Mary Larsen Gardner: Photo 1921

In the photo below, Mary Gardner is on the left and her close friend, Sis. Cook, is on the right. This photo was taken south of the old ward hall in Afton, Wyoming in August 1921. Sister Cook was said to have been the mother of Carl Cook, so I believe this is Johanna Christina (Palsdotter) Cook, born in 1845 in Sweden.

Mary Larsen Root Gardner: Photo

Mary was the last wife of Archibald Gardner.

Elizabeth Dowding Gardner Hall: Photo

Elizabeth was a wife of Archibald Gardner.

Harriet Armitage Gardner Larter: Photo

Harriet was a wife of Archibald Gardner.

Sarah Jane Hamilton Gardner Howard: Photo

Sarah Jane was a wife of Archibald Gardner.

Jane Park Gardner: Photo

Jane Park was a wife of Archibald Gardner.

Elizabeth Elinor Lewis Raglin Gardner: Photo

Elizabeth was a wife of Archibald Gardner. I apologize for the low resolution of several of the next photos. This is not a problem with my scanning, it is the resolution of the photo that I am working from. If anyone has better images, I would appreciate being able to obtain copies.

Abia Ezekiel Johnson: Photo

I received a request this week from Catherine Gardner to post this image of Abia Ezekiel Johnson and ask if any of the Gardner family members know what his connection to the family might be. This photo was found in a box of "unknown" photos of Lloyd Gardner, son of Brigham Ozro Gardner, who was the son of Archibald and Laura Althea (Thompson) Gardner. This photo was taken around 1918. In the 1920 census, Abia was living with his parents in Kane County, Utah, while Lloyd was living with his parents in Afton, Wyoming. We don't know how this photo ended up in the Gardner family collection. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Star Valley Temple prophesy

During the October 2011 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Thomas S. Monson announced that a temple will be built in Star Valley, Wyoming. With our Gardner ties to Star Valley, our entire family was excited and thrilled to hear the announcement. Shortly after, I received an email from Emily Gammon sharing some information that there has been a prophesy since the 1800s that a temple would be built in Star Valley. Since I was not raised in that area, I had not heard about this, and I suspect many of you may not know about it either. So, tonight I would like to share with you a small moment in history about Star Valley and the soon-to-be-built temple.

Moses Thatcher was called to be an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the April conference of 1879. He replaced Orson Hyde who had died the previous November. On July 3, 1894, George Goddard reported on a trip he had taken to the Star Valley area, which was published in the Deseret Weekly, Vol. 49, pp. 122-23. In that report, he mentioned a prophesy of Elder Moses Thatcher that a temple would be built in Star Valley. Here is a portion of that report:

"A fine tract of bench land on the eastern portion of Afton will afford a beautiful site for a Temple hereafter to be built, as per prophesy of Elder Moses Thatcher. This bench lies at the mouth of Swift Creek canyon, from whence flows a large stream of pure water, flanked on either side by a park of beautiful swamp pines, many of which are more than 100 feet high."

Below are images of the documents where this was published. If you click on them, you can see an enlarged copy. Thanks again to Emily for sharing this with the family.