BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, BELMONT COUNTY, OHIO

"History of the Upper Ohio Valley" Vol. II, 1890.

Presented by Linda Fluharty from hard copies provided
by Mary Staley & Phyllis Slater.


Pages 578-579.


A. T. GARDEN was born in Wheeling, in 1828. His early life was spent at home
with his parents and in acquiring an education at schools of the place. At
about the age of nineteen or twenty, he left school and engaged in the
tannery, with his father assisting in the management of the same. Mr. Garden,
Sr., left the tannery business about the year 1850, and about 1853 Mr.
Garden, Jr., opened a mercantile house on Eleventh street, where he
handled, for the retail and wholesale trade, leather and shoe findings.
Continuing this business for four or five years he retired from this and
went with his father to a farm near Wheeling, where he remained until about
1869. The senior Mr. Garden dying in or about 1867, Mr. Garden, Jr., removed
from the farm back to Wheeling, where the family resided until 1887, when
they removed to Ohio, where they now reside in Pultney township, near
Bellaire. He was married in October, 1852,to Miss Mary Bankard, a native of
West Virginia, a daughter of James Bankard, who was a member of the firm of
Stockton; Bankard & Co., window glass manufacturers, who owned a factory for
the manufacture of window glass, one of the first in the town. Mr. and Mrs.
Garden are the parents of four children, three of whom are still living:
Alice, deceased; Julia, John B., David A. Julia was married, in 1875, to
Mr. John M. Sweeney, a son of A. J. Sweeney. John B., in 1865, to Mary R.
Sweeney, daughter of A. J. Sweeney, of Wheeling.  Julia and her husband
now reside in Wheeling, where her husband holds the position of junior
partner in A. J. Sweeney & Son, Foundry and Machine shop. John B. now re-
sides in his father's place, but holds, in Wheeling, the position of sec-
retary and treasurer of the Wheeling Electric Light company. He has two
children, both of whom are now living: Allen J., Gertrude. Mr. Garden
has paid but little attention to politics, though always interested and
identified with enterprises for the public good. Mr. Garden has been, by
industry and honesty and integrity, successful in all his business dealings,
and now lives a retired life in his pleasant home on the bank of the Ohio,
near Bellaire. David Garden, the father of the preseht generation, was
born in January, 1805, in Scotland, where he remained until about thirteen
years old, when his parents came to the United States landing in Philadelphia,
in 1818, where he remained some two years engaged in a tannery. About 1820
his father, David Garden, Sr., removed from Philadelphia to Virginia, where
he purchased a flour mill and small tract of land. They remained here for
about two years, when they removed to Wheeling, and purchased a small tract
of land in what was known as Jonathan Zane's addition to Wheeling, and on
this land erected the tan-yard known as the David Garden tan-yard. This was
one of the first tan-yards in the city, and the only one of any importance
for many years. Here the family remained, and the grandfather, David Garden,
Sr., died in 1830. After the father's death, in 1830, the business was
carried on by David Garden, Jr., father of the subject of this sketch. To
obtain this property the father, David, Jr., bought the interest controlled
by the other heirs. David Garden, Jr., was married, in 1827, to Miss Alice
Godfrey, a daughter of George Godfrey, native of England. By her he had
five children, three girls and two boys, the only living representative
being the present owner of the Garden estate. Was for some time a member
of the city council, but paid no active attention to politics more than
to vote the democratic ticket. Was a good substantial man, and in his
death, in 1867, the community lost one of her best citizens. His wife
lived her life out alone after his death, and died surrounded by her
family and friends, in 1879, at the age of eighty-nine years.