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Archibald Gardner (1814 — 1902) was a 19th century pioneer and businessman who helped establish communities in Alvinston, Ontario, Canada, West Jordan, Utah and Star Valley, Wyoming. He was also an early leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As a businessman, Gardner built 36 mills, 23 in Utah, six in Canada, five in Wyoming, and two in Idaho. Gristmills often formed the economic center of a community.

In Alvinston, Ontario

Alvinston grew up around a gristmill Gardner built in 1837 on the east end of the sixth concession of Brooke township. Later, Gardner built a sawmill. Interestingly, Archibald Gardner's gristmills were "built without nails. Wooden pins and mortises were used instead. All shafts, bearings, cog wheels, etc. were of wood..." He dammed the Sydenham River to provide power to run two mill stones. Gardner's mill was the only gristmill within a radius of fifty miles. Often horses were unavailable and oxen could not be readily guided through the thick bush. Consequently, area settlers took their grain, or grist, to the mill in bags strapped to their shoulders, perhaps carrying fifty or more pounds along a blazed trail through swamps and bush. The area, a hill that faces Alvinston, was later called Gardner's Mill. The mill continued to serve the Alvinston, Ontario district until abandoned in 1874, though flour milling continued in the village until 1926.

Under pressure from disgruntled business associates, Gardner sold his mill to the Branan family at a reduced price and left Canada for the United States. At one point in his solitary journey Archibald raced across the Detroit River, jumping from one ice patch to the next in an effort to avoid his angry business partners. Harriet Beecher Stowe read of Archibald's escape in a Detroit newspaper and used several details in Uncle Tom's Cabin to describe a Southern slave escaping to freedom in Canada while being chased by an angry mob. The Detroit newspaper article is on display at a Harriet Beecher Stowe museum in western Ontario, Canada.

Mormon pioneer

Early LDS Church membership

In 1845, while living in Brooke, Kent, Western District, Canada (near Sarnia, Ontario), the area that was later named Alvinston, Gardner joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. His mother, father, sister and brothers had already become church members. In 1846 Gardner's family and other church members chopped a road through the bush to the London Road and left their homes and businesses to join the Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois. Archibald and his family arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois only to find that Brigham Young and most of Nauvoo's population had left weeks earlier. Gardner described the city : “There were plenty of homes open to us. We could have brick, frame, log or stone houses without cost. The Saints had nearly all left who were able to go, and their homes were standing empty and unsold. They had been driven out and what could not readily be disposed of was left behind. Some had furniture in‑‑chairs, bedsteads, etc.” After staying three weeks to gain supplies for the longer trip west along the Mormon Trail, Archibald and his family caught up with the main body of the Mormon Exodus in Winter Quarters, Nebraska.

Settlement in Utah

On 10 June 1847, Gardner left Winter Quarters for the Salt Lake Valley with the 2nd company under the leadership of John Taylor. In a train of 1500 people, Gardner was part of the second 100 wagons under the command of Edward Hunter, and was a Captain of the third ten. He traveled with his wife, children, his father and mother, brothers William and Robert, and their wives and families. Upon arriving, Gardner, and his family members, almost immediately started a temporary mill by disassembling their wagons. Archibald, Robert and William, started a permanent mill at Mill Creek in 1848, in time for the fall harvest.

In West Jordan, Utah

In 1859 Archibald became Bishop of a ward of about 600 members. He planned the sturdy rock church building. After many difficulties the cornerstone was laid May 15th, 1861. Many men worked for nothing; others were paid with produce. As a religious and community leader Archibald served as Bishop for 32 years. During the 1857-58 Utah War Archibald was a Captain in the Nauvoo Legion. At other times Archibald was a member a group of four Bishops near Salt Lake City that petitioned Brigham Young, as Governor of the Utah Territory, for a trading coop in West Jordan, which assisted in creating ZCMI.

Business and Public Service

As a miner and land developer, Archibald sold several mining properties. The biggest was in Bingham Canyon, south of West Jordan, Utah that was found in 1863 while logging with a partner.

In the 1878 Archibald was elected to a two-year term in the Utah Territorial Legislature. His last term ended in 1882.

Settlement in Wyoming

Utah polygamy came under Federal attack in 1882 by the Edmunds Act. Archibald, having married his 11th wife, Mary Larson in 1869, was forced to leave Utah and spent two months in Mexico. To avoid arrest by federal officers, Archibald and his 11th wife Mary eventually moved to Star Valley, building five more mills. Neil, a son from his first marriage, his wife, and Archibald's fifth wife Althea, joined Archibald there.

Archibald lived in Wyoming until 1896, until the death of Althea. Archibald returned to Salt Lake City to bury Althea in the family plot, and remained in the West Jordan area to live with his children from his first wife, although he visited Star Valley as late as 1900. Archibald built his final mill in Spanish Fork, Utah at age 85. Archibald Gardner died in 1902, at age 87, and is buried in the family plot in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Plural Marriage and Family

In 1849 Archibald Gardner entered into plural marriage at the urging of Brigham Young. With difficulty, he gained approval from his first wife and wed both Abigail Sprague and Mary Ann Bradford on the same day. Brigham Young was interested in assisting Abigail, and her four children, to find a husband after she and Fanny, an Indian girl, had greatly assisted in Native American translations and negotiations allowing the wagon train to safely reach Utah in 1847. The second plural wife was Archibald's original request for his first plural wife, but Brigham Young changed this plan. Fanny remained with Abigail's family and therefore she was also an Archibald Gardner family member. Abigail, Mary Ann, and Fanny are buried in the Archibald Gardner family plot in the Salt Lake City cemetery.

Archibald's extended families have been graced with several well-known citizens and athletes. Mary Larsen, for example, is the great, great grandmother of Rulon Gardner, a Gold Medal Olympic wrestler. In 1990, an Archibald Gardner reunion was held in Afton, Wyoming, with 5,000 attendees. At that time, Archibald Gardner had 10,000 descendants, with approximately 5,000 from Serena's descendants.

An earlier book on "The Life of Archibald Gardner" was in great part dictated by Archibald to Delila Hughes, a daughter. Delila's book, and the journals of Archibald, and his equally pioneering brothers, William, and Robert, provide the primary sources of this information.

Memorials

On August 16, 1946, one of the stones from Gardner's mill and a plaque were erected by Ontario members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, descendants and relatives of Archibald Gardner, and the Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmark Association. The stone was contributed by the Brooke and Alvinston Agricultural Society to whom it was presented by Duncan J. McEachren, who provided for its removal from the original mill site on the east bank of the Sydenham River near Alvinston.

In 1990, a monument to Archibald Gardner was erected in the town of Afton, Wyoming. The text of that monument says in part:

Noble, Generous, Kind and True to All

Pioneer of 1847

Born at Kilsythe, Scotland Sept. 2, 1814

Died in Salt Lake City, UT Feb 8, 1902

This monument has been erected as a tribute to him in remembrance of his accomplishments as a mill builder and his lifelong dedication to helping people. He arrived in Afton in October 1889. By December he was producing flour and lumber which were badly needed by the early settlers. The water powered mills were built at the mouth of Swift Creek Canyon. His foresight helped save the settlers from starvation the following winter. This monument is not just for his work in Star Valley. He was known as the pioneer builder of the west, having built over 35 mills, many canals and bridges. He faithfully served his family, church, community and country his entire life.

Notes

1. Gardner Mill and the Birth of Salt Lake Valley's West Side, by Becky Bartholomew, History Blazer, November 1995, as found May 2, 2007 on "Utah History to Go" section of utah.gov
2. http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/o/OQUIRRHMOUNT.html

References

• 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.
• Carter, Kate B. and Daughters of Utah Pioneers. Treasures of Pioneer History. Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1952.
• 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, Delia G. Life of Archibald Gardner. American Fork, Alpine Publishing Company, 1939.
• Warrum, Noble; Morse, Charles W.; and Ewing, W. Brown. Utah Since Statehood: Historical and Biographical. The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1920.

External links

• BYU Collection - Photograph
• Rootsweb.com - Geneology
• The Sprague Project - Family Information
• millpictures.com - Picture of Gardner Mill in West Jordan
• Journal (1814-1857) of Archibald Gardner
• Alvinston History

• Mormon pioneers
• Leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints