John E. Gable's History of Cambria County, V.II, p.781

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History of Cambria County, V.2

HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY 781

    Clyde Gardner, engineer and inventor, was born at Elkhart, Ind., march 30, 1881, and died at Ebensburg, Pa., April 21, 1923. Into these years he had crowded the accomplishments of a normal lifetime.
    His ancestors on his father's side had settled in Virginia in 1745 and his mother's people had landed in Philadelphia in 1732 and had settled on land purchased from William Penn in Lancaster County. Another branch of his m other's family, the Poorbaughs, were original settlers in Wester4n Bedford County, now Somerset County, Pa., where many of them still reside.
    Clyde Gardner was educated in the pubic schools and at Purdue University. While at Purdue he designed the testing machine now used at the Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C., to determine the tensil strength of materials. He was popular in college and a charter member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity at Purdue.
    In 1903 he became connected with the Pike Adding Machine Company at Orange, N. J.- the company had a new product and were having difficulty in putting it on the market. Gardner made many improvements during the next several years, during which time he rose from draftsman to chief engineer of the company. When the company became an established success, it was purchased outright by the Burroughs Adding Machine Company in 1909 and Gardner was one of the few men retained by the Burroughs and he moved with the Pike plant to Detroit.
    Ten busy successful years in Detroit with Burroughs Company as engineer and patent expert further fitted him to accomplish the task he set for himself of creating an adding machine that would more perfectly perform mathematical functions than any machine on the market.
    On February 1, 1919, he resigned, left the Burroughs Company and set abut his work.
    On July 13, 1910, Clyde Gardner had married Edna Barker, daughter of Valentine S. and Cassie (Williams) Barker of Ebensburg. Miss Barker came of a distinguished family long identified with Cambria County, was a member of the Eastern Star and of the Daughters of the Revolution and a graduate (1907) of Maryland College.
    In May, 1919, Mr. and Mrs. Gardner and their two daughters, Catharine Barker, born August 15, 1915, and Susan Jane, born January 14, 1919, moved to Ebensburg, where for four years Clyde Gardner diligently applied himself to his self-appointed task. His labors were successful and early in 1923 local business men headed by M. D. Kittell, Esq., the

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	HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY	781
Clyde Gardner, engineer and inventor, was born at Elkhart, Ind., march 30, 1881, and died at Ebensburg, Pa., April 21, 1923. Into these years he had crowded the accomplishments of a normal lifetime. His ancestors on his father's side had settled in Virginia in 1745 and his mother's people had landed in Philadelphia in 1732 and had settled on land purchased from William Penn in Lancaster County. Another branch of his m other's family, the Poorbaughs, were original settlers in Wester4n Bedford County, now Somerset County, Pa., where many of them still reside. Clyde Gardner was educated in the pubic schools and at Purdue University. While at Purdue he designed the testing machine now used at the Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C., to determine the tensil strength of materials. He was popular in college and a charter member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity at Purdue. In 1903 he became connected with the Pike Adding Machine Company at Orange, N. J.- the company had a new product and were having difficulty in putting it on the market. Gardner made many improvements during the next several years, during which time he rose from draftsman to chief engineer of the company. When the company became an established success, it was purchased outright by the Burroughs Adding Machine Company in 1909 and Gardner was one of the few men retained by the Burroughs and he moved with the Pike plant to Detroit. Ten busy successful years in Detroit with Burroughs Company as engineer and patent expert further fitted him to accomplish the task he set for himself of creating an adding machine that would more perfectly perform mathematical functions than any machine on the market. On February 1, 1919, he resigned, left the Burroughs Company and set abut his work. On July 13, 1910, Clyde Gardner had married Edna Barker, daughter of Valentine S. and Cassie (Williams) Barker of Ebensburg. Miss Barker came of a distinguished family long identified with Cambria County, was a member of the Eastern Star and of the Daughters of the Revolution and a graduate (1907) of Maryland College. In May, 1919, Mr. and Mrs. Gardner and their two daughters, Catharine Barker, born August 15, 1915, and Susan Jane, born January 14, 1919, moved to Ebensburg, where for four years Clyde Gardner diligently applied himself to his self-appointed task. His labors were successful and early in 1923 local business men headed by M. D. Kittell, Esq., the