Mary Elizabeth Gardner 1856 - 1936

GARDNER, OLIVER, MERKLE, STORY, LUTHER

Posted By: Dorothy (email)
Date: 5/21/2010 at 11:19:17

Mary Elizabeth Oliver Gardner was born in New York
City, May 16, 1856, one of three daughters and one
son of Ebeneezer Oliver and Eliza Merkle.
Her father came from England to this country as a boy
and later founded the first Woven Wire Manufacture
to be established in the United States. Her mother
was from a respected Holland-American family.
As a girl Mrs. Gardner attended private schools in
New York City where she received her primary education,
completing it at a girls finishing school in her home city.
In 1886 she came west to visit with an old school companion.
While on this visit she met Babel Gardner and within
the year they were joined in holy wedlock. By this
marriage were born six children: James Oliver Gardner,
Puyallop, Washington; Viola Story Enid, Oklahoma;
Lester E. Gardner, Ft. Waren, Wyoming; Bessie
Luther, Oelwein, Iowa; Ebbe Gardner, died in infancy
and George R. Gardner, Des Moines. Iowa, Besides
these of her progeny there remain to mourn her
loss, twenty-six grand children, and fourteen great
grand children; besides six step sons, two step
daughters and a number of step grand children, to
whom she was the only grandmother they knew
and whom they loved as such.
Funeral services were held Saturday afternoon at the
Presbyterian church. Burial was Lima, Iowa.

Oelwein Daily Register - 11 Aug 1936