Mr. F. B. Gardner, for many years one the most prominent lumberman of the Northwest, died suddenly at Pensaukee, Wis., Monday, December 24. Mr. Gardner was on his way to the depot that evening accompanied by a friend. Before reaching the depot Mr. Gardner asked his friend to run to the depot and ask the conductor to wait a moment till he came. His request was complied with, but after waiting a few moments and Mr. Gardner not-having put in an appearance, search was made for him and he was found lying dead on the sidewalk scarcely half a block form the depot. His death was caused by ossification of the heart.
In the life of Freeland B. Gardner may be found a brilliant instance of what ability backed by indomitable energy and enterprise may accomplish. Mr. Gardner was born at Eldridge, Onondage county, N.Y., on July 30, 1817. His first business venture was the starting of a small general store at Kingsbury, N.Y., when a young man. On a capital of $100 he managed to close out in a few months with nearly $1,000, with which he came west in 1839, returning to Fort Ann, N.Y., however, very shortly afterward to again engage in mercantile business. But he sold out and came west again in 1949, opening a store at Kenosha, Wis., then called Southport. He embarked in the lumber business in 1850, starting a saw mill at Pensaukee, Wis., the second mill on that side of the lake. His business prospered from the start and two years later he established himself in the lumber business in Chicago. In 1857 he built a mill at Little Sturgeon, Green Bay, but it burned shortly afterward, entailing a loss of $25,000 on Mr. Gardner, and this was almost immediately followed by the financial crash of that year, which seriously crippled him. But he was made of the stuff that wouldn't permit him to stay down and he recovered very shortly from the effects of his reverses. He was a sufferer, too, in the panic of 1873 but resulted as happily for him as did the panic of 1857. In 1867 the firm was F. B. Gardner & Co., the company being his son H. H. Gardner and John Spry, which was changed in 1872 to F. B. Gardner & Co., Mr. Spry retiring. Several years ago he withdrew from business in Chicago and devoted all of his time to the mill at Pensaukee, residing in Chicago, However.
Mr. Gardner was a very public spirited man, and the city of Pensaukee owes nearly all of its prosperity to his open-handed liberality. He built miles of docks, expended large amounts of money in street and other improvements, and built the Pensaukee House, one of the largest hotels north of Chicago. Just after the great Chicago fire he built the Gardner House, now the Leland Hotel, at the corner of Michigan avenue and Jackson streets, this city, it being the first hotel opened in the burned district after the fire.
Mr. Gardner was married to Miss Fanny Copeland in 1841. She died in September, and the only surviving members of the family now are his son, H. H. Gardner, of the lumber firm of the Gardner & Spry Company, Chicago, and two daughters—Mrs. Joseph Stockton of Chicago, and Mrs. W. B. Alley, of Boston.
The funeral was held from his late residence, No. 141 Pine street, Thursday afternoon, a large number of his many friends paying their last tribute of respect to his memory.
In memory of Mr. Gardner, a meeting of the board of directors of the Chicago Lumbermen's Exchange was held Wednesday afternoon, at which suitable resolutions were adopted. "
The Oconto Enquirer was the first to report
Mr. Gardner's death on Dec. 27, 1883.
Sudden Death
The news arrived in this city Christmas morning that F. B. Gardner had dropped dead Monday evening in Pensaukee, while going from his office to the Northwestern depot. He had intended to spend Christmas with his family in Chicago, but was called to the home eternal. Mr. Gardner was quite an old man, had been in business at Pensaukee many years, and had been "floored' in business several times, but we believe, never lost the respect and confidence of those with whom he did business. It is rumored that S. S. Coleman, of Chicago, has purchased the mill and other property belonging to the deceased in Pensaukee.
F. B. Gardner's Death
The intelligence of the sudden death of F. B. Gardner, which occurred at Pensaukee, Christmas Eve, caused a pall of sadness to fall upon our city Christmas morning. The deceased was well acquainted here and esteemed by all who enjoyed his acquaintance as an honest man, a pure man and a good man. The circumstances of his death are chronicled in the Pensaukee Items. The following is a brief biography of Mr. Gardner: He was born in Fort Ann, N. Y., in 1816, and moved thence to Kenosha in this state, where he was in business until 1851, when he went to Chicago and engaged in the lumber business with John Spry, the firm being F. B. Gardner & Co. Subsequently he purchased the mill property at Pensaukee, at which place he passed most of his time, actively engaged in lumbering operations. During the past few years he has met with many financial reverses, but never lost his spirit, and was an energetic and hopeful as when he started out in life fifty years ago, until he lost his wife by death about three months since, which irreparable loss seemed to take from him the ambition with which he had triumphed over adversity. A son and two daughters survive him, all living in Chicago, to whom he was going to spend Christmas when stricken down in death, literally dying in the harness, as he had lived.
Published under Pensaukee Items was the following:
Our communities were greatly shocked by the sudden death of Mr. F. B. Gardner, which occurred on last Monday evening at about quarter past eight. Mr. Gardner was intending to take the evening train for Chicago to participate in Christmas festivities with his family, and in company with Mr. J. E. Lathrop, Government Engineer started from the boarding house for the train and being a little late requested Mr. L. to go ahead and ask the conductor of the train to wait a moment for him. He do so but arriving at the depot and not seeing any sign of Mr. Gardner coming, ran back and discovered him lying at the walk a short distance from the store. Hastily summoning help, Mr. Gardner was conveyed to the store and every effort made to restore him but the spirit had fled and it was announced that Mr. Gardner was no more. Dr. Allen who was called by telephone arrived and pronounced it heart disease. Mr. Gardner has been clearly identified with the place for the past thirty years, and has been always an earnest, faithful worker for its best interest. He has probably met with more that the usual amount of adversity financially and otherwise, but still never gave up the struggle, and for pluck and perseverance he was a most remarkable man. Our people feel keenly this loss and it yet seems hard to realize that he is not more. Mr. Gardner was in the 69th year of his age and leaves two daughter and one son. Mr. H. J. Thompson accompanied the remains to Chicago Tuesday morning. The funeral took place on Thursday.
The obituary does not mention another financial stress for Mr. Gardner, which occurred when the tornado on July 7, 1877 struck Pensaukee wiping out a lot of his interests; mills, hotel, general store, houses and etc. The obit refers to Mr. Gardner concentrating his business interests for several years before his death on Pensaukee, but did not indicate why. He was a major part of the development of the village of Pensaukee, owning massive acres of land in the area, several mills, stagecoach stop, boarding houses, stores, hotels and etc. over the years. With his personal life centered in the city of Chicago, there are no church or vital records available in the immediate area to try and fill in the blanks but lots of land records for those who choose to search them.
As with many early obits and written history, it seems everyone wanted to be there first, second, third or fourth. The obit states he built the second mill on west side of the lake. Just staying on the northeastern shore from Green Bay and north to the current state line, there were mills at Pensaukee, Marinette, Peshtigo, Oconto and Oconto Falls prior to 1850. With his death he left a tangled web of finances and the destruction of the last of his mills on the Pensaukee River, reported in The Oconto Reporter, on August 21, 1886, outward signs of his commercial impact in the area were gone.