Page:Men of Mark in America vol 1.djvu/468



ARDNER, WASHINGTON. Born on a farm in Morrow county, Ohio, February 16, 1845, and reared amid rural scenes, Washington Gardner in his later life played a part of some prominence in the religious life and in the Republican politics of the West, serving Michigan as secretary of state, and as a member of the house of representatives.

The son of John L. and Sarah (Goodin) Gardner, he was trained as a boy in farm duties by his father, his mother dying when he was three years old. A hearty and patriotic youth, he enlisted at sixteen in the Civil war, joining the 65th Ohio infantry as a private and serving three years. During this period he took part in many battles as a soldier in Sherman's army, and was severely wounded at Resaca, Georgia, May 14, 1864. After the war, eager for a college education, he paid his own way with the money he had earned as a soldier and that gained by later labors, preparing for a higher education at Berea, and he studied later at Hillsdale college, Michigan, and at Ohio Wesleyan university, where he was graduated in 1870. Having chosen the law as his profession, he entered the Albany law school, and after graduation in 1876 he began the practice of law at Grand Rapids, Michigan. His theological studies and his personal inclination, however, soon led him into the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he remained engaged from 1877 to 1889. In the latter year he became a professor in Albion college, Michigan. In 1888 he served as state commander of the Michigan Grand Army of the Republic.

Mr. Gardner's official career began in 1894 by his unsolicited appointment as secretary of state for the state of Michigan, to fill out an unexpired term. Subsequently he was twice nominated by acclamation as a Republican, and was elected to the same office. In 1898 he was elected to congress from the Third Michigan District. Since then he has been active in the national house, giving full satisfaction to his constituents as a legislator, a fact which seems indicated by his renomination and election for a fourth term in 1904 by a majority of nearly fifteen thousand.