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EDMOND J. GARDNER
Vol. 5, pp. 1887-1889
Book has photo

"Biography is history teaching by example." Every human life helps
to make or reflect the progress and experience of the age. Not only
does biography serve to interpret the life of a state, but it also
furnishes lessons of inspiration and encouragement for individual
appreciation. These points are noted as of special application to the
life of Edmond J. GARDNER of Valliant. Of the sketches and life
histories that appear in this publication there are few that
illustrate the power of an idea and a purpose working steadily in the
soul of the individual than can be found in the following paragraphs.
The sketch also illustrates many important phases of early history in
old Indian Territory, particularly the Choctaw Nation.

In August, 1832, a company of about six hundred persons headed by
Col. Thomas LAFLORE (sic), assembled at a place near what is now the
City of Paulding, Jasper County, Mississippi, to begin a journey of
about eight hundred miles to their future home in a new country west
of the Territory of Arkansas. It was an unusual exodus. All the
inhabitants of the surrounding country gathered together preparatory
to the journey-men, women and children of every age and every degree
of social standing. Following the edict of the general government,
they were to leave that Country forever. Naturally their hearts were
sad, and they set out with much weeping and sorrow, sustained only by
such comfort as came from the prospect of their future home. Some
years prior to this departure the people of country had become
divided into two factions-Christians and anti-Christians. Naturally
on assembling the two elements formed themselves into divisions,
being drawn together by ties of kinship, friendship and beliefs. This
particular company was called a "Christian company" because they
favored Christianity. They traveled only on week days (sic),
announcing the hour of their daily devotion by blowing a large horn,
while the Sabbath was a day of rest and of holding religious
services. They traveled by ox wagons, horse wagons, horseback, and
about two-thirds walked. The wagons were chiefly used for carrying
the necessities for the journey. Many were thinly clad and had no
shoes, and as they journeyed westward cold weather came on and they
suffered greatly from the cold. About thirty died from exposure and
were buried along the roadside near where they died. The roads were
new and the many wagons made them almost impassable. While they were
favored with reasonably fair weather, the suffering was great,
especially among the feeble and children. Several babies were born
during the journey. Passing through Jackson and crossing the
Mississippi at Vicksburg, they followed a northwest course up Red
River, and about the first day of December came to a permanent stop
about forty miles across the boundary in the new country. They
selected building places and set up a very populous settlement. On
the 9th of December, under the leadership of Rev. Alfred WRIGHT, a
noted missionary, they organized a church and established a school,
naming the place Wheelock.

At the time of the removal from Mississippi to Indian Territory in
1832, the five brothers, Isaac, Jerry, James, Noel and Edmond
Gardner, were boys and young men, not more than one of them being
married at the time. Their parents had died some years before in
Mississippi. These five were all there were at that time of the
Gardner name that were Indians by blood.

Jerry died near Wheelock a few years after his arrival, and his
descendants and all the Gardners except Noel later moved further west.

Noel Gardner married Henrietta LEFLORE, daughter of Colonel Thomas
LeFlore. He settled a mile and a half west of Wheelock, cleared up a
farm, engaged in farming and stock raising, and was also minister of
the Gospel, assisting in the church and school work at Wheelock as
interpreter and native preacher. His possessions consisted of a small
farm, cattle, horses, sheep, hogs and a small herd of deer. He died
at his home about the year 1860, leaving a widow and three sons,
Jefferson, Jerry and James. The widowed mother being an industrious
and intelligent woman managed the affairs of the home to good
advantage. About two years later Jefferson and James began work in a
store for their uncle Michael LeFlore, while Jerry remained on the
farm with his mother to oversee the farming and livestock interests.

In 1863 Jefferson moved to Eagletown, and engaged in merchandising,
became prosperous and a man of prominence, serving his people in
several official capacities and subsequently becoming governor of the
Nation. His death occurred in 1906. His brother James was for several
years in the merchandise business at Wheelock, but in 1883 moved his
business to Bonton on the Red River. He married Miss Ida LICK, and
lived on Red River until his death in 1887.

Jerry Gardner married first Rebecca WILSON, whom he divorced, and
then married Jinny JAMES, daughter of William James. As already
stated he remained on the old homestead. Able to speak the English
language very limitedly (sic), he realized the importance of learning
it, and he and his wife entered into an agreement when they were
married not to speak their native tongue in their home except when
absolute necessary. He did this in order to learn the language, and
after he had acquired a fluency in it the habit was so strong that he
and his wife continued through their married life to speak it and
their children never learned the native tongue.

In the meantime, after the death of their mother in 1871, Jerry
Gardner and his two brothers had some of their interests in common,
and Jerry remained at the homestead looking after the livestock for
all three. That was the condition until 1882, when Jerry bought a
small farm on Red River near Bonton, and set up in farming and stock
raising for himself. He prospered, accumulated considerable property
about him, cleared up a good farm, and in 1886 became sheriff of his
county. This was apparently the high tide of his earthly
achievements. Thenceforward his was a somewhat downward course. In
1887 his family was visited with an unusual amount of sickness,
resulting in the death of two of his children. In 1888 the fullbloods
of Towson and Boktuklo Counties armed themselves in bands and
threatened extermination of the mixed bloods who were outnumbered
several to one. Consequently the mixed bloods fled to Texas on short
notice to save their lives, leaving their families and possessions.
Jerry Gardner remained in Texas about six months, visiting his family
only a few times and then only at night. Sending word to his wife by
a friendly hand to met (sic) him at midnight at a lone pine tree that
stood a short distance from the home, he would cautiously set out for
the trysting place, while his wife, having previously made close
watch for any of the hostile bands, would take her babe in arms at
about ten o'clock at night and followed by her three sons, make her
way through the darkness to the place of meeting and then sit at the
roots of the tree in perfect silence. The breaking of a stick would
announce his approach, but in order to guard against any possible
mistake there was no communication until an exchange of signals was
made. Speaking in a low tone, making a few inquires and giving a few
instructions, not being permitted to see the faces of his loved ones,
Jerry Gardner would depart into the stillness of the night and would
then ride his horse in all haste for Texas, swimming the Red River
wherever he reached its banks. Along the south banks the Red River at
every crossing was a saloon, and great quantities of "fire water"
were smuggled across the river into the Indian country. This only
added fuel to the inflamed minds. During the civil war between the
full bloods and the half bloods several were killed, including the
agitators, before peace was restored. During this time Jerry Gardner
suffered not only the privations already mentioned but also incurred
considerable material loss. In 1899 he lost his wife, and after that
he showed little interest in anything and his misfortunes preyed
heavily upon his mind. In 1892 he married Mrs. Ida Gardner, his
brother's widow.

However, he was never himself again, and he continued to decline in
attitude toward life and in his material prosperity until his death
in 1898. At that time he had a daughter living by his first marriage,
Mrs. Susan PARSONS of Millerton. By the second marriage there were
two sons and a daughter, Alfred T., Edmond J. and Carrie. Alfred T.
married Mattie BARTEE and settled on a farm on Red River. Carrie
became the wife of George TYLER, a farmer and stock man, and settled
at Wheelock.

It was of this family and of this ancestry that Edmond J. Gardner
comes. He is a half-blood Choctaw. He was born November 27, 1877, on
the old homestead near Wheelock. The first employment that claimed
his attention was at the age of four when he was called to "carry the
cat to eat the lizards" around the farm fenced by his two brothers
who with neighbor boys killed them by bow and arrow. His parents then
moved to Red River, near Bonton, where he lived to the age of
thirteen in a wild country, feasting on wild meats, listening to the
voices of wild animals, and to men too corrupt to live in any other
place, with plenty of "fire water." There he absorbed and was
saturated with the environments of the time and took up many of the
prevalent bad habits.

The writer has seen a photograph of Mr. Gardner at the age of
thirteen. It shows a boy with strong face and features, and with some
of the wonder at the mystery of life impressed upon his countenance.
It was at that time that this child of the back woods became
cognizant in a strange and mysterious way of the things of the
future, and that change in mental and spiritual attitude subsequently
affected his entire life. During the next five years he lived with
relatives, friends and others, going to neighborhood schools par of
the time and advancing in his studies to the third reader and taking
up the study of arithmetic. Though he had a great desire for
knowledge and requested to be sent away to school, he was unfortunate
in this respect and was never given the privileges he craved. At the
age of eighteen, becoming tired of living with other people, he moved
into an old house by himself and lived alone. His lonely life was
happily interrupted when he met Miss Laura JAMES, and they were
married July 5, 1896.

Soon after, being stricken with a desire to see the West, in
September of the same year he loaded his belongings, consisting of a
little bedding and cooking utensils, in with those of another family,
and started West. His first stop was about fifty miles distant. There
in a short time he came face to face with starvation. For ten days or
more he and his wife ate mush made up only with water and cooked from
meal that had been borrowed. At the same time the young wife did a
neighbor's washing for a family of four to obtain enough soap to do
her own washing one time. Edmond J. earnestly sought work, but the
people who gave it to him had no money, and as a last resort he
accepted two small steel animal traps for a small job of work,
thinking he would set the traps on the creek near his house and catch
a coon and in that way get some meat to eat. At the next house for
some work he was given a small piece of meat and a gallon of meal.
With this he hurried home, cooked it for supper, and that night the
little household was one of feasting and joy, though little provision
remained for breakfast.

In March, 1897, a friendly neighbor moved them further west and
unloaded them in an old house on a river bank. There Edmond Gardner
became a fisherman. He took as a partner a boy named Henry JAMES.
While they caught fish in quantities they had no way to take them to
market. It is an old saying that where there is a will there is a
way. Gathering some scrap lumber and making a wheelbarrow, they
loaded it with three hundred pounds of fish, and while one pulled the
other pushed and thus they traversed eight miles through the black
mud to the nearest town. Here the fish had a ready sale at five cents
a pound and within two hours they were returning with a supply of
provisions and as Mr. Gardner says, happier than millionaires. This
fishing was continued until June, and each week they made one or two
trips with their wheelbarrow, both going barefooted during the rainy
season of the year. In June Edmond loaded his belongings in with
those of another family bound for the West, and after going 100 miles
started out again to look for work. Crops were a total failure and no
employment was to be had. It seemed that an unseen hand led him to
face everything that brings disappointment, discouragements and
hardships. Thus in January, 1898, he returned to his old home in
Towson County, a wiser, better and a more experienced man. Before
taking this trip he did not know the value of a dollar, neither did
he understand the vision of his childhood. Now he began to think
seriously of the future, and was ready and anxious to undertake some
real vocation. At a loss to know what to do or how to start, again
and again have the words "you must" flashed before his mind and he
could not sit still.

Moving to Clear Creek, he began work in a blacksmith's shop, and in
a few months later in a store. In January, 1899, he bought the store
on "promises" and was appointed postmaster. This gave him time for
study and thought. Recognizing the need of an education, he began
collecting school textbooks, studied them assiduously, and his
interest and application brought rapid advancement. That was the
turning point for his career, and everything thenceforward seemed to
change for the better. Out of that experience he evolved some
precepts and resolutions. In January 1900, he resolved "that the
leisure hour was the most part of the day," and that "he would never
sleep in the daytime unless his health demanded it, for there is too
much that need to be done," and that "Knowledge and not money shall
be my aim." These cardinal principles he has put to a worthy test in
his subsequent career.

In the same year he was appointed clerk and treasurer of Towson
County and served two years. In the meantime merchandising occupied
him until 1901, when he sold out and moved to Valliant, his present
home, taking up business as a photographer. While his income was
small, he laid away 10 per cent to buy books, calling it "the self
instruction fund." Thus he acquired books and magazines, but read
very little fiction or story books because he thought it too
expensive a luxury for a poor man, not in dollars and cents, but in
hours and days. Further, the reading of stories caused him to lose
interest in more substantial literature.

In 1905 he was elected city clerk and in the same year appointed
county clerk. In 1906 he was elected mayor. In the meantime he had
gained familiarity with the law and was practicing as senior partner
of the law firm of Gardner & COCHRAN. He soon gave up the law because
it did not harmonize with his conscience. In 1909 Mr. Gardner
organized the "Puritan Family," a fraternal order. He wrote the
ritual of the initiatory (sic) decree, which exemplified the
struggles of life from beginning to success, pointing out idleness,
intemperance and self-importance as the chief stumbling tone; passing
to old age with its joys and sorrows and closing with a scene of
death and our hope in the resurrection. The purpose of this order was
"mutual assistance," its motto, "do something," and the benefits were
providing medical aid for the sick. The order was intended for the
young people, boys and girls, but it was enjoyed by the old and young
alike, the best people of the town becoming members.

In 1910 he was appointed assistant postmaster and served 3 1/2
years. During his leisure hours he invented a complete system of
shorthand writing for his own use, which was considered by many as
being equal to if not better in some respects than the standard
systems. While studying shorthand he discovered and worked out a
complete phonetic alphabet for the English language, very different
from the common English alphabet in characters used and names for
them, consisting of sixty-seven characters, each having only one
sound, suitable for type form and a printer's press. In 1915 he
invented a small writing machine, small enough to be carried in the
pocket, having only five keys and operated entirely with one hand and
using his phonetic alphabet; the sounds of the words being made in
the same manner as a chord on a musical instrument-by a combinations
of keys.

While concerning himself with these higher aims and objects in order
to support himself and family, Mr. Gardner learned the trade of
watchmaker and jeweler, and is probably the only Indian of his tribe
in that vocation. It is not to be understood that what measure of
success he has had was accomplished with ease and magic. On the other
hand it was accomplished, as this narrative should show, in the face
of many discouragements and difficulties. At times the road seemed
steep and toilsome with no reward in sight, and he suffered times of
despair. Again financial necessities would interrupt his real work
and troubles seemed insurmountable mountains in his path. Having
passed the crisis and having taken up the fight anew, all these
previous discouragements passed away like snow under a summer sun.

Mr. Gardner is the father of eight children, of whom five are
living: Mrs. Lela SHACKELFORD, Bonnie, Susie, Alzara and Lois. The
family lives in the Town of Valliant. He is a member of the Methodist
Church and is fraternally connected with the Masons, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Jeanne M. Misleh, September 26, 1999.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916).