Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-11-22
OTHER VETERAN MILL BUILDERS.
To the Editor:

To the Editor:
The brief record in the News" with
regard to mill-buiiding as represented
by Bishop f. Kesler of the Sixteenth
ward, this city, reminds tho reader of
that equally famous mill-bu!lder, Bish-
op Archibald Gardner, who for many
years presided over the West Jordan
ward in this salt Lake Stake of Zion.
Bishop Gardner was one of the Pio-
neers of 1si7. He was born in Kill
sythe, stlrlingshire, Scotland, Sept
9. 1914; with his brother Robert and
the wives OF both. they came westward
from the province of ontario, Upper
Canada, arriving in now Utah october
LIST with the general emigration of
forty-seven, under the captaincS of
the late President John Taylor, Bishop
Hunters hundred" Joseph Rorne's
atty" and In A. Gardner's ten"
Nineteen names appear in the list of
that year, most OF whom were or now
are doubtless of that family. Ten re-
ceivod badges as evidence that they
were Pioneers. If some three of four
became afterwards Gardeners by mar
rage.
Bishop Gardner, prior to the anti
polygamy crusade. was known as
man of large family, and as such be-
came amenable to the law, but he found
1t convenient to locate in Star Valley,
Wyoming, where he lived for many
years; building mills there as he had
done In Utah since the days of the
Pioneers. The writer met him on the
streets In this city over year ago.
The brave, hard working, patriotic and
untirlng man had concluded that he
would vacate Star Valley and return
to end his days with his former loves
and kindred souls with whom he had
labOred for SO many years. After his
arrival, aged though he was, he saw n
mill site. and though he might easily
have found an" excuse, as his friends
did for him, upon that site his imagi-
nation saw a mill which his energy
speedily transformed from Il creature
of the brain to an active reality. This
he declared TO the writer was the thir-
ty-fourth mill he had built in Utah I'M
| der circumstances which no common
man ever could have surmounted.
The first mill Of his in our memory
was probably that on the Jordan river;
hut the most prominent one of the
early fifties was the famed "Gardner's"
! mill on the State road six miles south
| of this city. Curiously enough all these
mills passed one By one out of the
builders hands, no matter. whether
| they were for grist or lumber-the
same fatality seemed to befall each
| one.
1t was something. too, to build
| mill in those early days at least for
the first mill irons made cost Brother
Gardner on dollar, per pound and the
| stones or burrs (home made as they
| We're in the main) were almost
| luxury because of the cost. This was
| of course before imported French
| burrs superseded the rough, crude
home product and gave the people
| finer -four.
In the sixties Bishop Gardner, to the
surprise of President Young, ordered
| from n commission merchant here an
unusually fine boiling silk for those
| times. The same agent was buying
| bolt that very season for the President
and incidentally mentioned the prior
| fact when the former order was
| promptly contaminated, and the same
| ~ not n higher grade was e'he"'Ited
for the long famous City Gre k mill.
| After disposlng of the last mil built
by Bro. Gardner in this section, the
ex-Bshop courd hamilton incompatl-
| bic with his temperament II II was not
| with his Lge r,'l he returned 'Isd:n to
Star Valley, Wyoming. The latest
rCiice 81 ttIs rem Jrkable man '-d RI y
nrer was In the News" a while ego,
stating that he was then quite dagger
ousl. sick. Late inquiry from one of
hsl faithful family in the West Jordan
ward. gave the gratifying news Of his
partial recovery and expected return
to this section of the country.
"Time would fail to tell' Of the
mighty WORTHLESS of those days, such as
the late Father Crismon who is said
to have built the first mill In these val
legs; then Father Chase, who ran the
picturesque mill now partly remaining
in Liberty Park. still further east on
Canyon Creek stood the "Neff MIL"
| for years n household word. StraE-
cling In that neghborhood the other
day. the neither milestone of that prim-
tive era was noticed by the wayside,
half imbedded in the debris of the sea-
son. This is n homemade one also,
from the west mountains, II memory
| serves. Neither II nor Its partner the
upper milestone were ever iron banded
as consequence the latter by centri-
fugal force, flew in all directions; luck
lily no one was at the time in close prox-
unity. or fatal results might have en-
sued: The neither or remaining stone
should be garnered by the latent His
torical society, II it should ever get
beyond the embryo condition.
Last but not least, President Young
himself was an indefatigible millbuild-
err and owner He also encouraged and
dlutu olHtlS III every us set
Elements were formed ana extended
from Cache Valley to the Rio Virgen.
The impress of his hand and enterprise
gradually created lumber mills, cardlng
and wooden mills and all forms of con-
tributary machinery which the circum-
stances demanded or required.
In these contentious times. these
times when self-infiated demagogues
would tule our State and ignore the
workers who laid the foundation there
of and began to build. we ask ourselves
the question what is. or has been, the
the comparative value of these two
classes TO this locality and to the world
at large? Surely we, their associates
and successors ought 20 know the diff
ference between the giants of those
days" and the pigmires of these. though
the latter may despise and Ignore the
toll and sacrifice Of the former, seek
ing, in fact. TO turn their posterlty from
n reverential estimate of the fathers
to their sickly imitators who claims
|