Butte County
Biographies
GEORGE E. GARDNER
GEORGE E. GARDNER.--A practicing
attorney at law who enjoys the confidence and esteem not only of the
intelligent public but of his fellow attorneys in the legal profession is
George E. Gardner who was born in Batchelor Valley,
Stanislaus County,
on March 24, 1869, the son of George Gardner, a native of Springfield,
Ohio. His grandfather, Jacob Gardner, was
born in Germany, and settled, an
industrious farmer and a conscientious Lutheran, in the Buckeye
State. About 1856, when George
Gardner was seven years old, Jacob brought his family across the plains with
the usual slow-going ox-teams; and arriving in California,
they settled in Batchelor Valley,
where he became a stock farmer. Later, he located near Porterville,
Tulare County,
taking up his residence there at or about the time of the great centennial
festivities of the nation; and there, respected by all who knew him, he died.
George
Gardner was educated at the public schools of Stanislaus County, and was early
broken into the hard work of a farmer and stock-raiser; and after an arduous
life, in which he thought first of his duty towards his family and others
associated with him, rather than of his own ease and comfort, he died at
Porterville, on December 24, 1901, aged fifty-two. His wife, who had been Miss
Lucy A. Smith before her marriage, was born in Missouri,
of Scotch descent, and when hardly ten years old came with her parents across
the great plains, her mode of transportation being one
of the none to palatial prairie schooners drawn by ox-teams. Her grandfather,
L. D. Smith, settled in San Joaquin County
and then came to Stanislaus County,
where he had a sheep ranch, working also as a miner. Mrs. Gardner now resides
at Porterville, the mother of four boys, three of whom are
still living, namely: William H., a dredge-builder at Sacramento;
Jacob A., an electrician at Porterville;
and George E., the subject of this sketch.
George
E. Gardner attended the public schools of Tulare
County and graduated from the Stockton
high school, after which he began the study of law, entering the office of
Brown and Daggett, attorneys, at Porterville.
Coming to Butte County,
in 1890, he passed the required examinations and was admitted to practice
before the supreme court. He began practice in
Gridley, where he remained for a year, when he opened an office in Oroville;
and here he has been ever since.
Having
been once elected city attorney of Oroville, Mr. Gardner received the high
compliment at the hands of the public in being reelected to that responsible
office. He organized the city, wrote the necessary ordinances and started the
machinery of government here. For four years, also, he was assistant district
attorney under Col. Lon Bond. A Democrat in his stand on political matters
other than those affecting local affairs, Mr. Gardner's experience and
leadership have often been sought in the councils of his party. An attorney of
prominence, he is a member of the California State Bar Association.
Mr.
Gardner was married in Visalia to Miss Susie W. Young, a
native of Tulare County,
by whom he has had four children: Raymond E. and Mona C., in attendance at the State
University; Stanley
and Billy. The former is now in the service of the United States Government in
the Naval Aviation Service.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 809-810, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Sande Beach.
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