Archibald Gardner
Encyclopedia
West Jordan, Utah
West Jordan is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. West Jordan is a rapidly growing suburb of Salt Lake City and has a mixed economy. According to the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 103,712, placing it as the fourth most populated in the state. The city occupies the...
and Star Valley
Star Valley
Star Valley is located in the United States between the Salt River Range in western Wyoming and the Webster Range of eastern Idaho. The altitude of the valley ranges from to . Three major Wyoming rivers, the Salt River, the Greys River and the Snake River meet near Alpine Junction at Palisades...
, Wyoming based on flour mills and lumber mills. After 1858 he was a leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a position that was held for 32 years.
As a businessman, millwright
Millwright
A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...
and practical engineer, Archibald Gardner built 36 gristmill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
s and lumber mills, 23 in Utah, six in Canada, five in Wyoming, and two in Idaho. He also built hundreds of miles of canals, and many bridges in Utah.
Alvinston, Ontario
Archibald was born on September 2, 1814 in KilsythKilsyth
Kilsyth is a town of 10,100 roughly halfway between Glasgow and Stirling in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.-Location:...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Archibald, brother Robert, and their mother emigrated to eastern Ontario, Canada (near to Port Dalhousie) in 1822, about one year after their father, sister Mary, and brother William. At 17, Archibald built his first mill by following the direction of his father. Six years later Archibald went on his own, moving to southwestern Ontario. In Alvinston, Ontario he built a gristmill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
in 1837 on the east end of the sixth concession of Brooke township. As was common to the technology of the period, Archibald Gardner's gristmills were "built without nails. Wooden pins and mortises were used instead. All shafts, bearings, cog wheels, etc. were of wood..." Gristmills often formed the economic center of a community, producing flour to bake bread. The gristmill area was on a hill that faces Alvinston. The area was called Gardner's Mill for several years. Archibald also built a saw mill in this area to produce shingles. Under business pressure, mostly based on his joining the LDS Church, Gardner sold his Alvinston area mills at a reduced price. Archibald fled Canada in 1846 for the United States, documenting a miracle escape across an ice flow filled river.
Mormon pioneer
In 1845, while living in Brooke, Kent, Western District, Canada (near Sarnia, OntarioSarnia, Ontario
Sarnia is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada . It is the largest city on Lake Huron and is located where the upper Great Lakes empty into the St. Clair River....
), later named Alvinston, Gardner followed the example of family members and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Archibald was forced by a 'legal' mob to flee to Detroit across a partly frozen river based on a false warrant (years later $10,000 was paid to Archibald for the business transaction that had caused the false warrant). The family and others, 100 wagons total, left Canada, meeting up with Archibald in Joliet, Illinois
Joliet, Illinois
Joliet is a city in Will and Kendall Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, located southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. As of the 2010 census, the city was the fourth-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 147,433. It continues to be Illinois' fastest growing...
. The Canadian group tried to meet up with Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
in Nauvoo
Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...
, Illinois. The group stayed in Nauvoo two weeks, and then caught up with the Mormon Exodus at Winter Quarters, Nebraska
Winter Quarters, Nebraska
Winter Quarters was an encampment formed by approximately 2,500 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they waited during the winter of 1846–47 for better conditions for their trek westward. It followed a preliminary tent settlement some 3½ miles west at Cutler's Park. The...
. In 1859 Gardner became an LDS Bishop of a local ward of about 600 members, a position that he held for 32 years.
Life in the West
Arriving in Utah in 1847, Gardner first built, with his brothers William, and Robert, a mill near Warm Springs. In 1848 the family moved the mill to a site on Mill Creek where the water flow was greater, in time for the fall harvest. There the family claimed to have sawed the first lumber in the Salt Lake ValleySalt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably West Valley City, Murray, Sandy, and West Jordan; its total population is 1,029,655 as of 2010...
. West Jordan business boomed with the building of a gristmill. "Gardner Mill inspired a cluster of small industries, including blacksmith shops, logging and hauling operations, woolen and carding mills, a tannery, several stores, a shoe shop, and later a broom factory". In total Archibald, partnering with many others, built 23 mills in Utah, with several of the mills selling its products to Camp Floyd
Camp Floyd
Camp Floyd was a short-lived U.S. Army post near Fairfield, Utah, United States. The site is now a Utah state park known as Camp Floyd / Stagecoach Inn State Park and Museum.-Camp Floyd:...
and Fort Douglas
Fort Douglas, Utah
Camp Douglas was established in October 1862 as a small military garrison about three miles east of Salt Lake City, Utah, for the purpose of protecting the overland mail route and telegraph lines along the Central Overland Route. In 1878, the post was renamed Fort Douglas. The fort was officially...
. Archibald, working with other partners, also built miles of canals, tunnels and bridges. Archibald's canals, tunnels and bridges of this period were predominately reimbursed by the Utah territorial legislature.
Archibald was also a miner and land developer, partnering and selling several mining properties. The largest was a site in Bingham Canyon
Bingham Canyon, Utah
Bingham was a city formerly located in southwestern Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, in a narrow canyon on the eastern face of the Oquirrh Mountains. The Bingham Canyon area boomed during the first years of the twentieth century, as rich copper deposits in the canyon began to be developed,...
, south of West Jordan, Utah
West Jordan, Utah
West Jordan is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. West Jordan is a rapidly growing suburb of Salt Lake City and has a mixed economy. According to the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 103,712, placing it as the fourth most populated in the state. The city occupies the...
, that was found in 1863 while logging with a partner. For several years Archibald was the county recorder, recording mining claims and other deeds in the Bingham Canyon area. From 1878-1882 Gardner served in the Utah Territorial Legislature.
Archibald, and brother Robert, became polygamists by the requests of Brigham Young, and the approval of their first wives. The last of Archibald's 11 wives was 'illegal', taking place after the 1862 Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act
Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act
The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act was a federal enactment of the United States Congress that was signed into law on July 8, 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln...
. Due to an unsettled polygamist status after 1882, Archibald was chased by federal agents enforcing anti-polygamy laws. In 1886 a trip to California to visit brother William was made. On his last trip evading federal agents Archibald visited Mexico, and brother Robert in southern Utah. In 1889 Archibald established a home in Afton, Wyoming
Afton, Wyoming
Afton is a town in Lincoln County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 1,818 at the 2000 census.Afton is home to the world's largest elk horn arch...
(Star Valley). In Star Valley
Star Valley
Star Valley is located in the United States between the Salt River Range in western Wyoming and the Webster Range of eastern Idaho. The altitude of the valley ranges from to . Three major Wyoming rivers, the Salt River, the Greys River and the Snake River meet near Alpine Junction at Palisades...
additional mills were built, he lived near and with two wives, Laura Althea Thompson, his fifth, and Mary Larson, his 11th, and near or with several of his 48 children. When Althea died in Afton in 1896, Archibald buried her in the Salt Lake cemetery's Gardner family plot. Archibald stayed on in Utah building another gristmill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
in Spanish Fork
Spanish Fork, Utah
Spanish Fork is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 31,497 as of the 2008 census estimate.-History:Spanish Fork was settled by LDS pioneers in 1851...
. Archibald Gardner died on February 8, 1902, and is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery
Salt Lake City Cemetery
thumb|The northern section of the cemetery at night, looking towards Salt Lake CityThe Salt Lake City Cemetery is in The Avenues neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah. Approximately 120,000 persons are buried in the cemetery. Many religious leaders and politicians, particularly many leaders of The...
. A new headstone was dedicated after a 1990 Afton, Wyoming family reunion when 5,000 of his 10,000 descendants attended.
Legacy
Gardner's life is memorialized by a plaque in Alvinston, Archibald's Restaurant, a restored gristmill in West Jordan at Gardner Village, and a monument in Afton Wyoming.The site where Archibald built his original flour mill in West Jordan, UT is now known as Gardner Village and features a collection of other early pioneer homes that now house shops and a restaurant dedicated to him called Archibald's Restaurant.
Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
Gold Medalist (in wrestling) Rulon Gardner
Rulon Gardner
Rulon Gardner is an American Olympian who competed in the 2000 Olympic games, winning the gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling upon defeating Russian Aleksandr Karelin, who was previously undefeated in 13 years of international competition...
is the great-great-grandson of Archibald Gardner.
Further reading
- Bartholomew, Becky. Gardner Mill and the Birth of Salt Lake Valley's West Side. History Blazer, November 1995.
- Carter, Kate B. and Daughters of Utah Pioneers. "Archibald Gardner, the Miller." Heartthrobs of the West, vol. 3, Salt Lake City, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1948.
- Carter, Kate B. and Daughters of Utah Pioneers. "Journal and Diary of Robert Gardner." Heartthrobs of the West, vol. 10, Salt Lake City, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1951.
- Dedication West Jordan Church. Deseret News, 1867-08-14.
- Furse, B. S., editor. A History of West Jordan. Salt Lake City, City of West Jordan, 1995.
- Hughes, Delilah Gardner Life of Archibald Gardner. American Fork, Alpine Publishing Company, 1939
- The Miller, the Bishop, and the “Move South” by William G. HartleyWilliam G. HartleyWilliam George Hartley is an American historian and author. He had written many books primarily on family history research, histories of specific families and 19th-century Latter-day Saint history.-Biography:...
, Brigham Young University Studies, Volume 20, no. 1 (1979), p. 99, Brigham Young UniversityBrigham Young UniversityBrigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
. (Covers West Jordan Mill activities in 1858)
External links
- Alvinston History by the Alvinston Community Access Program
- millpictures.com - Picture of Gardner Mill in West Jordan
- Rootsweb.com - Genealogy and Family info
- The Sprague Project - Family Information
- Archibald's entry at Find A GraveFind A GraveFind a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...
, including gravestones and obituary - The Archibald Gardner Family blog (blogspot.com) - includes photos of Robert and Archibald's birth-home in Scotland and a map of Robert's land grant in Canada where Archibald grew up