ROBERT GARDNER JR:

THE EARLY YEARS

1819

SCOTTISH-BORN

CANADIAN-RAISED

Robert Gardner Jr. was born on October 12, 1819 in the town of Kilsyth, Scotland, the youngest of seven children. He spent his infancy in Scotland, and then emigrated with his family to Dalhousie, New Brunswick, Eastern Canada in 1822.

1819

BORN IN KILSYTH, SCOTLAND

Photo: Modern Kilsyth, Scotland. Google Earth.

1822

MOVED TO DALHOUSIE, CANADA

Photo: Modern Dalhousie, Canada. Google Earth.

1833

MOVING TO ‘WESTERN CANADA’

After a decade in Dalhousie, the family decided to try their luck in what was considered ‘Western Canada.’ Robert’s older brother, Archie, purchased 500 acres of land for $0.50 an acre, and the family moved there in 1833. Robert, who was only 14 at the time, worked alongside the family in their new plot of land to clear timber, plant crops, and shear sheep.

The closest store was around 40 miles away, so the family had to be completely self-sufficient. Robert recalled their wool clothes, which started with their own sheep’s wool. The family sheared, carded, spun, and wove the wool into usable cloth and then sewed it into clothes.

1841

Placeholder: Married Jane McKeown

1844

WINTER CONVERT

Shortly after the Prophet Joseph Smith’s death in 1844, the missionary John Borrowman journeyed up to preach to the remote towns in the Great Lakes region of Canada. Robert’s brother, William, believed in John’s preaching and was baptised.

Robert also believed, and in the first, cold days of the new year asked his older brother, William, to baptize him.

1845

BAPTIZED UNDER 18 INCHES OF ICE

Braving the harsh Canadian winter, the party of believers trekked into the snow-covered woods. After hiking for over a mile to a nearby pond, they cut an opening through 18 inches of ice and William baptised Robert.

Time seemed to slow as Robert was underwater, and “though only about a second,” he wrote, “it seemed to me a minute, [and] a bright light shown around my head and the light had a very mild heat with it.”

He was confirmed as he shivered, sitting on a nearby log.

“As soon as I embraced the Gospel I had a strong desire to go to Nauvoo to see the Apostles and the Saints in their gathering place.”

-Robert Gardner jr.

1845

$5 & A SACK OF CRACKERS

A few months after his baptism, Robert felt compelled to travel to Nauvoo and meet the Apostles and Saints in their gathering place.

With only $5.00 in his pocket and a 2 bushel sack half-full of crackers, Robert made the 500-mile trek to Nauvoo. With only enough money to cover his steamboat fare and an occasional night’s lodging, Robert munched the crackers for the entire two-week journey.

As he walked through Nauvoo, Robert “…soon found out that the Saints in Nauvoo were very poor, and were spending most of their time on the Temple without pay…”

“When I got outside of Nauvoo,” he wrote, “I turned and looked back and wept, for my heart was with the saints and I said, ‘I will soon see you again.’”

“I used to sit down and rest and sing the Hymn “Hail to the Prophet Ascended to Heaven, Traitors and Tyrants Now Fight Him in Vain…”, then get up and go on my way rejoicing.”

-Robert Gardner jr.

1847

THE AGONY OF WAGON WHEELS

During a routine stop on the trail west, Robert watched as his oldest boy, Robert Rierson, got kicked by an ox and thrown underneath the wagon. The spooked ox bolted, pulling the wagon, which rolled right over the boy’s stomach.

Although the boy “got out of the wagon” later that day “and ran-along and played to show me that he was not much hurt and to try to make us feel better,” his internal injuries soon worsened. For the next 52 nights, Robert cradled the whimpering boy in his arms as the two of them tried to sleep.

On August 13, 1847 the boy died and was buried on the shores of Deer Creek.

The horror was nearly repeated when the wagon train neared Fort Bridger and Robert’s other son, William, fell from the wagon. “…the same 2 wheels that ran over Robert ran over him, over his 2 ankles.”

Miraculously, the ankles remained unbroken, and a few days later the boy was able to stand and walk again.

“My wagon,” Robert wrote, “was heavily loaded with 3 yoke of oxen; I saw the wheels go over both his ankles, no mistake about it. Afterwards, I threw some large buffalo bones under the same wheels and they were crushed to powder.”

-Robert Gardner Jr.

SETTLING MILLCREEK

1847

A PLACE TO REST

After finally arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Robert unyoked his oxen and sat down on the tongue of his wagon, taking a few deep breaths and feeling the ache in his legs and back.

Although he said that he couldn’t go another day’s journey, Robert later wrote that “that was a happy day for us all for we knew that this was a place where we could worship God according to the dictation of our conscience and mob would not come, at least for a while.”

He couldn’t see it at the time, but the Salt Lake Valley would turn out to simply be another stopping point along his life’s journey, a place to rest and catch his breath for a few years.

1847-48

CHEWING LEATHER

Despite the mild winter, the family’s first attempts to plant grain, corn, and vegetables almost completely failed, leaving the family with little to eat.

In near-desperation, Robert “took the dry hide of my cow and scalded it and boiled it and ate it, and believe me this was tuff.”

1851

Placeholder: Married CYNTHIA LOVINA BERRY

1848

THE VALLEY’S FIRST LUMBER MILL

Both Robert and his brother Archibald had experience running mills. After a brief, failed mill at warm springs, the brothers relocated the saw mill to Mill Creek.

Example of a Water Wheel

Photo: Brad G Smith, 2012
Archie broke down one of his wagons, using the axel as the mill crank and repurposing all of the irons. The brothers hollowed out a log for the flume and set up a muley mill (reciprocating, up-and-down type of sawmill).

The new mill ran well, and the family established their homestead on 80 acres and began building homes and barns in the area.

The mill was completely handcrafted and built without a single nail. “Wooden pins and mortises were used instead,” Archibald explained in his history, “all shafts, bearings, cog wheels, etc., were made of wood, our mountain maple. Here we turned out the first lumber sawed in Utah.”

1856

BLEEDING IN THE SNOW

During the winter of 1856 Robert hiked up into a canyon to “slide some dry pine timber” down the mountain for firewood. With his legs sinking knee-deep in the snow, Robert began ascending the slide, unaware that someone was already up the mountain sliding timber.

A log suddenly appeared, sliding “like an arrow” and slammed into his right calf, peeling away all the flesh down to the bone as it bounced off and continued down the slide.

As he looked down at the blood and flesh, he immediately wondered whether this would “…prevent [him] from going on [his] mission.”

Crawling, Robert managed to make his way close enough to the road, where he yelled for help. After tying his handkerchief around his leg to hold the flap of skin on, two men came to his relief and hauled him out of the canyon.

HIS OWN SURGEON

With his handkerchief still holding the wound together, Porter Rockwell helped Robert home. Once there, they cleaned the wound with whisky and packed it with a handful of fine salt.

Flapping the skin back into place, Porter attempted to sew the wound shut, but “his heart failed him.” Robert took the lead, asking the onlookers to help him sit up so that he could sew the wound himself. “I took the needle through,” Robert wrote, “and [Porter] tied the threads, and we made a good job of it.”

Robert was brought low by the death of his father. Remembering the moment, Robert noted that “…although I had a large family, I felt like a little boy that had lost his father.”

-Robert Gardner jr.

1856

Placeholder: Married Mary Ann Carter

1857-1858

HANDCART MISSION TO CANADA

Once Robert’s hurt leg had healed enough for him to travel, he began making preparations to leave for his mission call to Canada. “The company had to cross the plains with hand carts,” Robert wrote, “No teams, nor horses, nor mules. I had so recovered well enough that I could walk without my crutches with care.”