John William Tudor Gardiner (1817 - 1879)

Born 5 Jun 1817 in Gardiner, Kennebec, Maine, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Ann Elizabeth (Hays) Gardiner — married 5 Jul 1854 in The Wood Yard, Prince George's County, Maryland, USA

Descendants

Died 27 Sep 1879 at age 62 in Gardiner, Kennebec, Maine, United States

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Biography

John was born in Gardiner, Kennebec county, Maine, in 1817 to parents Robert Hallowell and Emma Jane (Tudor) Gardiner. While a student at Harvard College, John accepted an appointment as cadet at West Point Military Academy where he graduated in 1840. He was assigned to the First Dragoons and in Dec 1840 became second lieutenant. (see Obituary for military career).

John married Anne Elizabeth Hays in 1854. He passed away in 1879.

Obituary

JOHN W. T. GARDINER

No. 1042. Class of 1840.

Died September 27, 1879, at Gardiner, Maine, aged 62.

Brevet Lieut. Colonel John William Tudor Gardiner was born June 5, 1817, at Gardiner, Maine; and died at the home of his nativity, September 27, 1879, at the age of 62. His grandfather was the Collector of Customs at Portsmouth and Boston before the Revolution; his father was Robert Hollowell, who took the name of Gardiner in 1803, two years after graduating at Harvard College, to inherit his maternal grandfather's estates; and his mother was the daughter of William Tudor, Judge Advocate of Washington's army.

Young Gardiner, after being prepared at Putnam's School, in North Andover, and the more famous one at Round Hill, entered Harvard College in 1832, with a distinguished class, among whose members was the present able Mayor of Boston.

Gardiner, preferring a military life, left College in his third year and entered the Military Academy, July 1st, 1836, from which he was graduated four years later, in the same class with Generals Sherman, Thomas, Hays, and others well known to fame. He was commissioned, July 1, 1840, a Brevet Second Lieutenant in the 1st Dragoons, rising in that regiment through the grades of Second and First Lieutenants, to be Captain, October 9, 1851.

Up to this period, he had been on the frontier, among Western pioneers and Indian savages, except when his regiment was ordered to the city of Mexico, which it did not reach till after its capitulation to General Scott. In 1853, Gardiner accompanied Governor Stevens on the exploration for the Northern Pacific Railroad. By this last tour of duty, superadded to the hardships and privations incident to cavalry service, his health was completely broken down, and to recover it, he resolved to try a sea‑voyage, and the genial climate of California. Fortunately, as he thought, but most unfortunately as the sequel proved, he found he could go as a passenger on board the steamer San Francisco, which had been chartered to take the Third Artillery to the Pacific coast, via Cape Horn. Accordingly, he embarked upon her, December 20, 1853, but had to be carried to the ship on a litter, so acute were his sufferings from rheumatism.

It is unnecessary here to describe the course of events in the brief career of the ill‑fated San Francisco, which will be found fully chronicled in our obituary notice of General Merchant, in this year's Necrology of the Graduates of the Military Academy. It is sufficient to say that, at the height of the storm in which she was wrecked, Gardiner was sleeping in one of the state-rooms, on the main-deck of the vessel. His servant‑man, who had been an old soldier, entered his state-room to warn the Captain of his great danger, and had hardly spoken to him when that tremendous wave which hurried so many cabin-passengers, officers and soldiers into eternity, swept the servant overboard, leaving Gardiner, as by a special Providence, the only person there saved; but the hurricane deck had fallen upon him, completely burying him with its debris, from which he was rescued in his helpless and wounded condition, by his brother officers from below, who had been spared. Being an invalid, he was one of those transferred on board the first vessel — the brig Kilby — which came to the rescue. Here, though so great a sufferer, himself, he, by his kindness, courage, self-sacrifice and good judgment, greatly alleviated the sufferings of others, half-clad, almost freezing, and subsisting for many days on parched corn and a very scanty supply of water.

Upon his reaching New York, Gardiner was so completely broken down in health that he was obliged to remain on sick leave of absence till 1855, when he was ordered to Fort Tejon in southern California, and thence to Benicia. In 1856, he was sent upon a march of six hundred miles, in the rainy season, to the borders of Oregon, where he built Fort Crook on the right bank of Fall River. Here, in this severe climate, for a year, his sufferings became so intense from rheumatism, that he was ordered to his home. After his promotion to be Major of the Second Cavalry, Oct. 26th, 1861, being totally unfit for further active service, he was retired, Nov. 14, 1861, "for disability resulting from long and faithful service, and from disease and exposure in the line of duty."

During the Rebellion, though racked with pain and disease, in this hour of his country's danger, he cheerfully undertook the performance of such duties as were possible in his condition, which were necessarily limited to mustering, disbursing, recruiting, and Provost-Marshal services. Gardiner was breveted a Lieut. Colonel, March 13th, 1865, "for meritorious services during the rebellion."

• Brevet Major General George W. Cullum, Eleventh Annual Reunion of the Association of the Graduates of the United States Military Academy, June 17, 1880. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/AOG_Reunions/11/John_W_T_Gardiner*.html (accessed Mar 2024).

Sources

• "Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4WH-69K : 5 January 2021), John William Tudor Gardiner in entry for Robert Hallowell Gardiner, 9 Sep 1855, citing Birth, Gardiner, Kennebec, Maine.
• "Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4W4-LLB : 5 January 2021), John William Tudor Gardiner in entry for Eleanor Gardiner, 3 Jun 1857, citing Birth, Gardiner, Kennebec, Maine.
• "Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4W4-KZP : 5 January 2021), John William Tudor in entry for Anne Hays Tudor, 21 Feb 1859, citing Birth, Gardiner, Kennebec, Maine.
• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDHL-TL8 : Fri Mar 08 19:54:10 UTC 2024), J W T Gardiner (aged 42) in entry for Robert H Gardiner and Emma J Gardiner, 1860, Gardiner, Kennebec, Maine.
• "Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4WH-NTB : 5 January 2021), John William Tudor Gardiner in entry for Francis Richards Gardiner, 16 Dec 1860, citing Birth, Gardiner, Kennebec, Maine.
• "Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4W4-18B : 5 January 2021), John William Tudor Gardiner in entry for John Hays Gardiner, 6 Apr 1863, citing Birth, Gardiner, Kennebec, Maine.
• "Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4SQ-5HQ : 14 January 2020), John William Tudor in entry for John Tudor Gardiner, 6 Apr 1863, citing Birth, Gardiner, Kennebec, Maine.
• "Maine Vital Records, 1670-1921", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2HV9-CMT : Thu Mar 07 20:57:58 UTC 2024), John William Tudor in entry for John Tudor Gardiner, 06 Apr 1863, citing Birth, Gardiner, Kennebec, Maine.
• "Maine, Faylene Hutton Cemetery Collection, ca. 1780-1990", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKMB-13JF : Sun Mar 10 12:56:25 UTC 2024), Entry for John William Tudor Gardiner, 5 Jun 1817, citing Birth; 27 Sep 1879, citing Death; Christ Church, citing Burial, Gardiner, Kennebec, Maine.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186991795/john_william_tudor-gardiner: accessed March 27, 2024), memorial page for John William Tudor Gardiner (5 Jun 1817–27 Sep 1879), Find a Grave Memorial ID 186991795, citing Christ Church Cemetery, Gardiner, Kennebec County, Maine, USA; Maintained by PMSmith (contributor 47464565).
• "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH85-16T : Sun Mar 10 20:05:02 UTC 2024), John W T in entry for Robert H Jr Gardiner and Alice Bangs, 23 June 1881, citing Marriage, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts.
• "Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHK1-JWY : 22 July 2021), John W. T. Gardiner in entry for Annie E. Hays Gardiner, 17 Apr 1901, citing Death, Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts.
• "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2Q2-668Y : Mon Mar 11 00:37:30 UTC 2024), John W T Gardiner in entry for John Hays Gardiner, 14 May 1913, citing Death, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts.
• "Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1925", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6P68-QDRZ : 3 October 2023), John W T Gardiner in entry for Robert H Gardiner, 15 Jun 1924, citing Death, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts.
• "United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries, 1815-2011", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPB7-GCNK : Thu Mar 07 18:56:02 UTC 2024), Capt John William Tudor Gardiner in entry for Mr Robert Hallowell Gardiner, 16 June 1924.

See also :

• George Thomas Little, ed., Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Volume 1 (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1909) 227.