol. 1; there will be two more.

• GARDNER Vol. I: Commandos and War Heroes details the history of the surname and contains 45 biographies on warriors, mercenaries, knights, commandos and war heroes with the last name, ranging from generals to fighter pilots to Navy SEALs with the last name Gardner. 

See: Amazon for more details. Looking for a review.

Remarks: Modified: 05/11/2025

04/17/2025 -- See King Slayer's Court, redux for an update. 

05/11/2025 -- New work starting; created a Bosworth label. 

Gardner River

This river flows into the Yellowstone River near Gardiner, MT. As such, these waters flow into the Missouri River and then the Mississippi. Yes, that is a long waterway. Lewis & Clark went back up the other way. Post that, more people went west. One of them was Johnson Gardner for whom the River and the area were named.

Gardner River: Starts in Yellowstone Park, at 10K feet, flows 25 miles, but has a 202 sq mile basin.

Johnson Gardner was a cohort of Jedediah Strong Smith, Hugh Glass (read about The Revenant which names some of the characters), John S. Gardner (killed in 1823 when Hugh Glass was wounded - letter from Gen. Ashley) and others. We are researching families related to these folks.

We started by looking for places with Gardner in the name (and will look at other associations): Gardner, KS, Gardner, CO, Gardiners Island, Gardiner, OR, and others. We'll pull these together some time. The idea is that we might be seeing the 400th recognized; however, the 200th covers a whole lot more territory in more ways that one.

On looking further at Johnson Gardner, we find out that he is out of Virginia. We will be looking further at that.  But, we want to consider the New England influence as we see via all of those names that come out of the area (starting with Cape Ann) and are found in the huge western expanse.

Here's a quick example which will be written further in its own post. Not far from where Gardner River starts, there is a change due to the Continental Divide. And, we find Conant Creek (Wyoming - known as Berry Creek) that flows into the Snake River (History of the Teton area). There's another Conant Creek in Idaho that flows into the Boise River that flow into the Snake River.

This water goes to the Pacific. The namesake of one of the Creeks arrived in the area in the latter part of the 1800s. We will look further at the family history.

Roger Conant is a gpp of Dr. Frank.

Further reading: Human influences on the Northern Yellowstone Range, ...

Remarks: Modified: 04/11/2026

02/15/2021 -- We are looking further at rivers as means of transportations as well as being barriers starting with the Mississippi River system. Shortly, we will update this with regard to how the Gardner relates to the other two flows from this area that do not go to the Yellowstone River. 

02/16/2021 -- There was another Gardner in the area who was with the Gen. Ashley group. We will look at all in that party. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company had been founded by Ashley. It employed Jedediah Strong Smith. We will look at the North American fur trade, in general. 

06/20/2022 -- Recent flooding due to snow melt and heavy rain. Clobbered the area. 

04/11/2026 -- Changed (missing) photo of river with one from Wikipedia. 

Joseph Gardner

Joseph (WikiTree) was the youngest son. He was born in New England.

Joseph married Ann Downing who was the niece of John Winthrop. They did not have children.

Joseph was a lawyer as was his wife. Joseph was killed in the King Philip War. Ann married Simon Bradstreet. She drew up a pre-nup for him prior to their marriage.

• King Philip, Joseph and Ann - John Goff looks at the time of the war. 
• Aunts, uncles, cousins - we will take a special effort to remember this couple. 
• Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No 1. - featured this couple and their house which was given to them by Ann's mother. They lived there for years. After Joseph died and Ann remarried, the house was known as the Bradstreet house. It was Ann's house. She left it to a nephew, son of her brother-in-law (Samuel, line of Dr. Frank). 
• Houses, again - we have done several posts on houses. This one was motivated by a post in the Streets of Salem blog: First-period Fantasy. Many call this house the 'Bradstreet House.' Streets of Salem used 'Downing-Bradstreet' which is more correct. See image. 
• Chronicles of old Salem - the book mentions Joseph ( 1675) being killed. We are using it to fill in our text scroll (see the portal to truth). 

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Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Miriam, Seeth.

Remarks: Modified: 04/02/2022

12/01/2019 -- Added the image of the house of Ann and Joseph. Plus more links. We'll be updating these posts of the kids through time.

01/07/2020 -- Streets of Salem, on the house. Our comment. While searching, today, for more information about Joseph and Ann, we ran into two cases that prompted a look at the need for a Gardner's Gate. More on that (Gardner's Gate). Also, we found an interesting paper on JSTOR on the Downing family by George Crutcher Downing (dated 1908).

04/02/2022 -- Two references to Joseph and Ann: The Downings, Lorenzo and Peggy.

John Gardner

John (WikiTree) was the third son; he was born in England or in New England. There was been some controversy on that.

These posts of the children will pull together recent research as well as provide links to former work.

• John and the Merrimack survey - John was out as a young man with a crew that went to survey the Merrimack. No doubt, he was the muscle, however he would have learned a lot from the experience. 
• Mary (Gardner) Coffin - John's daughter married Jethro Coffin. Some say that this helped solve a long problem between two groups on Nantucket, namely the first settlers and the late-comers. 
• Sherborne - it was the brothers on Nantucket who kept the information about Sherborne as the place of origins alive. 
• Stories and unwindings - the Gardners had a good reputation on Nantucket. They were noted to have been educated which did not come from Harvard. The best guess? Their parents, especially Margaret. 

Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Miriam, Seeth.

List of descendants of John. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/31/2020 

12/09/2019 -- John and siblings was featured at our portal to truth (see Roll).

10/31/2020 -- Descendants of John. Friend of John: Giles Corey.

George Gardner

George (WikiTree) was the second son and was born in England.

 After he wrote his 1907 book on Thomas Gardner, Dr. Frank worked on the Gardner Memorial book (1933) which looked at the descendants of George Gardner.

These posts of the children will pull together recent research as well as provide links to former work.

• Gardner-Wyman-Peabody - this mill was owned by a descendant of George. 
• Gardner-Pingree - this house was owned by a descendant of George (and his brother, Samuel) and was lost by the family during the turmoils of the War of 1812 with its blockades that interrupted commercial naval activity. 
• Ruth Gardner - George's daughter married John Hathorne. 

List of descendants of George. 

Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Miriam, Seeth.

Remarks: Modified: 12/12/2020

12/09/2019 -- George and his siblings have been (are being) featured at our portal to truth.

12/13/2020 -- Added link to a list of descendants of George. 

Thomas Gardner

Thomas (WikiTree) was the eldest son, born in England. His parents (Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer) look to have been married in Sherborne, Dorset in 1617. There were baptism records in that area and time for Thomas, George, and Richard.

Thomas has several mentions in Salem records. Along with George, Samuel and Joseph (his brothers) he was "ordered to survey and measure from the meeting house to a meadow along the river Westerly from Salem." As well as being a cordwinder, Thomas kept a "merchandise store" with "10 pages of inventory" which was recorded at his death.

Thomas married 1) Hannah  in 1641 and 2) Elizabeth Horne in 1665. He had ten children.

Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Miriam, Seeth.

We are looking at the descendants of each child. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/13/2020

12/13/2020 -- Added link to the descendants of Thomas. 

Richard Gardner

We have a page for some of the children and will have one per. Why? There is open research being done, and post are a good way to collect material and comments.

There was an earlier one in which Richard and John featured. That dealt with Nantucket issues. Some of Richard's descendants were mentioned, such as Folger (coffee company) and Macy (store with the red star). we got to looking at Richard while tracking down the ancestry of the namesake of Fort Worth, TX: William Jenkins Worth who was a pre-Civil-War officer in the U.S. Army. One of his forebears married a descendant of Richard; however, she had died, and a new wife was involved. Those close-calls are interesting.

As we were collecting Thomas descendants (Wikipedia page), Richard's (WikiTree) descendant line was touched upon more often than it was for others. For instance, look at the category of "Academic/science/arts" for an example of this.

Richard named one of his daughters Miriam. He had a sister, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, so we just added some information about the niece.

One open issue is where was Richard born? It might have been England, however some claim that he was born here, in New England. This is an example, like that of Margaret Fryer, of work to be done by the family rather than from researchers looking at the wider scope. There are more which we will itemize.

Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Miriam, Seeth.

List of descendants of Richard. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/13/2020 

11/27/2019 -- The kids (each will have link): Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Miriam, Seeth.

12/13/2020 -- Added link to a list of descendants of Richard.