My Genealogy Hound

ROWLAND W. GARDNER is a most worthy disciple of Ceres, Pomona and Flora, and was warmly welcomed as a member of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, where he found the representatives of these three mythological goddesses occupying chairs at the head of the hall. Rowland W. Gardner is a son of William J. and Sarah (Durfee) Gardner, and was born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, October 12, 1819. His paternal grandfather, Rowland Gardner, was also born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, where he owned a farm of one hundred acres on which he spent his entire life. He was married in 1770 to Deborah James, by whom he had five children: James, a farmer; John, who moved to New York State, settled in Wyoming county, and married Wealthy Bentley; Nicholas, a foreman in a factory in Norwich, Conn., who married Betsey Hazard; William J., father of Rowland W.; and Rowland, who died at twenty-one years of age. Their father died in 1805, while the mother passed away fifteen years before. Both are interred in South Kingston, R. I. The maternal grandfather, Joseph Durfee, was born in Connecticut in 1775, but after reaching his majority he removed to Rhode Island, where he bought a farm and remained there until 1821, when he removed to Wyoming county, N. Y., and purchased a farm, having sold his large property in Rhode Island. The farm in Wyoming county he occupied and cultivated until his death in 1845. He married twice. His first wife was Esther Wood, by whom he had six children, four sons and two daughters: William was a laborer; Newell was a farmer in Rhode Island, and married Sarah Moore; Thomas was a cripple; Sarah was the mother of Rowland W.; Eunice married Francis Hamilton, of Ireland, who was a Methodist minister; Joseph was a farmer in Wyoming county, N. Y., and married Martha Pollard. The mother of these children died in 1805, and Joseph Durfee married for his second wife Elsie Wilcox, and by this union had seven children, four sons and three daughters: Benjamin, a farmer in Wyoming county, N. Y., married Eliza Sparr; Esther, unmarried; Eliza, married Noble Fairchild, a farmer in Michigan; Whipple, bachelor and farmer; Anthony, also a bachelor and farmer; Mariamne, married Abram Pickard; and Charles, who died when a young man. William J. Gardner, (father) was born in South Kingston, R.I., in 1794. He worked on the farm with his father until he was twenty-one years old, when he leased a farm and cultivated it until 1821; then he moved to Genesee county (now Wyoming), N. Y., and bought a farm of fifty acres, partially improved. He remained here until 1829, when he removed to Monroe county, N. Y., and leased a farm on which he lived two years, and then bought a farm of twenty-five acres in the corporation of Fredonia, on which he lived until his death in 1863. He married Sarah Durfee, a daughter of Joseph Durfee, of South Kingston, R. I., by whom he had five children, two sons and three daughters: Rowland W., Joseph, a hardware merchant and seedsman at Fredonia, who married Abigail Hewitt, by whom he has had three children, Deborah, unmarried; Mary and Martha, both dead. The mother, Sarah (Durfee) Gardner died in 1870.

Rowland W. Gardner acquired his education in the common schools of Chautauqua county and in the Fredonia academy. After leaving school he began his life’s vocation of raising and selling garden seeds, to which he afterward added fruit trees. For two years he raised the seeds on leased land, and then with his brother Joseph bought a farm of fifty acres in the village of Fredonia and continued the business for eight years. In 1852 they divided the business and each continued to raise on his own farm. He raised and papered the seeds until 1864, when he discontinued papering them and has since raised them for the wholesale trade. He is widely known as a most reliable seedsman, nurseryman and florist. He imports large quantities of trees and bulbs for his local trade, and in the last thirty years has sold over one million trees, plants and bulbs of his own importation. He has been very successful and accumulated a handsome competency. He is a charter member of Fredonia Grange, No. 1; a member of Chautauqua Lodge, No. 283, I. O. O. F.; of Forest Lodge, No. 166, F. and A. M.; of Fredonia Chapter, No. 76, R. A. M.; and of Dunkirk Council and Dunkirk Commandery, No. 40, K. T. He was a member of the board of trustees and board of assessors of Fredonia several times and is highly respected as a useful, honorable and upright citizen.

Rowland W. Gardner was married July 19, 1863, to Jane Carpenter, daughter of Ezra and Minerva (Nichols) Carpenter, her father being a farmer in Sheridan, this county, and has one daughter, Surah M., who resides with her parents.