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Surnames: Gardiner, McCaughey, White, Ogden, Thomas
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Ui.2ADI/3299
Message Board Post:
Memorial Record of Northeastern Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1896, pp.
195-197.
GEORGE E. GARDINER, of Bluffton, Indiana, is truly a representative citizen of Wells
county. He also represents that great host of patriotic men who in response to their
country's call went out to battle for the union of the States in the great Civil war
from 1861 to 1865.
He is a native of Wayne county, Ohio, born April 4, 1835, and is the son of James and Jane
(McCaughey) Gardiner. The father was a native of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, but of
Irish descent, and the mother of Columbiana county, Ohio. George Gardiner, the grandfather
of our subject, was a native of Ireland, and there married Elizabeth White, who also was a
native of that country, and together they emigrated to America in the latter part of the
eighteenth century, locating in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where they resided many
years, and thence moved to Wayne county, Ohio. They were the parents of four sons and four
daughters. James Gardiner, the father of our subject, was born June 5, 1800, and married
October 9, 1827, to Miss Jane McCaughey, daughter of Joseph and Jennette McCaughey. Of
their family of eight children, all of whom grew to be men and women, only two are now
living -- George E. and Samuel. The deceased are Elizabeth, Jennette, Margaret, Sarah,
Jose!
ph and Wilson.
The early life of our subject was spent in his native State, and in 1849 he came with his
parents to Wells county, Indiana, where he has since continued to reside. Soon after
removing to Wells county, his father was seriously wounded in a wolf hunt and as a result
was disabled from performing manual labor during the remainder of his life. George was the
eldest son, and upon him fell the task of providing for the family. The country was then
new, money was scarce, and it may well be imagined that the family had a hard time in
making a respectable living. Our subject, however, was equal to the task imposed upon him,
and continued faithfully to serve the family until his marriage. By that time the children
were all grown and able to care for themselves. His educational advantages, it may be
surmised, were very limited indeed, but while his school-days were few in number by
constant reading and reflection he has become a well informed man.
When the war for the Union commenced, our subject was engaged in caring for the home farm.
The desire to enlist he withstood for a time, but in August, 1861, he enlisted as a
private in Company E, Thirteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under Col. S. S. Bass, of
Fort Wayne, who was subsequently killed at the battle of Shiloh. With his regiment, our
subject participated in all its battles, skirmishes, arid marches, including Shiloh,
Corinth, Iuka, Florence, Decatur, Huntsville, Stevenson and Battle Creek. At the latter
place he was prostrated with fever, removed to Nashville and placed in a hospital. After
slightly recovering, on account of disabilities received from exposure and forced marches,
he was discharged and returned to his home. On the restoration of his health he
re-enlisted, in Company A, Forty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and participated in
all the engagements in and around Mobile, Alabama. Notwithstanding the war closed in the
spring of 1865, he was retai!
ned in the service until October 26 following, when he was mustered out and honorably
discharged at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The patriotic fever in the family of our subject was not confined to him alone. His two
elder brothers, Joseph and Samuel, enlisted at the breaking out of the Rebellion, and two
years later the fourth brother, Wilson, also enlisted. Joseph and Wilson, in June, 1864,
were both killed in battle near Dalton, Georgia. Samuel received a wound, and from the
effects of the exposure still suffers from paralysis, which renders him entirely unfit for
any duty, but he has the warm sympathy of all around him. Few families in the entire
country gave more for the Union than that of James Gardiner.
On receiving his discharge, Mr. Gardiner at once returned to his home and engaged in
teaching school, but in the meantime he purchased a tract of land in the woods of Wells
county, which he improved and which he continued to cultivate until December, 1870, when
he was appointed Deputy Treasurer of the county. For five years he served in that office,
and in November, 1875, was elected County Auditor for a term of four years. No man that
ever held the position discharged its duties more faithfully than our subject. He retired
from the office at the expiration of his term broken in health, but with the good wishes
of all who knew him. He was subsequently a member of the City School Board of Bluffton,
and served several terms, -- in all fifteen years.
On the 24th day of September, 1863, Mr. Gardiner was united in marriage with Miss Mattie
E. Ogden, by which union there was one son, John R., who was born November 16, 1870, and
who is now married and assisting his father in the gas office at Bluffton. His wife died
September 26, 1885, and he subsequently married Mrs. M. C. Thomas.
In politics Mr. Gardiner was formerly a Republican, but is now a strong Democrat. He is a
prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, being a Knight Templar. He is also a member of
Lew. Daily Post, No. 33, G. A. R. He was reared in the United Presbyterian Church, but has
long since been identified with the Presbyterian Church of Bluffton, and is a Ruling Elder
in the same. In the erection of the handsome church edifice of that denomination he took a
very active part, giving almost his entire time to the superintendency of its
construction, and contributing liberally from his means. In everything he is a man of
principle, and in his private habits we may remark that he neither drinks intoxicating
liquors nor uses tobacco.
Mr. Gardiner was one of the organizers of the Bluffton Light and Fuel Company in 1879, and
for some years was one of the directors of the company and also its secretary. The
enterprise was sold to the Fort Wayne Gas Company in 1894, but Mr. Gardiner was retained
as secretary, and has held that position ever since. He is a stockholder in the Bluffton
Manufacturing Company, and also in the Bluffton Boot and Shoe Company. In every position
of trust he has been faithful, and no man stands higher in the estimation of the public.
Commencing life a poor boy, without help from any one, he has toiled on, enduring
hardships, and to-day is numbered among the well-to-do men of Wells county. While at all
times a strong party man, he has ever enjoyed a confidence and esteem not alone of his
political friends but also of his political opponents. Of a genial nature, he not only
makes but retains friends, and upon no one are honors more worthily bestowed than the
subject of this sketch.