Sacramento County
Biographies
JOHN WILBUR GARDINER
JOHN WILBUR GARDINER--Prominent among the financial leaders in Sacramento County who are steadily contributing much toward the rapid development of this favored portion of the Golden State, is undoubtedly John Wilbur Gardiner, the president of the popular Bank of Isleton. He was born in Isleton on February 15, 1884, and is the son of Philip Hogate and Ida (Pool) Gardiner, whose interesting life-story is narrated elsewhere in this work. He was sent to the Isleton schools, and has grown up in the town, being identified even in his youth with the development of the locality, so that by reason of birth and early association he has the interests of the community at heart. His maternal grandfather, and a friend of his, named the town Isleton, and his folks are inseparably connected with the history of the promising burg. In 1900, Philip H. Gardiner erected the Odd Fellows Building, and moved his general merchandise business to its lower story; and since the elder Gardiner's death, our subject has been in charge of the ranch, and the expanding interests there, and has otherwise pushed forward enterprises bound to be of great importance to all who settled here.
The building for the Bank of Isleton, for example, was put up by John W. Gardiner in 1918, with fine apartments in the second story; and upon the organization and opening of the bank in 1919, he became its logical president. In 1921 he also erected just across the street from the bank building, a business block known as the Gardiner Improvement Company Building, in the second story of which there are well-appointed apartments. In addition, he is one of the promoters and builders of the new cannery establishment for the putting up of asparagus and vegetables at Isleton, and is a member of the advisory board of the Bank of Italy at Sacramento. The Gardiner Rancho is devoted to the growing of fruit and garden truck, and being under exceptionally skilful management, it is a profitable investment. Mr. Gardiner is intensely interested in the upbuilding of Isleton and the Delta country, and has been president of the Chamber of Commerce since its organization. He was chairman of the committee that secured the permit from the United States government for the construction of the new cantilever bridge across the Sacramento River at Isleton. Believing cooperation to be the most practical method of marketing farm produce, Mr. Gardiner, with W. A. Heckman of Sacramento, founded the California Asparagus Growers' Association, in which he is a director and vice-president. He has been a member of the California Pear Growers' Association from the time of its organization, and also of the California Canning Peach Association. During the World War Mr. Gardiner was chairman of the local Liberty Loan drives, as well as of most of the Red Cross and other war drives, and each time had the pleasure of seeing his district go over the top.
At San Francisco, on June 30, 1909, Mr. Gardiner was married to Miss Ethel Elizabeth Jacobs, who was born at Dutch Flat, in Placer County, and was educated at the San Jose State Normal School. In national politics Mr. Gardiner is a Republican. In fraternal affiliation he is a member and past grand of Isleton Lodge No. 108, I. O. O. F., and also a member of Sacramento Lodge, No. 6, B. P. O. E.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 572-577. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA.
1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.