GARDNER, Charles Fitch, Captain
GARDNER, GILMAN, BROWN, DANFORD, GREGORY, JACOBS
Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 6/8/2009 at 15:50:05
The labors of Captain Charles Fitch Gardner have, in common parlance, placed Osage upon the map. His labors have made the city known throughout the length and breadth of America and also in foreign countries, to which his nursery stock has been shipped. He has been the prime mover in promoting one of the leading nurseries of the middle west and under the name of the Gardner Nursery Company is now conducting an extensive business at Osage. His study of every phase of the business has enabled him to base his activities on the most practical experience and the broadest scientific knowledge, and his opinions are sought by horticulturists throughout the country.
Captain Gardner is a native of New York. He was born in Laurens, Otsego county, on the 11th of October, 1843, his parents being Nathaniel Clark and Caroline (Gregory) Gardner, who were also natives of the Empire state, the birth of the former having occurred December 29, 1805, and the latter on the 9th of December, 1810. Their marriage was celebrated on the 24th of April, 1828, and in 1851 they established their home in Portageville, New York, where they remained for six years, removing thence to Iowa in 1857.
Prosperity attended the efforts of Mr. Gardner in his new home and, adding to his possessions from time to time, he became the owner of about nine hundred acres of land in Howard county, which he successfully cultivated until 1871, when he retired on account of his health and took up his abode in Osage, where his remaining days were passed, his death occurring July 31, 1884. His widow survived him until the 17th of September, 1894, when she, too, passed away in Osage. Captain Gardner spent the first fourteen years of his life in his native state and during that period attended the public schools, while later he supplemented his education by study through two winter terms in Iowa. He spent one season as a pupil in the schools of Riceville and the other in the schools of Chester, Iowa. At an early age he began assisting his father in the work of the fields and so became thoroughly familiar with the best methods of tilling the soil and caring for the crops. He was a youth of but seventeen years when the Civil war broke out, and he could no longer content himself to remain at home when the war had been in progress for a little more than a year. Accordingly, on the 7th of August, 1862, he joined Company A of the Eighteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, going to the front as a private.
For nearly a year he was stationed at Springfield, Missouri, and he participated in the engagements of Saline River, Moscow and Prairie De Ann, together with various other actions and skirmishes of his regiment, with which he was honorably discharged at Davenport, Iowa, on the 7th of August, 1865, just three years to a day from the time when he joined the "boys in blue."
Already Captain Gardner had come to realize fully the value of an education as a preparation for life's practical duties, and following his return from the army he attended the Cedar Valley Seminary from 1855 until 1867. In the spring of the latter year he purchased ten acres of land where the office of the Gardner Nursery is now situated and also an acre upon which he established his home. Already the name of Gardner had become associated with the nursery business in Howard county, for his father began operations along that line. Following the war, Charles F. Gardner purchased one hundred and twenty acres adjoining his father's place in Howard county and did some nursery work, growing small fruits.
He also engaged in selling large quantities of onion, radish, turnip and other vegetable and flower seeds, which were sold to storekeepers in the different Iowa settlements and to neighbors, at which period anyone living within a radius of forty miles was regarded as a neighbor. Because of the necessity for windbreaks, Nathaniel C. and Charles F. Gardner, the latter then about sixteen years of age, went to southern Minnesota, having learned from the Indians of pine forests in that district. They traveled up into the Root River country and brought back a supply of cedars and firs, which they planted on their place and sold to neighbors. The business at that time did not amount to a great deal, as Nathaniel C. Gardner did not push it to any great extent, and the nursery was still located in Howard county.
In 1868, however, Charles F. Gardner traded his land in Howard county for ten acres in Osage, Iowa, and some town lots. On that ten acre tract the Gardner Nursery was begun. In 1869 the first catalogue was issued by C. F. Gardner and the business was carried on under the name of the Osage Nursery for several years, being owned first by W. C. Gilman and C. F. Gardner, the partnership remaining continuous for five years, after which the interests were conducted under the firm style of Gardner & Harper for four years. On the expiration of that period the business was continued under the name of the C. F. Gardner Nursery for ten years and until 1901 was conducted under the style of Gardner & Son. In the latter year, however, the business was incorporated under the name of the Gardner Nursery Company, as it still continues. In the early days, and, in fact, up to 1901, the business was transacted by agents on the road. At that time the mail order department was established and still handles the sales end of the business.
In the early days of the nursery development the demand for trees for windbreaks made necessary the starting from seed of many thousands of evergreen trees, and the firm annually planted from two to two and a half tons of cedar and pine seed. Later they began cultivating largely nursery fruit trees and flowers of the "hardy northwestern" varieties, and this branch of the business is still an important feature of their interests. A contemporary writer has said of Mr. Gardner: "He makes a specialty of the propagation of plums, the Gardner strawberries, the everbearing strawberries and Oriental poppies. He has crossed the English walnut with the butternut very successfully. One riding over his place sees immense beds of asparagus, great vineyards where many kinds of grapes are cultivated, fruit trees of all kinds and all varieties of berry nursery stock." About 1880 he began experimenting with the everbearing strawberry and has continued until the present time and has promoted many varieties of exceptional size and quality, bearing fruit from the middle of July until the middle of October, when frost freezes the plant. The leading varieties cultivated are the Progressive Superb, the Peerless and Myrtle, the Major and No. 480, together with various others.
The No. 480 variety gets its name from the original plant, which when in season had four hundred and eighty blossoms, buds and berries on the plant at one time. The Gardner Nursery has over forty acres planted to strawberries and in addition to the sale of the plants they pick for market more than one thousand quarts per day for six days in the week and they have established a preserving factory, where they preserve and can for the market large quantities of everbearing fruits. The nursery employs from fifty to one hundred and twenty-five men regularly. They maintain a complete printing plant for getting out their catalogues and other printed matter, and their nursery product is shipped all over the United States and Canada and also into some foreign countries. This has developed into one of the largest enterprises of the kind in the Mississippi valley. In addition to the propagation of all kinds of nursery stock, the company grows flowers and hardy shrubs. Captain Gardner is a valued life member of the State Horticultural Society of Minnesota and of the State Horticultural Society of Iowa. He has been president of the latter for three years and is also one of its directors. He has served on the board and he has been president of the Northwestern Iowa Horticultural Society.
Captain Gardner has been married twice. He wedded Miss Emma A. Gilman on the 13th of January, 1867, and she passed away July 28, 1878, leaving two children: Clark, who is vice president and manager of the Gardner Nursery Company; and William C. On the 16th of February, 1880, Captain Gardner was again married, at which time Miss Rosa M. Brown became his wife. They are the parents of two daughters: Nellie B., the wife of Arthur Danford, living in Raymond, South Dakota; and Maude, the wife of Samuel Jacobs, whose home is Spring Valley, Minnesota.
Captain Gardner proudly wears the little bronze button that proclaims him a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and has been most prominent in the local organization to which he belongs, serving for five terms as post commander and for twenty years as adjutant of the post. He was chief mustering officer of the encampment at Detroit, Michigan. His interest in military circles never abating, he became identified with the National Guard, in which he remained active for a number of years. He served with the rank of first lieutenant in Company B and later in Company K of the Sixth Regiment of the Iowa National Guard for three years and was captain of the latter company for ten years. He has likewise figured prominently in public office, outside of military connection and undoubtedly still higher political honors would have been given him had he cared to accept them. He served as court reporter of the twelfth judicial district in 1872 and 1873. He filled the office of member of the city council for three years, was on the school board for three years and for eight years or more occupied the position of justice of the peace.
There is no plan or project for the upbuilding and development of Osage and this section of the state that does not receive his hearty endorsement and cooperation, and as a business man he has contributed in marked measure to the material development and progress of his city and county. He has displayed [he spirit of initiative that has carried him far beyond the point that others have attained in connection with the nursery business. He has studied his interests from a scientific standpoint, while practical effort has greatly broadened his knowledge and promoted his efficiency. Recognizing opportunities that others pass heedlessly by, he has steadily progressed until today the name of Captain Charles Fitch Gardner and of the Gardner Nursery Company is known throughout the length and breadth of this land.
Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, 1918, Vol. II, pages 32-37.
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