Early recollections of Robert Hallowell Gardiner, 1782-1864
(226pp, Memoirs of a prominent, educated land owner in Mai...)
226pp, Memoirs of a prominent, educated land owner in Maine. Much on early history of Gardiner, Maine and the surrounding area,. Illustrated by Photos.
Robert Hallowell Gardiner was an agriculturist, public benefactor, a leader in the upbuilding of his local community, who was also active in the missionary and educational work of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Background
Robert Hallowell Gardiner was born on September 9, 1782, at Bristol, England. He was the son of Robert and Hannah (Gardiner) Hallowell, Loyalist refugees.
His father, collector of customs at Boston, had left the city when the British army evacuated it in 1776. On his mother’s side Robert was descended from George Gardiner who settled at Aquidneck, Rhode Island, in 1638. The Hallowells seem to have come originally to Connecticut from Devonshire, England.
In 1787, at the age of five, Robert inherited the large estate of his maternal grandfather, Dr. Silvester Gardiner, on the Kennebec River in Maine.
Education
The Hallowed family having returned to Boston in 1792, the boy attended for brief periods the Boston Latin School and Phillips Academy at Andover.
Later, he studied privately with an excellent classicist and at Derby Academy in Hingham. He graduated from Harvard in 1801, second in his class.
Career
After two years in England and France observing agricultural and manufacturing methods, Gardiner embarked upon the management of his estate, assuming the surname Gardiner to comply with his grandfather’s will.
The young proprietor broke the entail by which the estate was held, believing such arrangements to be un-American and undemocratic.
He was greatly interested in the advancement of agriculture. The farm which he had reserved as a home he developed as a model by the introduction of superior breeds of animals, improved machinery, and valuable fruits and grains.
He fostered agricultural societies. He conceived and took the lead in founding the Gardiner Lyceum, established at Gardiner in 1821 and incorporated in 1822, by which he sought to provide a vocational technical school which would meet needs not served by the traditional liberal education of the time.
The Lyceum gave instruction in “mathematics, mechanics, navigation, and those branches of natural philosophy and chemistry which are calculated to make scientific farmers and skilful mechanics. ”
It appears to have been the forerunner of American agricultural and technical schools, and also to have been the first institution of its kind to receive grants of public money from a state legislature. After a few years of prosperity, waning interest caused the withdrawal of state aid.
Gardiner for a time was the main support of the institution, which came to an end in 1832 when he gave it up because of financial reverses.
Gardiner was an overseer of Bowdoin College 1811-41, and a trustee, 1841-60.
His death occurred in his eighty-third year.
Achievements
Gardiner was an overseer of Bowdoin College 1811-41, and a trustee, 1841-60. For eleven years, 1846-55, he served as president of the Maine Historical Society, to the Collections of which he made several contributions.
When the Sunday-school movement was started, he founded such a school in his own church at Gardiner, Maine.
A leader in the upbuilding of his local community, he was also active in the missionary and educational work of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
