Gardner, James

Born: 1800-XX-XX New York

Died: 1873-08-18 Fulton County, Illinois

Born in Saratoga County, New York to Scottish parents who had recently immigrated to the United States, James Gardner moved to Sangamon County, Illinois when he was still a child. He worked as an assistant to government surveyors, a land surveyor, farmer, county commissioner, and real estate investor. In 1822, he left Sangamon County, crossed the Illinois River at Peoria, Illinois, and sowed a garden and orchard in section thirty-four of Isabel Township in Fulton County, Illinois. He moved to the new homestead in the spring of 1823 and was elected county commissioner in 1824 and 1825. In March 1847, he married Delilah Gray, with whom he had two sons—James, Jr. and Charles. Charles died at age two, and Delilah died in June 1853. In 1850, his real estate investments were worth $10,000, and, by 1860, they were valued at $16,000. At the time of his death, he owned 360 acres of land in Isabel Township as well as another 280 acres in Fulton County's Kerton Township.

Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County, Illinois (Chicago: Biographical, 1890), 516-17; History of Fulton County Illinois (Peoria, IL: Chas. C. Chapman, 1879), 203, 988; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Fulton County, 30 March 1847, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Fulton County, IL, 194; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Fulton County, IL, 114.