Pulaski County ArArchives Biographies.....Gardner, Alvin Sterling 
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Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 July 31, 2009, 9:16 am

Source: See Full Citation
Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

ALVIN STERLING GARDNER.
    Alvin Sterling Gardner, who as secretary of the Building Materials
Corporation occupies an enviable position in the business circles of Little
Rock, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, November 19, 1880, and is a son of Robert
M. and Mary E. (Farrell) Gardner. He acquired his early education in the graded
schools of his native city and afterward attended the Christian Brothers College
of St. Louis, while later he pursued a commercial course in the St. Louis
Business College. After thus thoroughly qualifying for the activities and
responsibilities of life he obtained employment in connection with the hardware
business and through the succeeding five years was in the service of such
mimmoth concerns as the Simmons Hardware Company and the Shapleigh Hardware
Company, both of St. Louis.

    Severing his connection with the hardware trade, Mr. Gardner spent the
succeeding six years in the lumber manufacturing business and in 1905 came to
Little Rock as manager of the hardware and paint department of the Charles T.
Abeles Company of that city, remaining with that company until 1917, when he
organized the Building Materials Corporation and became its secretary and
manager—a position which he still fills. The extensive wholesale plant of the
company is located on the railroad tracks at the foot of Rock street, where a
large stock of building materials, paints, oil and varnish is at all times
found. The corporation also conducts a retail store at Seventh and Main streets
and they are sole distributors of the Peaslee-Gaulbert paints, the Pratt and
Lambert varnishes, the Muresco wall tint and the Valdura asphalt roofing paint,
together with other such high-grade products. Mr. Gardner will probably make
history for himself and for Arkansas by a varnish he has recently invented. This
product has not yet been named nor a patent obtained, nor has it been placed
upon the market. This product is a clear surface varnish that has been
thoroughly tested and promises to revolutionize the trade. Severe tests made of
the varnish prove that it will stand up under a stream of boiling water without
suffering a stain or mark and it has been tested with one hundred and
eighty-eight per cent alcohol, the strongest ammonia and an extra strong
muriatic acid—resisting all of them. The writer witnessed a test of this
remarkable varnish, which had been placed upon a small board. Vinegar, muriatic
acid, ammonia and alcohol were all rubbed into the surface one after the other,
and when finally wiped dry no one single blur was found upon the wood and the
polish was bright and undimmed. Mr. Gardner has been offered all sorts of
propositions from varnish makers for an interest in his invention but so far has
paid no attention to these proposals. That Arkansas will become famous by the
manufacture of this product is beyond question.

    In 1905 Mr. Gardner was married to Miss Doshie Grewell, a daughter of John
R. Grewell of Potosi, Missouri. Mrs. Gardner is a graduate of Columbia College.
Her father comes from a pioneer family of Missouri and served gallantly in the
Civil war. He is now a well known farmer of that state. Mrs. Gardner is a most
wise and capable mother and active in church work, and in the School Improvement
Society she is also a well known and influential factor. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner
have two children: Edith Eleanor, now a high school pupil, who possesses
remarkable musical talent; and Helen Clydene, who is a pupil in the grades.

    In his political views Mr. Gardner has always been a stalwart democrat and
keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day but does not seek nor
desire office. He belongs to the Methodist church, South, and fraternally he is
connected with the Masons and the Woodmen of the World. He has keen appreciation
for the social amenities of life, is neglectful of no duty or obligation to his
fellowmen or to the community and at the same time he is a most enterprising and
progressive business man who already has made for himself a notable position in
commercial circles, while the future seems to hold in store for him enviable
success and prominence.


Additional Comments:
Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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