Bio: Gardner Family, Frank L.
Contact: Stan

Surnames: GARDNER

----Source: Town of Fremont History - 1973

Gardner Family, Frank L.

My father, Frank L. Gardner, his wife, and the four oldest of their children moved to this place in 1902. The road ended at the old school house. East of that was all woods. They traveled the next half mile on an old logging road which had been used by a big land company that had cut all the pine that was large enough to use for lumber.

Father and mother had lived in Granton, Clark County, Wis. until that spring. Father had come to Clark County from Pepin County to work in the logging camps. Mother was born in Clark County in the Town of Lynn. Their four oldest children were born in Granton. The house in Granton that was their home is still there on the west side of Spaete's Store.

Life in the woods was hard, but happy and carefree, as I remember it. It was six years after my parents moved here that I was born. My brother, who also lives here, had been born in 1906. There were 11 children, Anna, Adelbert, Henry, Ruth, Bessie, Stella (deceased), Mike, Charley, Mamie, Russell, and Dorothy. The two oldest children stated to school that first fall in the old school, walking over the old logging road and crossing an old bridge made of poles. They, with six more of us, finished our elementary schooling in the same district. The four youngest had the honor of finishing their grade school education in the new Franklin Schoolhouse, which was built in 1920. One grandson of Frank Gardner, our nephew, also graduated from the Franklin School the last year it was in operation (1942). He still lives in Fremont.

The coming of the cheese factory was a very happy occasion. This was in the year 1910. Until then the milk that we sold had to be hauled with horses to Granton. The event was celebrated with a big dance that the owner, William Gerlach, gave before the vats were put into the factory. This factory was across the road from the Franklin Schoolhouse.

The milk from our place was sold at this factory until it closed, which was about the same time as the school had.

Father built the barn in 1916. Until that time he had worked away from home doing mason work, building barn basements, plastering homes, building bridges, etc. Now he was settling down to farming and building up his herd.

The maple syrup making was something that we all enjoyed and was also a way of making money. We did this every years until the last two years.

The railroad which ran across our place was discontinued in 1920 or near that time. It had been a part of our lives in many ways, in earlier years it had been interesting to see the train come and go and count the cars.. It was used to haul lumber and logs from the Romadka community. We never had a ride on this train, but we could board the Northwester train at the crossing. We used that trin to travel before the Ford cars came into use. The first sister to marry and leave the old home place, boarded the train there and left for Montana.

The track was also used as a foot path as children from the south edge of the district walked up the track as far as our place and joined us to walk to school. A doctor, Dr. Schultz, from Lynn, made many trips up the track to make house calls.

After my brother returned from World War II he bought 80 acres from the late Henry Elmhorst, Sr. We now owned the place where the old cheese factory had been.

We farmed together, and have lived in the house in which we were born, all of our lives. The house, having been rejuvenated, on the frame is original. The Elmhorst 80 has been sold because of our health and age. We now have only father's land, the original farm.