Benjamin Gardner was born in Vermont, possibly Dummerston, about 1808. He moved to Enfield and married Nancy Ryder, daughter to Isaac and Olive Ryder, in September of 1828. They resided in Enfield until their deaths; they appear on the Enfiled census of 1880, and both died in Enfield.
Benjamin's parents are unknown to me at this time, although his death record gives his mother's name as Sarah.
Benjamin and Nancy are #1 in the Gardner Family Genealogy.
Benjamin Gardner
Died
Dec. 21, 1888
Aged 83 yrs
Nancy Gardner
1804-1885
Charles H. Gardner
1833-1932
Apparently, not everyone who was exhumed from the cemeteries in Enfield and the other towns were all buried in Quabbin Park Cemetery. Francis Gardner's parents, Benjamin Gardner and Nancy Ryder, originally interned in Woodlawn Cemetery in Enfield, were reinterned 10 Oct 1932 in Hillside Cemetery in Monson, Mass.
Hillside Cemetery
Monson, Mass
Francis Gardner married Julia Gaylord 9 Jan 1850 in Granby, Mass., the town Julia was from. They had four children, the second to eldest being Nellie Estelle Gardner who married Charles Dexter and is known to Dad as "Grandma Dexter". Julia died in 1871, in Somers, Connecticut.
Francis was originally interned in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Enfield, and was reinterned 9 May 1933.
Francis and Julia are #2 in the Gardner Family Genealogy.
Julia's parents, William Gaylord Jr and Julia Gaylord are #11 in the Gaylord Family Genealogy.
Their gravestones were located and are on the Gravestones Page.
Note: Francis is buried with his second wife, Julia, not his first wife and our ancestor, Julia. I have not located her grave as yet.
Francis H. Gardner
A member of Co. H 32
Regt. Mass. Vol.
Born July 19, 1829
Died Aug 15, 1906
The plaque above right for the Quabbin Park Cemetery, located on Route 9 just a few miles east of the Quabbin Visitors Center by Windsor Dam, explains that the cemetery was established in 1938 for "monuments headstones and bodies removed from cemeteries abolished on account of the Construction of Quabbin Resevoir".
Four towns were depopulated in the early 1930's to make way for the new reservoir: Dana, Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott. People were paid for their homes and land by the government and then these were photographed and bulldozed. 34 cemeteries were also "depopulated" when their contents were exhumed and moved to the Quabbin Park Cemetery. Over 7000 graves were relocated. The only bodies left behind were those of Native Americans. It is in Quabbin Park Cemetery where we found the gravesite of Dad's great-great grandfather, Francis Henry Gardner.
