Truman W. Gardner had a wide and varied experience as a Kansas farmer, real estate man and banker, and is now cashier of the Neosho Falls State Bank in Woodson County.
In 1906 he supplied part of the capital and much of the enterprise for the organization of that institution, and had filled the place of cashier ever since. The bank was founded by local people in Neosho Falls and the present officers are: J. Bishop, president; L. W. Knotts, vice president; T. W. Gardner, cashier; and Errol McCullough, assistant cashier. The bank had a capital stock of $10,000 and its surplus and profits according to a recent statement are $5,000. The bank is housed in a substantial brick building which was erected on Main Street in 1898.
Truman W. Gardner was born in Mason County, Illinois, August 1, 1869, but had lived in Kansas since 1881. He finished his early education in the rural schools of Anderson County, and also had Normal school work there. The first twenty-one years of his life he spent on his father’s farm, and then engaged in that vocation independently. Mr. Gardner still keeps in close touch with the farming interests in this section of Kansas, and owned farm lands in Woodson and Anderson counties to the extent of 440 acres. In 1899 he left the farm and removed to Neosho Falls where he was in the real estate business for seven years prior to his active connection with the Neosho Falls State Bank. Among other property interests is his home at Ninth and Pecan streets.
Mr. Gardner is a democrat, is now serving as city treasurer, is a trustee and active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is past noble grand of Grove Lodge, No. 49, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is past chancellor commander of Woodson Lodge, No. 78, Knights of Pythias at Neosho Falls, and also belongs to Geneva Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America.
His Gardner ancestors were English people, and as Americans lived in New York and from there removed to Pennsylvania. His grandfather Hiram Gardner was born in Pennsylvania in 1804, went in the early days to Illinois, where he followed farming and stock raising, and died in Mason County that state in 1885.
Henry Gardner, father of the Neosho Falls banker, is now living at Colony, Kansas. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1847, was married in Mason County, Illinois, and had spent his active career on a farm. He removed to Kansas in 1881, and is now living retired from the active responsibilities of farming at Colony. He is a republican, had served as deacon in the Christian Church, and had been one of its most liberal supporters. Henry Gardner married Mary Fite, who was born in Illinois in 1849 and died on the farm at Colony, Kansas, in 1911. Truman W. was the oldest of their four children. Lola is the wife of Andrew Atchison, a locomotive engineer living at Perry, Oklahoma. Roy is on the home farm at Colony. Stella, the youngest, died when nineteen years of age.
Truman W. Gardner was married in Anderson County, Kansas, in 1891, to Miss Ella Fox, daughter of A. W. and Mary (Harmon) Fox. Her mother is living at Neosho Falls. A. W. Fox, who for many years was a farmer and stock raiser in Kansas, died at Neosho Falls in June, 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner have one daughter, Mabel P. She is a graduate of the Neosho Falls High School and took two years in the State Normal School at Emporia.