F. R. and W. T. Gardner

	This biography appears on pages 1033-1034 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	THE GARDNER BROTHERS are numbered among the representative 
business men of Hand county, where they have resided since the pioneer 
epoch in its history, and they are now prominently engaged in the 
general merchandise business in the attractive village of Ree Heights.  

	F. R. Gardner was born in Licking county, Ohio, on the 9th of May, 
1856, and W. T. Gardner, the junior member of the firm, was born in La 
Salle county, Illinois, on the 8th of June, 1858. They are sons of 
Gilson and Margaret (Humphrey) Gardner, five of whose children are 
living at the present time. The father of the subject devoted the major 
portion of his active life to agricultural pursuits, and his wife died 
in the state of Iowa in 1892. F. R. Gardner received his early 
educational training in the public schools of Iowa, and later continued 
his studies in the Iowa State Normal School at Cedar Falls, where he was 
graduated as a member of the class of 1880. He had previously completed 
a course in the high school, and thereafter was for three years 
successfully engaged in teaching in the public schools of Chickasaw and 
Boone counties, Iowa. In 1884 he came to Hand county, South Dakota, 
where his brother W. T. had previously located, and since that time they 
have been closely associated in their business enterprises. They here 
engaged in the ranch and live-stock business, to which they continued to 
give their attention until 1892, when they established their present 
general merchandise business in Ree Heights, where they have built up a 
large and prosperous trade, which is drawn from the wide radius of 
country normally tributary to the town. They carry a large and complete 
stock in each of the several departments and by their correct business 
methods and manifest integrity of purpose have gained and retained the 
unqualified confidence and esteem of the community. The firm is also 
associated with another brother, Newman A., in the ownership of the 
Orient State Bank, of Orient, South Dakota, which was opened for 
business in September, 1903, and which has met with a most gratifying 
popular support from the time of its inception. The brothers are the 
owners of about fourteen hundred acres of land in the county and have 
here attained a high degree of success through their well-directed 
endeavors. They are uncompromising Republicans in their political 
proclivities, and their religious faith is that of the Congregational 
church.  

	On the 2d of December, 1886, was solemnized the marriage of F. R. 
Gardner to Miss Kate M. Wetherell, of Janesville, Iowa, and they have 
three children, Charles W., Hugh H. and Margery. Fraternally Mr. Gardner 
is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.  

	W. T. Gardner, like his brother, was reared to the sturdy and 
invigorating discipline of the farm, and after completing the curriculum 
of the public schools he continued to be identified with agricultural 
pursuits in Black Hawk county, Iowa, until 1881, when he came as a 
pioneer to what is now the state of South Dakota. He settled first in 
Aurora county, where he took up land and remained thereon for two years, 
at the expiration of which he came to Hand county and eventually became 
extensively engaged in the ranching and stock-raising business with his 
brother, as has already been noted in this sketch. He first secured in 
this county a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land, in Spring 
Hills township, while the extensive holdings of the brothers in this 
section now aggregate, as noted, nearly fourteen hundred acres. The 
property is well improved and figures as an asset which is constantly 
appreciated in value.  

	On the 15th of April, 1895, W. T. Gardner was united in marriage 
to Miss Anna Wharton who was born in Iowa and reared in Hand county, 
South Dakota, and of this union has been born one son, Henry.