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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Greene County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Richard H. Gardner, ex-county clerk and surveyor of Greene County, Ark., is a gentleman of wide experience, who has been actively interested in politics from his youth up. He was born in Weakley County, Tenn., in 1831, and is a son of Richard W. and Eliza (Thomas) Gardner, who were of English and German descent, having been born in Virginia and South Carolina in 1808 and 1811, and died in Tennessee in 1852 and 1842, respectively. The former was taken to Kentucky when a boy, by his father, John A. Gardner, and there resided until 1825 or 1826, when he moved to Tennessee, and there spent the remainder of his days. He was a soldier in the Mexican War under Gen. Cheatham, of Tennessee, serving as surgeon, having graduated from the Louisville Medical College in 1845. He practiced in the State of Mississippi for a short time after the war, when he returned to Tennessee and resumed practice. He was always a strong advocate of temperance. Four of the eight children born to himself and wife lived to be grown, and two are living at the present time: Jerome A. and Richard H. The latter lived in Weakley County, Tenn., until eleven years of age, and was then sent to Franklin College, near Nashville, where he remained until he was twenty-one years of age. He engaged in civil engineering in Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi, continuing from 1852 to 1855, and then clerked in a steam flouring-mill for two years, after which he came west, and in 1857 located at Oak Bluff, Greene County, Ark., where he was occupied in merchandising for a short time, and was then elected assessor and deputy clerk, serving until 1861. When the war broke out he enlisted in the Confederate army and commanded a company as captain in the battles of Pleasant Grove, Helena and Pleasant Hill. After the war he returned home and was appointed to the office of county clerk for six months, being re-elected in 1866 for two years. In 1870 he was elected county surveyor, holding the position ten years, and in 1882 was again elected county clerk, which he held for four years. In January, 1887, after retiring from office, he came to his present place of abode. He is a strong advocate of churches and schools, and has been a liberal contributor to both. He was married in 1856 to Miss Sarah Towles, of Nashville, Tenn., who died in 1880, leaving a family of nine children, six of whom are now living: Arthur C., Flora G., Oliver W., Albert D., Ada B. and Nerly R. Stapleton died at the age of twenty-one; Elmore at the age of twelve years, and Algernon, when three years of age. Mr. Gardner took for his second wife, Lucretia C. Harris, who died in 1881, having borne one child, which died in infancy. In 1882 he married his present wife, Mrs. Ann E. Thompson, who was born in the State of Mississippi, in 1844, and when fourteen years of age came to Arkansas, where she grew to maturity. She and Mr. Gardner are the parents of two children: Berah B. and Kathleen. One son was born to her first marriage named James Thompson. Mr. Gardner belongs to the Christian Church, and his wife to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. She was the widow of Isaac Thompson, and the daughter of James and Jane Johnston, who came to Arkansas in 1858. Here the father died in 1872 at the age of sixty-nine years, and the mother in 1886, aged seventy-six years. The former was a merchant in Mississippi until his failure in business, then selling clocks until he was able to resume mercantile pursuits, which he did in Gainesville, Ark. He and wife became the parents of eight children, Mrs. Gardner being one of four now living.

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This family biography is one of 120 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Greene County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Greene County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Greene County, Arkansas family biographies here: Greene County, Arkansas Biographies

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