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Note: Matthew married Helen Hoag before traveling with the rest of the Gardners to California in 1853. He spent some time in Solano County. The 1860 Federal Census finds M. C. Gardner farming in Monterey, California. He and Helen have two daughters, Maria, born 1858 and Mary, born in 1860. There is a land record for Matthew C Gardner in 1865 selling a parcel of land in Napa for cash. The NAPA REAL ESTATE PROPERTY BOOK lists a sale of land in Dec of 1868: M.C. Gardner to S.D.Newbill.
In 1870 the family has moved to Carson City, Ormsby County, Nevada, and there are three children listed, Maria, age 12; James H., age 8; and Clara, age 5. James and Clara were both born in Nevada. Mary is no longer listed, and most likely has died. Also is residence: two teamsters, two laborers.
The 1880 Census shows the family in Carson City, Nevada, with three more children, Matthew C., b. 1871; George M., b. 1874; and Percy, b. 1878.
In the 1900 US Federal Census - Carson City, Ormsby, Nevada, Major C. Gardner, age 64 is listed as a Farmer. With him are his wife, Helen M., age 62, married 42 years, 10 children, 6 living; James H. age 37, who is a miner of gold ore; Percy S., age 21, also a miner of gold ore, and Chow Foot, age 62, his cook who came over in 1870.
Mathew Culbertson Gardner died in June of 1908. The 1910 US Federal Census - Carson City, Ormsby, Nevada shows his widow, Helen M. Gardner, age 74, living with her son James H., age 52.
Nevada Historical Marker 194
GARDNER'S RANCH
Location: Carson River Basin, Carson City, Nevada. Along U.S. Highway 395, at the south edge of Carson City. On this site in the period from 1870 until 1908 stood the ornate, two-story home of Matthew Culbertson Gardner, rancher and lumberman. The residence was headquarters for Gardner's 300-acre ranch in meadows to the southwest. Here was located, 1870-1898, the Carson-Tahoe Lumber and Fluming company's large lumberyard. During the 1870's and 1880's, Gardner logged south of Lake Tahoe for the company and built the only standard-gauge logging railroad in the Tahoe Basin. He maintained his home here. Gardner died in 1908. The residence was destroyed by a fire August 20, 1918. Many of the old trees on the grounds once shaded the Gardner family.
From history of the Bliss family in Carson City:
1870s-Glenbrook becomes center for the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company operations in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Three sawmills constructed; Until 1875, lumber is hauled to Spooner Summit by wagon and sent east to Carson Valley by v-flumes down Clear Creek Canyon; Dam built at Marlette Lake to supply water for flumes.
1873-Bliss and Yerrington contract with Mathew Culbertson Gardner for delivery of logs from Lake Valley at south end of Lake Tahoe; Gardner builds railroad on west side of Lake Valley to pier at Gardner's Camp (later Camp Richardson). By the mid-1880s Gardner is bankrupt and the railroad is abandoned.
from RUTH GARDNER SANDNER NOTES:
A different branch of the family went up there and did lumbering. Someone, a Dr. Gardner got his feet cut off, a railroad ran over him. Or something. He married a wonderful nurse. She took care of him. They lived later in Berkeley. In North Berkeley. (She is probably refering to George M. Gardner, who was a doctor...although no one else in the family ever mentioned he had his feet cut off...)
On the lake (Tahoe) somewhere is a little Mount Gardner, or Gardner Mound, named for Matthew Culbertson Gardner who had property there and shipped logs across the lake for the silver mines in Nevada. It's down at the southwest end of the lake. I once found it. Little Gardner. It was a little bump. "We may lose all the land but we have things named after us."
From NEVADA STATE ARCHIVES--THE NAMING OF GARDNERVILLE:
No doubt, Mathew C. Gardner was a prominent Nevadan. According to his obituary in the Carson City News (June 3, 1908), the Arkansas native found his way to Carson City via California in 1861. Gardner's ranch on the southern outskirts of the capital city was among the largest in Eagle Valley. "He was a central figure in the logging and lumber industry of the early days, and traces of his work can still be seen from Carson City over the mountains to Tallac," wrote the News. Gardner's pallbearers included two former governors and a Supreme Court justice. (However, Gardnerville is named for John and Mary Gardner, who sold a portion of their Carson Valley ranch to Leander S. Ezell in 1877 and Lawrence Gilman in 1879. We know little of these Gardners except they were born in England.)
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