Hyrum Chauncey Gardner (click to enlarge)

This shows the fun the family had hunting wild chickens, carry-over of Grandpa’s added way to make a living for his family. (click to enlarge)

Parents left to right: Mary Elizabeth Williams Gardner, Joseph Smith Gardner, Electa Lamport, Joseph’s mother. Children left to right: Lucinda Elizabeth, Emma Rebecca, Hyrum Chauncey and Joseph Nathaniel. This picture was taken in 1876. Joseph was 29 years old and Hyrum was 2 years old. (click to enlarge)

Hyrum Chauncey Gardner - Part I
Note: This history is from the book “Early History of Liberty and the People.”

Hyrum Chauncey Gardner was born March 25, 1874, in Deweyville, Box Elder County, Utah to Joseph Smith and Mary Elizabeth Williams Gardner. He married Mary Ellen Marshall on January 16, 1895, in Liberty, Weber County, Utah. He died October 13, 1966, in a Roy, Utah hospital at the age of 92 years. He was buried in the Liberty Cemetery.

He and Mary Ellen reared ten children to adulthood: Elmer Chauncey who married Alice Georgia Smith of Huntsville, Utah; Katie Lavern who married Francis Lewis Clark of Eden, Utah and was later divorced--remarried to Charles Hale of Nypton, California; Lawrence Robert who married Eva Carter of Ogden, Utah and was later divorced--remarried to Lenore Phillips of Provo, Utah; Lida Elizabeth who married Archimede Clapier of Ogden, Utah; Christabell who married Alton Benjamin Poulsen of Plain City, Utah; Avery John who married Zenna Mae Stallings of Eden, Utah; Ellen Lucille who married Raymond Errol Lloyd of Ogden, Utah; Arthur William who married Erma Story of North Ogden, Utah--later divorced and never remarried; Marian Delilah who married Wallace Flippence of Richmond, Utah; Ruth who married Earl Spencer Willard of Liberty.

Chauncey was born in a two-room log cabin. He was the third child. The first was Nathaniel Joseph who died December 28, 1886, when he was sixteen years old. The second was Lucinda Elizabeth and following Chauncey there were Emma Rebecca who died when she was ten years old, Electa Henrietta, William Frederick, Isaac Monroe who died when he was one year old, Francis Adna, and Andrew.

Chauncey’s parents settled in Deweyville after they were married because his parents and brothers moved there from North Ogden, Utah where they had been living when Joseph and Mary first met.

“Chauncey was a high-spirited, lively boy,” so said his mother of him. He showed determination at a very early age and it no doubt was this spirit that helped him to create and live a very industrious life. He was highly talented in several areas which caused his maternal grandfather, Dr. Ezra G. Williams of Ogden, to offer to send him to school to train to become a doctor. But Chauncey was not interested in that line of livelihood. He preferred to follow his own father’s vocation as a builder, farmer and other out-of-door activities, such as getting out timber from the mountains and hunting for fowl and animals for food.

Chauncey’s parents lived in Deweyville for 16 years then moved back to Pleasant View where their three youngest children were born. It must have been hard for him to lose a brother who was older and a younger sister in a matter of two days, plus a baby brother six months before this. They were buried in the Dr. Ezra G. Williams plot in the Ogden City Cemetery.

Joseph’s main vocation was that of working with his father and brothers as builders of all types of mills; gristmills, sawmills, sugar mills, etc., or in other words in large and heavy projects. They were often called by President Brigham Young to go wherever new settlements were being started, to build whatever type mill was needed by the people, according to what the area would produce most naturally. While they were gone it would become Chauncey’s responsibility to take on the man’s role in the family, assisting his mother in every way he could.

Finally, Joseph felt the need to be with his family more, so he moved them to Liberty when Chauncey was 15 years old. Here Joseph, with the help of his sons, began to homestead 160-acres of land in the north end of Liberty. They brought one-third of the land under cultivation, which meant clearing off the greasewood, sage brush and large rocks. Some of the rocks were as large as boulders.

Ditches had to be made, and rock or pole fences made. That summer Joseph had settled Mary and the family in a tent on the low land beside a branch of the North Fork River, so she would have ample water for her usual housekeeping needs, then he took the boys with supplies of food and equipment back into the mountains to get out timber to begin building a house and barn. They took along a cow and some chickens in order to have fresh milk and eggs. It was while they were in camp that Joseph left Chauncey one morning to prepare flapjacks while he and Ezra went to the river to water the horses. When the batter was ready, he set it beside the campfire while he went to call the others to come. The water in the Spring Creek was roaring so loudly he had to go further and further from camp calling as loudly as he could in order to make them hear. When he got back to camp, he discovered that the chickens had stepped into the pan of batter. In his excitement to shoo them away he startled them and they flew into the tent, tracking the batter all over the beds which were covered with homemade quilts of wool blocks. His mother said it took her weeks to clean the dried-on batter from her quilts.

When Chauncey was sixteen years old, he went with his uncle Fred Williams to Montana to work as an errand boy during the underground movement prior to the signing of the Manifesto.

It took Joseph three years to clear the land and in the fall of that year he took Chauncey and Ezra with him into a very profitable project of hunting wild chickens which brought 15 to 30 in the Ogden butcher shops. The boys learned to become good marksmen, and their kill was very worthwhile. They also learned from their father the art of hunting deer. The wild meats also furnished the family with food throughout the winter months.