Elisha B. Gardner was born in
Chautauqua County, N.Y. Dec. 5, 1822, and was a son of
Eleazer and Cynthia Gardner, the former a native of New
Jersey, the latter of Connecticut. He attended school
until he was eighteen years of age, then engaged in farm
labor and in a saw-mill until 1854, when he came to
Clayton County, settling in Cass Towhsip. He entered a
farm of eighty acres, to which he has since added twenty
acres of timber, and is extensively engaged in farming
and stock-raising. He was married on March 11, 1852, to
Eunice Cooley, a native of Chautauqua County, N.Y. Of
seven children born of this union four are living--Adda,
Edward O., L.C. and Meed E. Mr. Gardner has held the
office of Justice of the peace four years, and that of
Township Trustee for twenty years. He is a member of the
Baptist church, and one of the men who have had the
fortitude to brave the hardships of pioneer life in the
West, and to whom much credit is due for the present
prosperous condition of Clayton County. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa, 1882, p. 695 |