J.W. Gardner

J. W. GARDNER

Prescott people will learn with regret of the passing of J.W. Gardner aged 70 at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. last Friday where he went January 5 to spend the winter. Mr. Gardner came to Prescott in Nov. 1884 from Carrolton, GA. when he was only 26 years of age and purchased a half interest in the Nevada County Picayune from the late W.B. White, grandfather of Archie and Cecil Johnson, publishers of the Daily News. The Picayune office was then located on the first floor of a two-story frame building on East Elm St. and for a while Mr. Gardner roomed upstairs with Dudley Madden and Lee Montgomery, young lawyers. In 1885, Mr. Gardner bought out the interest of Mr. White end married Mr. White's sister, Miss Lena white. He then purchased two lots on the block where the Allen Hotel is now Located and erected a residence on one and a two-story frame building on the other where he operated the Picayune until 1892 when he sold it to the late Charles E. Shankle. The first Mrs. Gardner died in 1888 and was buried in DeAnne Cemetery, as was also Mr. Gardner's father. In 1890 Mr. Gardner married Miss Lena Gossett of Hope who with their son, Z.W. Gardner Jr, survive him, He removed with his family in duly 1892 to Texarkana where he published the Daily Texarkanian several years before moving to Mena, his home at the time of his death. The body was brought to Mena where burial was had today.

From the Prescott Daily News of January 50, 1956