San Joaquin County
Biographies
DR. JOHN M. GARDNER.
Well-known in the San Joaquin Valley as a specialist of the eye, ear, nose and throat diseases, Dr. John M. Gardner is a native of Virginia, born at Hillsville, Carroll County, on June 16, 1874. He was educated in the grammar and high schools of that city; later entered the State Normal at Marion, Va., and after graduating he taught school for a number of years and then took a business course at Nashville, Tenn., and entered the employ of the Norfolk & Western Railroad, and from 1898 to 1905 was in their auditing department at Roanoke, Va. Leaving the employ of the railroad company he entered the University College of Medicine at Richmond, Va., in 1905, and spent three years, completing his course in 1909 at the University of Nashville and received the M. D. degree. For two years he engaged in the general practice of his profession in Oklahoma and in October, 1910, came to California and engaged in the United States Indian service for one year, and early in 1912 located at Lodi, where he began to build up a general practice.
Deciding to specialize in his profession, Dr. Gardner went East and took a post graduate course in the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat College and was graduated in 1918. Coming back to California, he enlisted in the Medical Corps of the U. S. Army and was attached to Ambulance Company No. 263, 16th Sanitary Train, 16th Division, at Camp Kearney, and remained there until he was honorably discharged in 1919. To further perfect himself in his specialty he went to New York and during 1918 and 1919, did special work in the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital, also in the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, returning to Lodi in October, 1919, where he took up his specialized work and is the only specialist in his line in Lodi. In 1922 he returned to the same institutions in the East and did further special work.
Dr. Gardner's marriage united him with Miss Harriet T. Brown, a native of Philadelphia, Pa., who is a very successful dentist. She is a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of San Francisco, receiving her degree of D. D. S. in 1909. She is a member of the State and County Dental associations. They are the parents of one daughter, Eleanor Virginia, born in Lodi. Fraternally Dr. Gardner is a member of Lodi Lodge of Masons No. 256; of the Lodi Knights of Pythias No. 41; also Of the Red Men; and a member of the State and County Medical, and the American Medical Associations.
History of San Joaquin County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1923
p 1183
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.
EDWARD ALDERS.
It took Edward Alders eighteen years to reach his present prominent and influential position as a fruit grower in the Farmington district of San Joaquin County. He has had a somewhat varied career, but since 1904, when he took up horticulture, he has never faltered and success has crowned his efforts. He is the owner of a fine, highly cultivated and productive forty-seven-acre ranch near Farmington, twenty-seven acres of which is in vineyard and fourteen acres in an orchard of plums and peaches. He was born in Stockton, Cal., April 24, 1877, the eldest son of Charles Milton and Annie (Gately) Alders. Charles Milton Alders was born near Lancaster, N. Y., and at the age of twelve years came to California all alone, via Panama. Charles Milton Alders was reared in Stockton and there was married to Miss Annie Gately. He was engaged in the butcher business until he opened the Half way House on the French Camp road a few miles from Stockton, which he conducted until 1884, when the family removed to Farmington. Mr. and Mrs. Alders reared seven children, all of whom are living. Charles Milton Alders was a man of true worth. For twelve years he was the proprietor of the Central Hotel in Farmington. At his death in 1908 the property was left to his wife, who continued to operate the hotel until 1911, when the business was turned over to her son Edward, the subject of this sketch, who successfully handled the business until 1919.
Edward Alders received a good education at the Farmington school, which he later supplemented with a business course at the Santa Cruz Business College. From an early age he began a career extending over thirteen years as market hunter, shooting ducks and geese, which he shipped to the San Francisco market. Most of his hunting for the first nine years was done on the Miller & Lux ranch east of Ingomar, which is now the Gustine Gun Club. The next four years he hunted on the Stevenson ranch near Hills Ferry on the Merced River. Alders Levee, which is now a part of the Gustine Gun Club's premises, was named after our subject because of the fact that he had maintained his camp there for many years. With the savings from his hunting he was able, in 1904, to buy his present land in the White district near Farmington, located on the Bellota Road, and was one of the first ranchers to plant a vineyard in this section. More recently he has improved this ranch with a concrete-piped irrigation system, getting his water from a deep well equipped with a six-inch pump. His property has steadily advanced in value and productiveness, and the quality of his Tragedy plums has won for him prizes at the county fair.
On March 31, 1909, at Stockton,. Mr. Alders was married to Miss Berde M. Dodge, a native of Stockton, a daughter of Charles M. and Ada (Heward) Dodge. Grandfather Heward was a native of England who came to America in 1852. Charles M. Dodge, a native of Vermont, came to California in the early eighties, and for twelve years conducted Dodge's Bazaar in Stockton. Mrs. Alders graduated from the Stockton high school in 1907, then attended the Western Normal School, and afterwards followed the profession of teaching in the public schools of Sierra County until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Alders are the parents of three children: Charles Averel, Arlen Edward, and Ada Anna.
Fraternally Mr. Alders is identified with the Knights of Pythias at Newman and the N. S. G. W. at Stockton. Mrs. Alders maintains an active interest in educational matters and is serving as trustee of her home school district.
History of San Joaquin County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1923
p 1183
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.