GEORGE W. GARDNER

George W. Gardner settled in Napoleon, Ohio, in the mid 1800's and opened a photographic studio above what used to be the old Racket Store. He took many daguerreotypes and he did much experimenting with pictures of his photogenic granddaughter such as the one of her when she was about three years old just hatching from a large eggshell. Another one had her dressed in boys' clothes with a hat on sidewise, a cigarette in her mouth, peddling papers. Such pictures he put in his showcase on the street to interest people. He was very successful in his business for 50 years.

[Photos A-D, p. 200] Examples of Gardner's photography.

Mr. Gardner had a family of eleven children. About 1900 an older son, Tell, joined him in the work. They moved to the third floor in the new Vocke block. They took the pictures under a skylight. When Cecil, a younger son, returned from the Spanish-American War, he also joined his father and brother in the studio. The Gardners were very successful in their work. Cecil took lessons and began painting enlarged pictures. They were always very particular about washing pictures so all the chemicals would be washed out and so their pictures have always lasted without fading. After the father died, the business went by the name of Gardner Brothers. If Cecil Gardner saw a picture that didn't look right, he would tear it up and do it over.

Tell Gardner died very suddenly in 1929 and Cecil was left with the business. At Christmas time his wife and daughter helped him all they could, and after school his daughter touched out pictures and washed them and waited on the trade. The business had been in the Gardner family for one hundred years. When Cecil retired, he sold the business to James Kerr.

Cecil Gardner married Myrtle Scribner and they had one daughter, Thelma. She attended Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, for four years and went one summer to Columbia University in New York. She taught three years in West Unity, Ohio, and two years in Orrville, Ohio, and went back to school and received an elementary certificate and taught for 27 years in Napoleon, Ohio. She is a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Napoleon and also a member of the Eastern Star, Sheffield Literary Society, The A.A.U.W., and N.R.T.A. (retired teachers). She went around the world in 1970.

[Photo A, p. 201] Thelma Gardner

[Photo B, p. 201] Tell Gardner

[Photo C, p. 201] Cecil Gardner

Myrtle Scribner was the daughter of Allen B. Scribner and Mary Potter Scribner. Mr. Scribner had a hardware store for many years on Washington Street in Napoleon. He had information that he had a relative, Jonathon Carver, who came to America on the Mayflower, and was first governor of the colony. According to records he never married. Carver was a friend to the Indians. When he died, he left a will to the nearest relative in 100 years, and it was supposed to be in the Archives in London, England.

Scribner, who at one time was financially able, sent a lawyer to London to look in the Archives and sure enough the will was there; but after 100 years people would have "squatters rights." The Indians had left him St. Paul, Minneapolis, and seven towns around and so it was in the will. One day, a man from one of the twin cities came to the Scribner hardware store and in their conversation he said, "Mr. Scribner, it is very strange that not one person can get a clear title to his land." Whereupon Mr. Scribner told him he was the missing link.

On Mackinac Island, they have the wax figures of the important early settlers and Jonathon Carver is portrayed there. The person in charge also said that he had no family of his own.

Submitted by: Thelma Gardner