Ohio History Journal

DANIEL HOSMER GARD

 

At the close of the American Revolution when the

Great West was still an unknown vastness, save from

the tales brought out by leather and fur clothed traders,

or scouts, fortune and fancy invited and beckoned the

settlers of the Colonies to come and partake of its virgin

fertility. The Continental Congress, which was with-

out funds, desiring to strike the popular chord pleasing

to the ear of those who had fought and starved in this

dismal battle for Freedom, arranged with the different

land-holding companies to pay, those who desired, in

land for their services.

The Ohio Company, whose office may still be seen

in a marvelous state of preservation at Marietta, Ohio,

had a grant of land in the Southeast portion of the, then

known, Northwest Territory and a portion of this was

offered. Among those who accepted land, so located,

were a number of Virginians, who had fought with

Morgan's Famous Riflemen, and these men, with their

families and all earthly belongings, came trekking

through the dense wilderness and passes of the Alle-

ghany Mountains; their heavy ox carts loaded with a

heterogeneous mass of women, children, household

goods, farm utensils, cattle and other livestock, making

a bedlam that marked the oncoming of civilization's en-

croachment on forests of yesterday.

Among these hardy and steel knitted pioneers were

the Hietts and the Gards, who received their grants of

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Daniel Hosmer Gard            429

land and settled thereon and who, together with others,

formed the little settlement known as Brown's Mills,

Palmer Township, Washington County, Ohio.

The children of the Gards and Hietts were play-

mates and in time James Gard married Polly Hiett. They

were the grandparents of Daniel Hosmer Gard, who

was born in this same settlement on February 20, 1844.

The same log school-house which nurtured and sustained

the education of our sturdy American youth, still served

and administered its training and discipline with thor-

oughness and severity. Young Gard when not going to

school worked on the family farm which had been

greatly enlarged by purchases of adjoining land by his

father.

In 1860, Mr. Gard, still in his youth, had learned of

the then mysterious invention called telegraphy and with

his father's permission left home, walking the fifteen

miles to Harmar, which was destined to become the

eastern terminus of one of the early railroads known as

The Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad. A job was soon

forthcoming as messenger boy with opportunity to learn

the Morse alphabet and its transmission. With intensity

and continuity, learned from life on a backwoods farm,

young Gard soon mastered this art and in 1861 was

given the position of operator at Parkersburg, West

Virginia. The War of the States was then on and as

Parkersburg was one of the disputed points he met and

transmitted messages for many of the famous generals

of the War, and being a man of distinguished bearing

and polish, extremely capable in his line of telegraphy,

he found himself the intimate confidant of many of

them.

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430     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

At the close of the War, Mr. Gard was assigned to

the post of operator and agent at Blanchester, Ohio,

remaining there only a short period of time when he

was called to Columbus, Ohio, to take charge of all the

telegraph construction of the new and popular railroad,

then building, from Columbus to the rich, untouched

coal fields of Hocking Valley. This connection came

from the contacts and friendships made during the war.

Mr. Gard also represented the new Western Union Tel-

egraph Company, opening and having full charge of the

Columbus office and those offices tributary.

Mr. Gard's interest in addition to his profession was

also actively directed to historical and archaeological

subjects. He entered with enthusiasm and interest every

activity intended to discover and perpetuate records and

traditions. He carried with his remarkable ability to

absorb and phenomenal dynamic memory, a volume of

accurate data, anecdotes and historical material of per-

tinent value. Henry Howe, when writing his Historical

Collections of Ohio, obtained a considerable part of that

portion of his material pertaining to Washington and

contiguous Counties from Mr. Gard.

Mr. Gard was a Charter Member of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society. Of the twenty-

six signers of the articles of incorporation he was the

last survivor. He was also a Charter Member of the

Ohio Society Sons of the American Revolution. His

great admiration for, and loyalty to, the first named

Society prompted him to give his private library and

collections of Mound Builder, Indian and historical

relics to it. His library now constitutes what is known

as the "Gard Alcove".

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Daniel Hosmer Gard                   431 Mr. Gard, after a residence in Columbus of sixty years, died April 16, 1925, leaving a performed symbol to his two sons, who survive him, and to those who were favored with an opportunity of knowing him that -- "He most lives who feels the noblest, thinks the most and acts the best." The foregoing sketch in practically its present form was sent on request of the Editor by Mr. W. W. Gard, son of Daniel Hosmer Gard, and now in the banking business in Birmingham, Alabama.

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