A Little Gardner History
By Louise Hester Arnold
Gardner Station in Weakley County, Tennessee, was named for Colonel John Almus GARDNER when he gave land for Gardner Station in 1852. He organized the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad and became the first president. Gardnersville was the name of the settlement with a post office, but it was one and one tenth mile north of the present town of Gardner. The village moved when the railroad went through. The first boarding school was the Corona school and Colonel John Almus GARDNER’S nephew, James Franklin GARDNER, was the first teacher in the log school before it became a public school. The Gardner Community Center now stands where four different school buildings have stood through the years.
James Franklin was the son of Joshua and Sarah Caroline (Donelson) GARDNER. Joshua GARDNER was engaged to Betsy BELL of the Bell Witch Legend of Adams, Tennessee. Betsy gave Joshua back his ring because she was afraid of the Witch who said to her, “Please don’t marry Joshua Gardner.” Joshua left immediately for Henry County and in 1840 settled in Weakley County, TN.
Jesse GARDNER, the older brother of John Almus and Joshua GARDNER, married Priscilla GUNN, daughter of Reverend Thomas GUNN. Reverend GUNN’S daughters, Martha and Elizabeth married Betsy BELL’S brothers.
Colonel John Almus GARDNER had a fine two story hotel built in Gardner near the time he had a two story home built in GARDNER in 1872 to 1874. He had decorators to come from Europe. Colonel John Almus GARDNER was a Senator , a lawyer, a candidate for Congress in 1847, a member of the Constitutional Convention and was a member of the lower house of the State Legislature. His son-in-law, William P. CALDWELL was the first mayor of Gardner, ex-member of Congress and a lawyer.
Colonel John Almus GARDNER lived on his farm north of Gardner throughout the Civil War. Some men pretending to be Union soldiers almost hanged him when The Union Army rode up and saved his life. The army that saved his life killed his son Joseph Orlando GARDNER in the Battle of Guntown, Mississippi at the age of seventeen years old.
Washington D. C. GARDNER, son of Joshua GARDNER, enlisted in Company G, the first company of Weakley County that formed at Gardner. The Women of Gardner made their flag. That flag is still in the family in Nashville,Tennessee. Doctor Joe HIBBITTS (now deceased) told the story about the Company G flag and almost hanging of his great-grandfather, John Almus GARDNER. Washington D.C. GARDNER of Company G died in the Battle of Shiloh.
Submitted by Louise Hester Arnold,
Great-Great- granddaughter of
Col. John Almus and Joshua Gardner
Taken from Goodspeed’s 1887 History of Tennessee that belonged to Col John A. Gardner
Note by Louise: If anyone is wondering where Gardnersville was located and where Gardner is today, Gardnersville was one and one tenth mile north of where Gardner is today.
