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History: Charles T. Gardner

Gardner was born in Maine in 1838 to parents who themselves were also born in Maine. Before venturing into brewing, he was a farmhand in nearby Sidney. Gardner (also spelled Gardiner) manufactured beer at 4 Main Street in Waterville. His operation ran from 1879 until 1883, at which point he discontinued his brewing venture in favor of becoming a confectionary and cigar dealer at the same address; or, perhaps, he foregrounded these aspects of his business over the brewing. By 1887, he had moved to Waterville’s Barney Square. It appears that Gardner never married.

Charles T. Gardner's tobacco and confectionary shop in Waterville
Charles T. Gardner was listed as a brewer on lower Main Street in Waterville, from 1870 to 1883. His brewhouse was likely in the tobacco and candy shop at Barney Square. Sanborn Map and Publishing Co., 1884. Folger Library, University of Maine at Orono.

See the precise location of the Gardner brewhouse on the Maine Beer Map.

Sources:

Will Anderson, The Great State of Maine Beer Book (Portland: Anderson & Sons’ Publishing Co., 1996) 32.

U. S. Census, 1870, 1880

Waterville City Directory, 1883, 1887