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Mills Gardner

MILLS GARDNER.  The late Mills Gardner, of Washington C. H., Ohio, was one of the distinguished lawyers and educated men of his day and was a son of one of the honored families of Ohio.  A man of high moral character and unimpeachable integrity, persistent industry and excellent professional judgment, he stood as a leader in his state for nearly half a century, in the largest and best sense of the term.  Mr. Gardner was one of the notable men of his day and generation and as such is entitled to a conspicuous place in the annals of his state.  As a citizen he was public-spirited and enterprising to an unwonted degree.  As a statesman he was the peer of any of his contemporaries.  As a business man he exercised those qualities which distinguish men of industry; and, as a friend and neighbor, he combined those qualities of head and heart that won confidence and commanded respect.      Hon. Mills Gardner, the son of Seth and Elma Sands (Barrere) Gardner, was born at Russellville, Brown county, Ohio, Jan. 30, 1830, and died at Washington C. H., Ohio, on the 20th day of February, 1910.  His father was born in New York and his mother in Ohio.  For most of their married life they lived in Russellville, Ohio, where they reared their three sons, George B., Mills and Thomas.  Seth Gardner was a merchant in Russellville for many years and died there late in life.  His widow, Elma S. Gardner, died in Washington C. H. at the age of eighty-five.  Seth Gardner was a son of Benjamin and Lucy (Hawks) Gardner.  Benjamin Gardner was born in Exeter, Washington County, Rhode Island, and served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War.  The maternal grandfather of Mills Gardner was George W. Barrere and his wife was Abigail Mills, both of whom were natives of Virginia.      Mills Gardner received his early education in the common schools of New Market, Highland county, Ohio, and afterwards attended an academy taught by the Rev. John Rankin at Ripley, Ohio.  He left school when he was fourteen years of age to enter a dry goods store as clerk.  It was while he was working as a clerk in this store that he began the study of law under the supervision of his uncle, Hon. Nelson Barrere, of Hillsboro, Ohio.  In 1854 Mr. Gardner moved to Washington C. H., Ohio, where he lived until his death.  He was admitted to the bar in 1855 and was engaged in the practice of his profession and in public service for the remainder of his days.      Mr. Gardner was a life-long Republican and was a leader of his party for more than a quarter of a century.  In 1855 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Fayette county and re-elected to the same position, serving four years.  In 1862 he was elected to the State Senate and served two years in the Legislature.  In 1864 Mr. Gardner was presidential elector from his congressional district and voted for Abraham Lincoln.  In 1866 he was elected to the House of Representatives in the State Legislature and served for one term.  His next public service was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1872, to which he was elected by the voters in his district.  The highest official position to which he attained was that of member of Congress, to which he was elected in the fall of 1876.  He was a member of the forty-fifty Congress from the third congressional district of Ohio, and in the same year was a member of the Republican national convention, which nominated Rutherford B. Hayes for President.  While in Congress, Mr. Gardner sat between the two martyred Presidents, James A. Garfield and William McKinley, and was a warm friend of both men.  This position completed the official career of Mr. Gardner, which gave him distinction. Source:  History of Fayette County, Ohio - Published Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen & Co., 1914 - Page 720

MATTHEW GILMERR.  Enumerated among the progressive farmers of Wayne township, Fayette county, Ohio, is Matthew Gilmerr, who has a farm of two hundred acres on the New Holland and Good Hope pike, about nine miles southeast of Washington C. H.  He has been a resident of this county practically all of his life, having come here with his parents in his boyhood days.  He comes from a splendid family, one that always stood for right living and industrious habits, for education and morality, and for all that contributes to the welfare of the commonwealth.  His whole life has been characterized by industry, perseverance, temperance and integrity, and he has worked himself from an humble station to a successful place in life, attaining an honorable position among the well-known and highly esteemed men of the locality in which he resides.     Matthew Gilmerr, the son of Martin and Sarah (Bybee) Gilmerr, was born July 27, 1858, in Ross county, Ohio.  Martin Gilmerr was a native of Hardy county, Virginia, and located in Ross county when he first came to Ohio, and later settled in Fayette county.  Martin Gilmerr was the son of Matthew and Elizabeth (Shobe) Gilmerr, and had a family of ten children, Emily J., Elizabeth, Levi, Matthew, Nettie, Clara, Anna, Henry E. and two who died in infancy.      Matthew Gilmerr received his education in the public schools of Ross and Fayette counties, working on the farm during the time he was not attending school.  Upon his marriage, in 1888, he bought out the other heirs to the paternal estate, and has lived there for the past thirty five years.  He is a practical and systematic farmer, giving his personal attention to every detail of the farm work, and in the raising of crops and live stock he has been highly remunerated for his efforts.  His life ahs been one of unceasing industry and perseverance and the notably systematic and honorable methods he has followed have one for him the confidence and regard of all who have formed his acquaintance.      Mr. Gilmerr has been twice married, his first marriage being to Elizabeth Ater, daughter of Abraham Ater, and to this marriage were born two children, Bessie, who married Jesse White, and has one daughter, Edith Annabel, and Matthew, Jr., deceased.  After the death of his first wife, in 1897, he married, in 1901, Mrs. Mary Bryan the widow of Darius Bryan, and to the second union no children were born.      Fraternally, Mr. Gilmerr is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons and also holds his membership in the Order of the Eastern Star.  Mr. Gilmerr is enjoying life on his farm, realizing, as the public at large are realizing more than ever before, that the farmer today is to be envied above all other men.  He has worked his way from the foot of the ladder, a fact which renders him the more worthy of the praise that is duly accorded him by his fellow men. (Source: History of Fayette Co., Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana - 1914 - Page 731

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