DeWitt Champlin Gardner
DeWitt Champlin Gardner, insurance agent, Ravenna, was born November 24, 1839, in Freedom, this county. His father, Ira Gardner, born in Vernon, N. Y., May 6, 1803, at the death of his parents was brought up by an uncle in Black Rock, Oneida Co., N. Y. He learned the shoe-maker's trade, and in 1826 came to Middlebury, Portage (now Summit) County. Here he was one of the Superintendents on the construction of the Baltimore & Chesapeake Canal. In 1828 he married Miss Martha, daughter of Judge Norton. They came to Ravenna in 1830, and in 1838 located on a farm in Freedom Township, where Mrs. Gardner died in 1838. Two of their children are now living: Miles Gardner, in Ashtabula County, Ohio, and Mrs. D. K. Wheeler, in Ravenna. Mr. Gardner then married Miss Olive A., daughter of Thaddeus Curtiss, of Charlestown, this county, and their children are De Witt C.; Lafayette C, in Kansas; Mrs. Esther B. Barber, in Lincoln, Neb.; Mrs. E. Steadman, in Newton Falls, Ohio; Mrs. Mary Burroughs, in Four Mile, N. Y.; Donn H., in Newton Falls, Ohio, and Charles F., in Wadsworth, Ohio. Ira Gardner died March 30, 1871. He was elected Sheriff of this county in 1856. In politics he was a Republican. Mrs. Gardner died in 1876. Our subject, D. C. Gardner, received his education in the schools of the home district and at Hiram College. He enlisted with a large number of his fellow students in the famous Forty-second Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under James A. Garfield, September, 1861. He was wounded in the right shoulder at the battle of Port Gibson, Miss., May 1, 1863, and received his discharge in September of same year. After taking a commercial course at Cleveland, Ohio, he settled on the farm with his parents, where he remained until his mother's death in 1876. He located in Ravenna, in 1877, and entered into partnership with H. C. Bedell, as agents for line of fire and life insurance companies. Mr. Gardner bought out his partner's interest in 1883, and now carries on the business alone. The companies represented by this agency are of a first-class character, numbering about twenty, in fire, life, accident, tornado and plate-glass. Mr. Gardner married, September 27, 1882, Miss Cynthia M. , daughter of Edward G. and Alantha Beckwith, of Dimondale, Eaton Co., Mich. Mrs. Gardner is a member of the Congregational Church. Mr. Gardner is a life-long Republican. He is a member of the G. A. R.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885