My Genealogy Hound

N. M. Gardner was born in Henderson County, West Tenn., July 7, 1830, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth (McLernan) Gardner, natives of North Carolina, who at an early day, in 1824, moved to Henderson County, Tenn., and engaged in farming. Mr. Gardner, though an uneducated man, by hard work accumulated quite a property, owning 3,000 acres at the time of his death, which occurred in Tennessee, at the age of seventy years, his excellent wife dying some years later. Grandfather Joseph Gardner served in the Revolutionary war. Our subject, the sixth in a family of ten, was raised on the farm, and aided in clearing up the land; he was educated in the subscription schools of Tennessee. In 1859 he came to Jackson County, settling in Bird Township, where he bought 400 acres of land, sixty-five acres being cleared; after clearing sixty acres more, he sold the land, and in 1869 engaged in the mercantile business, in which he is now engaged, as the proprietor of a general store, carrying a full line of groceries, dry goods, and shelf hardware; this was the first store opened in the place. Mr. Gardner also has a farm of 475 acres, 250 being under cultivation, on which are raised principally cotton, corn and oats, and some stock. June 23, 1857, our subject married Lavinia R. Hardgrave, of Madison County, Tenn., daughter of F. R. and Melvina (Woodfolk) Hardgrave, of Tennessee. Her father came to Jackson County, in 1866, his death occurring at Kenyon, in 1878, his wife dying in Tennessee. They have two children: Emerson D., attending Batesville College, and Mattie Lou, attending the public school at Batesville, where the family resides during the school year, Mr. Gardner also owning property in that place. Mr. Gardner is a Democrat, having been brought out by the party as representative, and made a strong run. He is a member of Tuckerman Lodge No. 192, and was made a Mason in Tennessee. He is practically a self-made man, having made what he has by his own efforts, and has always been actively interested in everything, for the good of the county, aiding liberally in all public enterprises.