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Note: According to the 1880 census, James Buchanan was a schoolteacher at age 23. But he does not continue with teaching for long. He is listed as a farmer in Salvador at age 25 (GREAT REGISTER, MAY 26, 1882).
FROM TAPED INTERVIEW -- Monday January 26, 1987:
William Irving Gardner and his sister Ruth Gardner in Ruth's home in Berkeley, California:
Ruth: Dad owned a stage line from Napa to Monticello in partnership with his brother Will. We had a ranch up at the north end of Wooden Valley and a small house there and Dad would go over there to stay. I remember one day summer I was to go with Jeff (Wooden) the driver and I sat up in front of the stage across the mountain to meet Dad there.
Bill: It was the house that Joseph Barnes' family lived in after, a regular farm house.
GREAT REGISTER, FEB 18, 1888
George Frank Gardner, age 32, Hotelkeeper, Monticello
James Buchanan Gardner, age 31, Livery man
William Charles Gardner, age 29, Livery man, Residing in West Napa
from Ruth Gardner Sandner letter and interview:
He met my mother...I guess she was running to go to school, and he was riding up with one of his employees, I guess, in a carriage or something and I guess she ran across. And he said to the man he was with, that was the girl he was going to marry, sometime. And he did. He knew her family. In those days there weren't more than 8,000 people in Napa for years.
NAPA REGISTER, JULY 18, 1890--GARDNER/EWING
At two o'clock this afternoon, at the residence of the bride's parents, Mr. & Mrs. James Davidson Ewing, on Brown Street, Mr. James Buchanan Gardner and Miss Jennie Ewing were united in marriage. Rev. Richard Wylie performed the ceremony. Miss Martha Ewing and Mr. Willie Ewing acted as bridesmaid and groomsman. Mr. & Mrs. Gardner too the afternoon train for San Francisco and will visit Santa Cruz and San Jose before their return Tuesday evening. They will then at once go into housekeeping. Both bride and groom are among Napa's best known and popular young people. They are respectively rpominent in N.D.G.W. and N.S.G.W. orders, each having served as President of the Napa Parlors of these orders.
NAPA DAILY JOURNAL, JULY 23, 1890--A PLEASANT TIME
Turner Hall was Tuesday evening the scene of a very enjoyable party, the occasion being a reception tendered to Mr. and Mrs. C L. James and Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Gardner, who returned that evening from their wedding tour. The affair was gotten up on short notice and was a complete surprise to the two young couples. Among those who enjoyed the party were the following:
Mr. and Mrs. Rolland S. Fay (Mary Ann Ewing & husband)
Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Hill (Nancy Adah Gardner & husband)
Miss Martha Ewing (Jennie's younger sister, age 19)
Mr. William Gardner (James' younger brother, age 31)
George Frank Gardner (James' older brother, age 35)
Bill Gardner: James and John (Gardner) had a contract to deliver the mail. Uncle John drove the stage. (in 1890 was shot doing this... a man named Buck English (no relation) robbed a stage around Monticello. John told someone that if English got on the stage he drove from Monticello to Napa, he would relay a message (some simple request about a horse). English did get on the stage and John did send a message and the stage was met by a posse. English shot the gun out of the deputy's hand (didn't want to kill him, he knew him). Another man fired on English with a shotgun. Both English and John Gardner were hit with buckshot. Both were taken to doctors in Napa. John recovered, but apparently never fully recovered.
1896 DEPOSITION GIVEN FOR HIS MOTHER'S WIDOWS PENSION
James Buchanan Gardner was deposed in 1896, claiming no financial interest in her pension claim, "but would be glad to see her get it. I have no interest in the homestead ranch. I sold my interest there to C. W. Gardner, my brother, or rather, deeded it to him, did not consider my interest of any value, simply deeded it to him to get rid of it. At that time I owned about one tenth of the estate ranch. The whole ranch was subject to a mortgage for as much as I thought it was worth. I kept the books on the ranch from the time my father died up to about four years ago.
Ruth Gardner Sandner: "James kept a hotel room in Napa at the ready for his mother, Sarah Tabitha, for when she would visit from the ranch. He paid the taxes for the ranch. Maria and Charles William stayed on the ranch & kept it going. Her son, William Johnson was an assessor for Napa."
1900 United States Federal Census -- Napa, Napa, California
James B Gardner 43
Jennie E Gardner 30
Jennie Gardner 7
James Ewing Gardner 6
Ruth Gardner 4
Thomas McCullen 52
SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE:
Bill: My earliest recollection is April 18, 1906 (in Napa) early in the morning mother was cleaning up the pantry, mopping up milk that had been spilled on the floor. This impressed me as ordinarily the milk was in very wide pans, what we called milk pans,, and the milk would be poured in them and these were shallow pans and it would be allowed to stand in these shallow pans and the cream would rise to the top and we would skim it off. But this morning, pans were on the floor and my mother was very busy mopping up the milk that had been spilled all over the pantry floor and I remember wondering why was the milk down there and asking my mother and she told me that the ground had shaken and knocked the pans off to the floor--and this was the morning of the great earthquake in San Francisco.
Ruth: I remember that morning of the earthquake. I sat up in bed and watched the room shaking back and forth and a large bureau that Mary Al still has I believe and it came walking out toward the center of the room and I just watched it come. but it stopped and didn't come to the bed. But there's one thing I remember from seeing this happen. All the rest of my life, even now, I have always put a pair of slippers next to my bed because I never wanted to have to run outside like some people did in their bare feet, many of them had to do that.
Ruth Gardner Sandner: "My father (James Buchanan) taught us that education could not be taken away from one, but money could. In 1907 James and Jennie moved to Berkeley, California, so the family could grow up and participate in the activities of a University town.
Bill Gardner: We moved to Berkeley January 10, 1907. Do you remember the house we were living in?
Ruth: The house that Dad built. I could be wrong.
Bill: A two story house on (Clay?) street and right adjacent to the alley. Then there was another house across the alley. We lived there for a very short time.
Ruth: We came on a rainy, rainy day. We went to a hotel on University Avenue, sat waiting for lunch, but dinner hour was over and we weren't called.
Bill: First thing I remember in Berkeley we were walking down Delaware Street and Dad was pointing down the street and saying "that's the house that I rented for us" and mother saying "Oh, that is small." There we were, she with four kids and I can still visualize that house which was 2-stories but the living quarters were on the upper floor and the ground floor was basement for storage. And it was raining cats and dogs on our first day. It was typical of the homes they built in Sacramento to be up with flood level.
Ruth: James Buchanan Gardner owned land and became an appraiser for the Federal Land Bank at Berkeley. There were five children. All graduated from college, three from the University of California, Berkeley, one from Davis and one from Oregon State. Two became teachers--Jennie Evelyn Gardner and Ruth Gardner Sandner."
The youngest daughter, Mary Alison, married in a not far away profession. The other son, William Irving Gardner--after graduating from UC Berkeley received his doctorate in geology at the University of Minnesota and went on to receive the highest award of the Department of the Interior. (The Distinguished Service Award.) He founded a scientific group which is now the world wide association of engineering geologists. Bill, Dr. William Gardner, was much in demand by foreign countries as a consulting geologist. He worked for the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation until his retirement.
James Buchanan was a member of the Napa Masonic Lodge and he and my mother (Jennie Ewing Gardner) belonged to the Eastern Star. In this small town of six or eight thousand these groups were the top social groups of the community in the early 1900s. Elisha Dodson is the ancestor they used to get into the DAR (he was an ensign and company clerk.)
1910 United States Federal Census -- Berkeley, Alameda, California
James B Gardner 53 Real Estate, has his own office
Jennie E Gardner 41
Jennie E Gardner 18
James E Gardner 15
Ruth A Gardner 14
William I Gardner 6
Mary S. Gardner 1
The flu pandemic hit in 1917-18. Students wear masks to go to school. The U.S. went to war in Europe. James Ewing Gardner was enlisted in the army but just as he was about to be sent over, the war ended.
1917 WWI REGISTRATION, June 5 1917 -- Chimiles Precinct, Napa, CA
James Ewing Gardner, age 23, b. May 29, 1894
Farmer, "work for myself", Wooden Valley, CA
Private in Infantry - Tall, eyes: Gray Hair: Brn
About this time the Gardners move back to Napa. James returned to the livery business. James' livery stable was named METROPOLITAN LIVERY STABLE AND FEED. His son, William became his clerk. Daughters Jennie Evelyn and Ruth became teachers in Napa.
1918 Napa City Directory:
James B. Gardner, Livery 46 1st St. residence 602 1st. St.
James Ewing Gardner b 602 1st St.
Jennie Evelyn Gardner teacher 602 1st St.
Ruth A. Gardner, teacher, 602 1st
William Irving Gardner clerk to James B. 602 1st St.
Gardner Bros (George C. and Edgar F.) Napa News Agency, 116 1st
Edgar F. Gardner, Monticello Stage Co.
George C. Gardner (Matilda) County recorder residence: 829 N. Main
George F. Gardner (Dora L.) residence 829 N. Main
1920 United States Federal Census --- 6th precinct, Napa, Napa CA
James B Gardner 62, mail deliverer, post office
Jennie E Gardner 51
William J Gardner 16
Mary Gardner 11
1920 Napa City Directory:
Gardner, James B. (Jennie E.) -Livery & storage 46 1st residence 602 1st
Gardner, George Frank (Dora), bookkeeper residence 821 N Main
Gardner, George C. farmer residence 229 Adrian
Notes from descendents:
James Gardner and family moved into the Earl House, 1221 Seminary Street, in 1923. They bought the house through Jennie Ewing's acquaintance with Montgomery Krug. Their daughter, Jennie Evelyn Gardner owned an Essex with a rumble seat in the back with an awning over it. She drove her parents to Death Valley in it (a vacation trip).
Ruth: My father was a very genial and popular person and a good businessman too. He was well liked in Napa, very well liked. And I know he was a good Mason and they wanted him to be a Shriner. But he wasn't well to do enough. He had a family to raise. Well, he knew the bankers and when he would find that someone maybe was selling a piece of land that would be a good buy. And that was the way he got the house on Seminary, I guess. Now he had a lot of land along Main Street and First Street. He owned all that. He would probably buy some and then his rents would carry it. The Chinamen, you see, rented from him and across from him was China Town, was on that side. And here was First Street and we were over here and that's where Dad had his stable. where he had his horses for his stage in the early days. That ws here, and the river was over here. And there was...oh, we called it the moat. Theare must have been a little trickle of water that came down and went in front and it was bridged over. So we used to tease Dad about his moat. As if it were a big castle. Dad had kind of a tough time those last few years. Because he would let people who were not well to do, who were poor, I suppose take a room at his place, his motel. And I don't think the town was very much in favor of it. But anyway, he got by.
When we lived in Berkeley he must have had a very good income in those years, for those day. And I think as a young man he must have invested in stock, and I always thought he lost a lot of money before he got married. Because he never went into that, he went into land. (And managed an auto camp on the Napa River for quite a few years.)
1930 US Federal Census--Napa, James B. Gardner, age 74, manager Auto Camp
FROM VIDEOTAPE -- FAMILY HISTORY MEETING: card for auto camp:
James B. Gardner Napa Auto Camp 950 First Street 25 cents/week and up cabins $1/week and up Hot and cold showers The buildings were built with "found" lumber. Housing was for laborers and pickers as well as travelers. There were five cabins and a curtain strung across as a divider from the "tent" area. When times were hard James let people stay in the tent area for free. The first level of the camp building housed coaches no longer in use and an old Ford. There was a ladder up to the rooms.
Daisy the cow resided at camp and Louise Beeler remembers they would walk from Seminary to 1st street and milk the cow and take the milk home. The Auto Camp is listed in the Napa City Directories 1933, 1935 and 1937. In 1937 the camp has been renamed J. B. Gardner and son (James Ewing Gardner?). James Buchanan died in 1939, his wife had the auto camp after that. Then some time in the 40s the city condemned it, paid something like $10,000, but never did anything with it. The cinedome is on the property or near it now...
OBITUARY--JAMES BUCHANAN GARDNER
JAMES GARDNER PASSES AFTER A BRIEF ILLNESS
Member Prominent Pioneer Family Summoned--Funeral Tomorrow
James Buchanan Gardner, a member of a pioneer family of california and a highly esteemed resident of the community, passed away at 3:20 o'clock Wednesday afternoon at his home on Seminary street in this city. Mr. Gardner had been ill but a few days. He did not feel well last Sunday; on Monday he was worse and it became evident that his heart had weakened. Shortly thereafter pneumonia set in. Owing to his advanced years he was unable to combat this dread disease and he steadily lost strength until the end.
Deceased was born in Wooden Valley on January 17th, 1857. He was a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. George Gordon Gardner, who came across the plains to California in the days of '49. James early youth was spent in Wooden Valley. Later he came to Napa and finished his education at the Napa College. As far as is known he was the oldest living graduate of Napa College.
For many years, Mr. Gardner, with a brother, William, conducted the Gardner Bros. livery stable at the corner of Main and Third streets in this city. Retiring from the livery business many years ago, Mr. Gardner had occupied the remaining years of his life in managing the extensive property interests he had acquired in this city.
He is survived by his widow, Jennie Ewing Gardner, and these daughters and sons: Miss Jennie E. Gardner of Berkeley, Ruth Sandner of Berkeley, Mary Allison Beeler of Napa, William I. Gardner of Redding and James E. Gardner of Napa. There are nine grandchildren. A brother, George F. Gardner of Napa, and a sister, Mrs. Maria Johnson of Wooden Valley, also survive.
Deceased was a member of Yount Lodge, F & A. M. PIONEER COUNTY RESIDENT DIES
James Buchanan Gardner, one of this valley's oldest inhabitants, is dead. the pioneer citizen succumbed yesterday afternoon at his 1221 Seminary street residence after a lingering illness. He died just eight days after observing his 83rd birthday anniversary.
Son of the late George and Sarah Gardner, early Wooden Valley settlers, deceased had lived in this community his entire lifetime. The venerable man was one of the oldest living citizens to have graduated fro the old Napa College. For years Mr. Gardner had engaged in business here, having of late owned and operated the Gardner Auto Camp east of town.
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