Freestone County, Texas
Biographies 



Biography of Judge Benjamin Howard Gardner
      (June 10, 1854-13 Apr 1947, buried (East Hill portion of) Palestine City 
        Cemetery in Palestine, TX.)

Book - Biographical Sketches from Limestone, Freestone, and Leon Counties, Texas.  
Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1893.  p. 256.

  Hon. B. H. Gardner, a lawyer and citizen of Palestine, Texas, member of the 
firm of Burnett, Gardner & Webb, was born in Montgomery, Alabama, June 10, 1854.  
He is a grandson of Rev. Thomas Gardner, an able divine of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, who was for many years a prominent figure in church
circles in the State of Georgia.  The father of the subject of this sketch was a 
prominent lawyer of Alabama, and a stanch Whig in politics.  Previous to the 
late war, he owned and edited the Southern Shield, of Eufaula, for a number of
years, and was subsequently one of the proprietors and editors of the Alabama
Journal, the leading Whig paper of that State. He was also a member of the 
Legislature for several terms.  He served in the late civil war as Captain of
the Quitman Guards, of Troy, Alabama. In 1872 and 1873 he was Attorney General
of his State.  He still survives, at the age of seventy-eight years, but is
almost blind from cataract, and, after many good and useful years, now rests 
from his labors.  He possesses great intellectual force, is independent and 
clear-cut in his views, and yet of kindly, gentle manners, a broad charity, 
pure life and conversation. As a sequence of the possession of these cardinal 
qualities, he has extended a wide influence for good in the localities in 
which he has lived.  He has been for many years an earnest and useful member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He has been married several times 
and has a large family of children.  His wife, Mrs. Harriet L. Gardner, the 
mother of the subject of this sketch, who died in 1861, at the age of thirty-
eight years, was a lady of unusual spiritual strength, with a rare gift of good
influence over young and old.  Her presence brought healing to the stricken 
heart, and to all an inspiration of goodness and love.  She also was a devoted 
member of Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
  Mr. Gardner, whose name heads this sketch, was reared and educated in Alabama.
He read law under his brother, John D. Gardner, of Troy, and also pursued his
studies with his father, being admitted to the bar of Alabama in 1875.  He at
once commenced practice with his brother, with whom he remained one year.  He
then, in 1876, removed to Fairfield, Texas, where he was successfully engaged 
in the practice of his profession for a number of years.  He was their 
appointed County Attorney by the Commissioner's Court, and afterward elected to
the same office.  He served able in that capacity for three years.  During the
last eighteen months of his residence in Fairfield he was also engaged in the
banking business.  In January, 1892, he came to Palestine and formed the present
partnership.  His firm have a large general practice, extending over several 
counties. 
  Mr. Gardner was married in 1881, to Miss Carrie Bonner, daughter of Rev. T. J.
Bonner, now of Palestine but formerly of Bonner, Freestone county, Texas, which
town is named in his honor.  William Bonner, Mrs. Gardner's grandfather, and his
brother, Dr. John Bonner, were two wealthy planters who came from Wilcox county,
Alabama, before the last war, to Texas and settled in Freestone county.  The two
brothers had several grown sons and daughters, with families.  Among them was
Rev. T. J. Bonner, who also came out about the same time.  Both William and John
Bonner died about 1876.  William was a very influential member of the Associate
Reformed Presbyterian Church.  They have six children: Harriet Lucile, deceased 
at the age of nineteen months; Annie-Joe; Carrie-Lou; Flossie Belle; Mattie-Cad,
[Page 257]
and Willie Pearl.  Both Mr. and Mrs. Gardner are church members, the former of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the latter of the Reformed 
Presbyterian Church.
  Politically, Mr. Gardner is Democratic, and takes a lively interest in public 
affairs, but in a quiet way.  Socially, he is a member of the Masonic order and
of the Knights of Honor.
  Of unusual legal acumen and untiring energy, Mr. Gardner has gained an 
enviable position in his profession, while his thorough integrity and great
fidelity of character, have gained for him the confidence and esteem of his 
fellow men.