A Compiled History
of Benjamin Gardner
1800-1875
(2nd edition, rev., May 19, 2011)
By
Don Emerson Gardner
Copyright 2011 Don E. Gardner
ii
Preface
My goals in 2011 in creating this compiled history of my third great grandfather, Ben
jamin Gardner are to: (1) preserve in digital format the materials about Benjamin and his
wife Electa that I have collected over the years, carefully documenting sources, (2) make
these publicly available to their many descendants, and (3) enhance the record with a few
key pho tographs and scanned images.
Regarding the latter, we currently live in the old Randall home1 at 2164 North Fruitland
Drive in North Ogden, Utah (see photo on front cover). Built around 1936, the home is loc
ated about 100 yards from the site of the former Blodgett-Barker grist mill on Coldwater
Creek. This is the mill that Benjamin helped set up and operated from 1857 to 1869.
There is no sign of the mill there today. However, Steve Stuart, who lives at 916 E.
2100 N. and whose property backs up to Coldwater Creek below the old mill site, said that he
was among those that participated in the cleanup of the creek after the major Utah flooding
that occurred in the spring of 1983. In the process, they uncovered and removed several long
thick beams from the creek bed that were probably from the old millrace. Approximately three
quarters of a mile north is a monument marking the location of the North Ogden fort where
the drama of Benjamin's famous incident with the Indian played out. Hopefully, images of
these locations will help living relatives envision the lives of their pioneer ancestors.
1The former home of Earl and Naomi Randall, the author of the words to the iconic Mormon hymn, “I Am a Child
of God.” Our grandchildren enjoy sleeping in the small bedroom where Naomi penned the words in 1957.
Table of Contents
Beginnings........................................................................................................................1
Nauvoo Period..................................................................................................................5
Preparation for the Move West........................................................................................7
Trek to Utah......................................................................................................................9
Working Mills in Weber County......................................................................................13
Life in North Ogden........................................................................................................17
The Famous (or Infamous) Incident with the Indian......................................................21
Final Years.....................................................................................................................23
Beginnings
Benjamin Gardner was born in Johnstown, Montgomery County, New York, August 19,
1800, the son of Nathaniel B. Gardner (born October 17, 1765, in Erie County, Pennsylvania),
and Hannah Briggs (born June 7, 1767, in Rutland, Vermont). Nathaniel and Hannah were
married January 10, 1786,2 and were the parents of sixteen children. They homesteaded 180
acres of land which he later divided among his children. Two of his children joined the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Benjamin and Margaret, who later married
Jonathan Wells.
In the early eighteen hundreds, Benjamin moved with his parents and family to Erie,
Pennsylvania.3 It was said there were only three houses in Erie City at the time.4
Mill Creek, in Erie, Pennsylvania
2 From “A Short Sketch of Benjamin Gardner, Grandfather of Robert Nathaniel Gardner, Sr.” The marriage date
of Nathaniel and Hannah is reported by multiple sources as January 10, 1876, which is the date shown here, but
which is different from the June 15, 1786, date reported by this source. My original of this manuscript sketch
says it was “given to us by Uncle Joe and Aunt Mary Gardner.” Presumably this refers to Benjamin and Electa’s
twelfth child, Joseph Smith Gardner, born March 15, 1847, in Vernon, Van Buren County, Iowa. Joseph married
Mary Elizabeth Williams on March 15, 1869, and died March 20, 1935.
3 According to a Wikipedia entry, settlement of the area began in 1795 after a survey by the General Assembly of
Pennsylvania. Erie is situated on the south-central shore of Lake Erie between Cleveland, Ohio, Buffalo, New
York, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is in the “snow belt” that stretches from Cleveland to Syracuse, New York
and is one of the snowiest places in the United States. Its winters are “typically cold, with heavy lake effect
snow, but also with occasional stretches of mild weather that causes accumulated snow to melt.”
4 From “Biography of Benjamin Gardner,” by Mary Elizabeth Williams Gardner. “Copy reproduced by permission
of Christabell G. Poulsen,” date unknown.
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Benjamin married Electa Lamport, May 29, 1822. She was born March 5, 1800. Her
father was William Lamport, her mother was Martha Babbitt. William and Martha never
came to Utah.5
Benjamin and Electa cleared timber off the land, built a house and made their home in
Erie County, Pennsylvania. Here ten of their children were born as follows (with a short sum
mary of known facts about each):
1. Benjamin Gardner, born November 24, 1823, (died the same day).
2. Hannah Gardner, born December 19, 1824, (married George S. Mason, March 22,
1855. George and Hanna had three children, all born in Willard, Utah. Hannah died
April 10, 1861, in Ogden, Utah).
3. William Lamport Gardner, born February 3, 1827, (married Angeline Gould, March
3, 1851, at Council Bluffs, Iowa. William died July 13, 1893).
4. Belinda Sophia Gardner, born May 16, 1829, (died June 22, 1829).
5. Nathaniel Brandley Gardner, born May 8, 1830, (died April 16, 1851 at Council
Bluffs, Iowa).
6. Mahala Gardner, born February 5, 1833, (married Robert Hughes, March 10, 1861, in
North Ogden, Utah. Robert and Mahala had two children. There is no mention of what
happened to Robert, but Mahala was married a second time, to William Cole, on April
10, 1868. They made their home in Riverdale, Utah where five children were born to
them. Mahala died April 10, 1915 in Ogden, Utah.)
7. Milo Van Duzen Gardner (my second great grandfather), born June 4, 1835, in Wash
ington, Erie County, Pennsylvania, (Milo married Margaret Montgomery September
29, 1859, in North Ogden, Utah. They made their home there until 1868, when they
moved to Deweyville, Utah. Milo and Margaret had eleven children. Milo died in
Deweyville, Utah, March 26, 1908).
5 “A Short Sketch . . .”
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8. Lucinda Gardner, born May 10, 1837, (married James Leithead, March 7, 1856, in
Farmington, Utah, where they made their home for many years. While there, five
chil dren were born to them. They eventually left Farmington and moved to St.
Thomas, Nevada,6 then to Glendale, Utah. From Glendale they moved to Lovell,
Wyoming. James died in Lovell, March 31, 1908. Lucinda died in Lovell, April 16,
1917).
9. Martha Belinda Gardner, born October 12, 1839, (married Daniel Webster
Holdaway, April 16, 1857, in North Ogden, Utah, where they lived and had five
children. Martha died in North Ogden, May 18, 1907. Daniel died July 3, 1914).
10. Electa (Etta) Ann Gardner, born March 1842, (married John Montgomery,
September 29, 1859, in North Ogden, Utah, where they lived all their lives. John
and Electa Ann had ten children).
On June 17, 1840, Benjamin and Electa Lamport Gardner were baptized into the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or “Mormon”) by Elder John M. Adams. In
1843, they, with their family of eight children living at the time, left Pennsylvania to gather
with the “Saints” at Nauvoo, Illinois. Benjamin’s youngest sister, Margaret Gardner Wells
(as pre viously mentioned, she married Jonathan Sawyer Wells) and their family
accompanied them.
They stopped near Perry, Geauga County, Ohio, to pay Electa’s father, William Lam
port, a visit. He was living there with his third wife, Ann Turner. This was the last time Electa
saw her father or any of her brothers.7
6 St. Thomas, Nevada, was founded by Mormon settlers led by Thomas Smith in 1865. With a population of
about 500 at its peak, St. Thomas became an established town of farms and businesses. The Mormons aban
doned St. Thomas in February 1871 due to a shift of the Nevada State line one degree longitude to the East,
which put all the Mormon settlements known as the Muddy Mission in Nevada instead of Utah. The state of
Nevada then attempted to collect taxes for previous years payable only in gold from the residents. They chose to
leave without paying in 1871. The Mormons moved to Utah, where many of them founded new towns in Long
Valley (present day Glendale, Orderville, and Mount Carmel). Source: Wikipedia.
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7“Biography of . . .”
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(Intentionally Blank)
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Nauvoo Period
Benjamin and Electa arrived in Nauvoo in the early fall of 1843. After visiting with the
Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith, they went twenty miles south of Nauvoo and settled on Bear
Creek on Green Plains, north of Morley Settlement. Benjamin bought 160 acres of land from
a Mr. Sturg.
From original research conducted by my mother (Yvonne Ruth Patten Gardner), we be
lieve Electa was pregnant at the time with their eleventh child, a baby boy named Thomas
Gardner, who was born on Christmas Day, December 25, 1843. (“Thomas” was a Briggs
family name from Electa’s mother’s family.) Unfortunately, according to a cryptic entry in the
Nauvoo Neighbor, he lived just six days and died on January 1, 1844.8
Benjamin’s family lived on the farm they bought from Mr. Sturg until September 10,
1845, when a mob destroyed their crops and burned their home, compelling them to leave.
At the time, all the family except two, were sick. The mob rode up in the morning be
fore sunrise to burn the house and ordered the family out. Benjamin went to the gate, talked
with and told the mob the family was sick and he had no place to take them or care for them.
But it made no difference to the mob.
Fifteen-year-old Nathaniel got out of his bed, crawled through the back window and
hid their gun and ammunition in a corn shock. The mob helped carry out the bedding and
lay it on the dew covered grass, then carried out the sick ones and put them on the beds.
They then set fire to the house and left to serve others the same way. Electa cooked
breakfast over the coals of the burning house.
When the news of the mobbing and burning reached Nauvoo, Jonathan Wells (Ben
jamin’s brother-in-law) went with his team and wagon to retrieve Benjamin and his family. He
took them to his home in Nauvoo, where they stayed for some time. When they returned to
the site of the fire to retrieve their corn and some things they had left in a cellar, it was all
gone, taken by the enemy.9
8 Research notes and LDS ordinance data from Yvonne R. Patten Gardner, in possession of Don E. Gardner.
9“Biography of . . .”
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During the Nauvoo Period, Benjamin was acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith
and the twelve apostles. He was one of the guards of the Nauvoo Temple.10 He was also
ar rested (we do not know for what, other than this was a common tactic of those
persecuting the Mormons at the time) and put in prison some distance away for six or eight
weeks. The jailer eventually grew tired of keeping him there without a trial and turned him
loose. He and a companion traveled back to Nauvoo in the night and hid in the corn fields
during the day.
They arrived home in the night of the third day.
The family lived for a time across the river from Warsaw and Nauvoo, near Keokuk,
Iowa. While living near Keokuk, Electa would take one of the boys and go to Warsaw when it
was necessary to go to the mill or on any other business. This was because of the Mormon
men being so brutally treated by the mob when they were caught away from their homes.
Electa said at one time her daughter, Hannah (then about age twenty), was working
for a wealthy family in Warsaw. Electa went to visit her and was invited to dine with the
family.
She sat down to the table spread with the best kind of food but could not eat when she
thought of her children at home without food. She said her “heart swelled within her until she
could not eat.”11
10"A Short Sketch . . ."
11"Biography of . . ."
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