GARDNER, Benjamin - Putnam

Benj. Gardner, grain dealer, Covington, well known to the citizens, is a native of Richland county, Ohio, where he was born in 1820. He had little chance of acquiring an education, his father dying when he was but fifteen years old. Until he was twenty-five he assumed many of the responsibilities of the household, and aided in many ways his younger brothers and sisters. In 1845 he came west and located at Covington, and began work for Mr. J. G. Hardy, with whom he remained seven years. He then engaged in market butchering and packing pork the principal part of the time until 1872, and from 1872 till 1877 on his farm, which is located one mile southeast of Covington, and which he bought in 1856. In 1877, in company with Mr. J. M. Duncan, he engaged in the grain trade. Their grain-house is located on the line of the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western railway, and has a capacity of 10,000 bushels of wheat and 5,000 bushels of ear corn. Besides the business interests owned by Mr. Gardner in and about Covington he has a large tract of valuable land located near the town of Eldorado, Kansas. Mr. Gardner, from boyhood, has been wholly dependent upon his own resources, and whatever success he has met with in life has been due to his own energy, industry and good management.