My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM FRANKLIN GARDNER, secretary and treasurer People’s Insurance company, Pittsburgh, is a native of Baltimore, Md., born August 1, 1835. His grandfather, Isaac Gardner, came from Ireland to Philadelphia county, afterward went to Kent county, Md., where Isaac D., the father of our subject, was born. The latter married Susannah Marshall, whose father, Israel Marshall, was born in Dorchester county, Md., where his daughter Susannah was born. This couple now reside in the Thirteenth ward of Pittsburgh, both being seventy-seven years of age. I. D. Gardner followed shoemaking till old age compelled him to retire. They have four sons and one daughter (Marietta Stauffer) all residing near their parents. William F., the eldest, was a year old when the family came to Pittsburgh, and received his education in the public schools. When thirteen years old he was employed in a hat store, where he remained three years; then entered the employ of the Citizens’ Insurance company, and remained with that institution fifteen years, rising to the position of bookkeeper. In 1862 he organized the People’s Insurance company, of which he has ever since been secretary and treasurer. In 1867 he purchased his present home at Edgewood. September 6, 1859, Mr. Gardner married Anna Margaret Hastings, a native of Pittsburgh, born February 8, 1840, daughter of Abel and Margaret (Lee) Hastings, of Irish and English descent. Mr. Hastings, now aged eighty-six, is still a resident of the Thirteenth ward, Pittsburgh, where he was engaged in the tailoring business for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner are members’ of Shady Avenue Baptist Church, Pittsburgh, and he is identified with the republican party. Their children yet living are: William M., a resident of Allegheny City (he married a Miss Bertha Schneider); Maggie Lee (Mrs. Walter N. Haslett), in Allegheny; Elizabeth Howard, John Semple and Henry Black, at home. Hastings (the first-born), James Miller (the fourth), Tempy Copper (the fifth), Fulton Arbuckle (the eighth), Hattie Farrell (the ninth), Bertha May (the tenth), and an infant daughter unnamed are deceased.