The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1881-11-25

DEATH OF A DISTINGUISHED vERM0NTER.
BY the death of Abram B. Gardner, a
his Bennington Centre residence, Wednes
day, one Of Bennington's best and ables
citizens is removed. The sad intelligence
was carried into nearly every household Of
the town Wednesday evening, while the
| wires flashed it to neighboring towns and dis
tant states. The sorrow of the people fol-
whom he has SO long and zealously abored
is general and unfeigned, while they realize
the void that his death has created.
Mr.. Gardner was born a. Pownal, Ben
nington county, Sept. I'd, 1919, and had
passed his sixty-second birthday. He was
the son OF David Gardner, longtime resi-
dent of that town. Graduating at Union
College about 1874, he entered the Castle
ton law office of his uncle, Isaac T..
Wright, and, after being admitted TO the
bar practiced a while, we think, in Rut-
land county, before opening an office at
fownal, from whence he removed to
Bennington He married Jeanette
Swift, from one of Bennington's best faml-
lies, and sister of Mr.. Charles w. Swift,
the well-known deputy clerk of the
Bennington county court. Called to
mourn her loss, he subsequently re-mar-
rled, and at the time of his decease was
living with his third wife, formerly Miss
Matte Wilmarth, sister of A. w. Will
marth, Esq,
e He has for more than twenty five years
been one of the foremost lawyers and bust
ness men of his county and state. A man
OF strong and vigorous INTELLECT close
student of men and books-a well-tralned
LAWYER, conscientious and faithful in all his
relations to his clients, his family, his
friends and to the community in which he
was born and lived his sudden and I'M
expected death removes one who could not
well be spared. lie was in the front rank
of the Vermont bar In his earlier pro-
fessional life he was prominent in politics.
He was member OF the lower branch of
the legislature for several years, and for
two years speaker He was also member
of the senate, and for two years Lieut.
Governor. While the Republican party
upheld the principles and doctrines of CON
stitutional liberty, Mr.. Gardner was a Wig.
orous supporter of its men and measures.
After the death of Lincoln, he, with Sum-
ner, Chase, Greeley, Trumbull and others,
being the purest and best of the party, saw
his duty to oppose the men who had OBJ
tanned control of the organization of
their party to promote their private ends
For the last ten years Mr.. Gardner has
been an independent in politics, more often
perhaps voting with the Democrats
he was not member of any church,
but a man who believed in the fundamental
doctrines of the christian religion and lived
in accord with them. He was of most
kindly and tender disposition, with
out malice, and full of charity. An affec-
tionate husband, a most devoted father, a
faithful and reliable friend. His stricken
wife, the children he so tenderly loved, the
friends and clients whose confidence he
never betrayed, will miss him and mourn
for him.
He had been in failing health for few
months and fully realized that he had but a
short time to live. To one at least of his
intimate friends, just two weeks before his
death, he disclosed his condition and made
known his conviction that he must soon
die. 1t is some consolation to his family
to know that the burden of his later
thoughts concerned them and their welfare,
and, while death had no terrors for him, he
would gladly have lived longer for them.
1t was in August, 1880, that he first
complained of trouble in the chest, and to
several, outside his immediate relatives, ex-
pressed apprehension that his remaining
days were few. Although the immediate
cause of his death was pneumonia, with
which he was attacked on Monday, Nov.
IA, there is little doubt that heart trouble
complicated the fatal maady.