Utah-Salt Lake County UT Archives Biographies.....Gardner, James H. 1859 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 2, 2011, 3:23 pm

Source: See below
Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher

JAMES H. GARDNER.

    Thoroughness in all that he has undertaken has led to the consecutive
progress of James H. Gardner in the business world until he now occupies the
responsible position of general superintendent of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company
at Lehi. He is a representative of one of the old pioneer families of Utah, his
parents being Archibald and Jane (Hamilton) Gardner. The father was a son of
Robert Gardner and a grandson of William Gardner, also natives of Scotland. The
father and the grandfather came to America and made their way to Utah in the
Edward Hunter company, traveling across the plains with ox teams and arriving at
Salt Lake City on the 1st of October, 1847. Archibald Gardner was born in
Kilsyth, Scotland, September 2, 1814.   His father was a carpenter by trade and
worked along that line in Scotland until because of uprisings in that country he
made his way to Canada and was there residing when he joined the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1837. He afterward removed to Nauvoo, Illinois,
where he was residing during the troublous times when the people of his faith
suffered many hardships and persecutions. In 1847 he came to Utah and through
the intervening period, covering seventy-two years, the family name has figured
prominently upon the pages of the history of this state. Archibald Gardner
learned the milling trade in Canada and in the winter of 1847-8 he built and set
up a sawmill within the fort wall at Warm Springs, Salt Lake City, where St.
Mark's Hospital now stands. In the spring of the latter year he was the first
man released from the fort and took the mill to Millcreek, where he set it up,
operating the first sawmill in Utah and sawing the first lumber manufactured in
the state. This constituted the starting point of his business career, which in
its development placed him among the most prominent residents of Utah. He built
altogether thirty-six different mills in the state, including sawmills, flour
mills and woolen mills. It was Archibald Gardner who erected the first woolen
mill in Utah, with Brigham Young as his partner, in the year 1856. He also built
shingle mills and was engaged in the construction of its roads, dams, irrigation
ditches and canals. In fact his entire work was of a character that contributed
in substantial measure to the development and improvement of the state. He built
the first dam on the Jordan river in the early '60s at Jordan Narrows, the dam
being constructed of rock and oak brush. Its durability is indicated in the fact
that it was torn out only in 1918. It was regarded by the best engineers of the
country as a great work. As time passed Mr. Gardner made extensive investments
in land until he became the owner of large property holdings. He lived at West
Jordan, where for thirty-five years he filled the office of bishop in the
church. He was also a member of the territorial convention on two different
occasions. At the time of his death, which occurred in 1902, he was one of the
patriarchs of the church. He had at one time eleven living wives and his
children numbered forty-seven.

    James H. Gardner was the only child of his father's ninth wife and was born
at Millcreek, July 27, 1859. His school advantages came to him through winter's
attendance in the graded schools of Salt Lake county and he was reared upon his
father's farm and in young manhood worked in the lumber camps. He went to Hawaii
on a mission, remaining in that island country for three and a half years,
during which time he was assigned to work in the sugar mills there and became a
thorough master of the art of boiling sugar. A portion of his time was also
spent in traveling and teaching among the natives. In 1884 he returned to Utah,
where he resumed farm work. Soon afterward he was married and removed to Idaho,
where the town of Ucon now stands, the district then being known as Willow
Creek. He took up government land and remained in that state for four years, on
the expiration of which period he became a resident of Lehi, being called to
that place to become a sugar boiler at the factory during its initial
operations. He was soon made night foreman and a few years later was advanced to
the position of general foreman, while subsequently he became general
superintendent of the Lehi factory, which is the largest sugar factory in Utah.
At the present writing he is the general superintendent of all the Utah-Idaho
sugar factories and is chairman of the technical board. This brief outline of
his career in connection with the sugar industry indicates plainly his ability,
which has led to consecutive promotions until his position in connection with
sugar manufacturing is a most enviable one, his reputation making him known not
only throughout Utah but in many other states. Nor has he confined his attention
to but a single line, for he is a large landowner, holding twelve hundred acres
which are operated by his sons. He has upon his place full farm equipment,
including tractors, threshing outfits and all the latest improved machinery and
accessories. In addition to the development of the soil cattle raising is
carried on extensively and successfully and considerable attention is given to
fruit raising, for he has excellent orchards. Mr. Gardner is also the vice
president of the State Bank of Lehi and a director of the Bank of American Fork.
He, too, has been connected with irrigation projects. Before his father died he
had planned to pump water out of Lake Utah to irrigate Salt Lake county and
James H. Gardner put through this project in partnership with M. W. Ingalls, of
Salt Lake, in the year following his father's death, at a cost of forty thousand
dollars. This Mr. Gardner regards as his greatest undertaking for the benefit of
the people of Salt Lake county. The pumping plant is now owned by the city of
Salt Lake and Canal Company and since it has been in operation it has supplied
water to the irrigation companies and to Salt Lake City.

    On the 15th of October, 1886, Mr. Gardner was married to Miss Rhoda P.
Huffaker, a daughter of Simpson D. Huffaker, one of the Utah pioneers of 1847.
They have become the parents of nine children. Hamilton, an attorney of Salt
Lake, was graduated from the University of Utah and from the law school of
Harvard University, which conferred upon him the LL. B. degree. While a student
at Harvard he wrote an article on the cooperation of the. Mormons in Utah for
the Scientific Journal of Harvard and this has been widely published throughout
the world and is regarded as a masterpiece. Hamilton Gardner served as a
missionary to Germany for three years and during the recent World war he was a
captain of the Three Hundred and Forty-sixth Field Artillery. on active duty in
France. Archibald, the second son, who is on his father's ranch, is a graduate
of the University of Utah, in which he completed the civil engineering course.
His missionary service covered two years in the Hawaiian Islands. Viola is the
wife of Virgil Goates, of Lehi. Vera is the wife of Robert Pixton, of Provo, who
is associated with Virgil Goates as proprietors of the Lehi Mercantile Company.
Reid is interested with his father in farming. Roy, Marion, Fern and Lois are
the younger members of the family. The daughters, Viola and Vera, are also
graduates of the University of Utah, Mr. Gardner ever according his children
most liberal educational opportunities. His son Reid became a member of the
Field Artillery at Camp Jackson and was second lieutenant. The elder son,
Hamilton, in 1913 edited a history of Lehi which was published by the Deseret
News of Salt Lake.

    In the work of the church James H. Gardner has continued active and for
thirteen and a half years served as bishop of the second ward of Lehi. He is a
high priest and a member of the High Council of the Alpine Stake. In community
affairs, too, he has always taken a deep and helpful interest and served as
county commissioner of Utah for a two years' term and again for a four years'
term. He has likewise been a member of the city council of Lehi and president of
the Commercial Club of that city. In November, 1919, he was elected mayor of
Lehi. He spends most of the business hours in his Salt Lake office but makes his
home in Lehi, occupying an attractive brick residence which was built in 1896.
His career is a notable one as a successful achievement, but there have been no
esoteric chapters in his life history, his progress being the direct result of
close application, thorough study, undaunted energy and persistency of purpose.
He has qualified for the responsibilities which are now his as the general
superintendent of one of the most important productive industries of the west
and he is regarded throughout the country as an expert on the subject of sugar
manufacturing.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

UTAH SINCE STATEHOOD
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL

ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME IV
CHICAGO-SALT LAKE: THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1920


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