Augustus P. Gardner

American politician

Augustus Peabody Gardner (November 5, 1865 – January 14, 1918) was an American military officer and Republican Party politician from Massachusetts. He represented the North Shore region in the Massachusetts Senate and United States House of Representatives in the early 20th century. Through his marriage to Constance Lodge, Gardner was the son in law of Henry Cabot Lodge.

Gardner was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 5, 1865, to Joseph Peabody Gardner and Harriet Sears Amory. He was the descendant of Thomas Gardner. His mother died in 1865. After his father died in 1875, Augustus and his two brothers were informally adopted by his uncle John Lowell Gardner II and John's wife Isabella Stewart Gardner. He graduated from Harvard University in 1886. He studied law at Harvard Law School but never practiced, instead devoting himself to the management of his estate. On June 14, 1892, Gardner married Constance Lodge, daughter of then Representative and soon to be Senator Henry Cabot Lodge at Saint Anne's Church in Nahant, Massachusetts.

Gardner served in the Spanish–American War as a captain and assistant adjutant general on the staff of Major General James Wilson and fought at the Battle of Coamo. He served from May 12 to December 31, 1898.

Gardner was a member of the Republican Party, like his father in law. He was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 1899 and served from 1900 to 1901. Gardner was then elected to the Fifty seventh Congress by special election, after the resignation of United States Representative William H. Moody. Gardner was reelected to the eight succeeding Congresses (November 4, 1902 – May 15, 1917). Gardner was the chairman of the United States House Committee on Industrial Arts and Expositions during the Fifty ninth and Sixtieth Congresses. In the House, Gardner favored limiting the powers of the Speaker, placing him in opposition to Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon and his allies. He favored restrictions on immigration and a build up of the American national military, as opposed to reliance on state militias. In 1913, Gardner was the Republican nominee for Governor of Massachusetts, but finished third behind Democrat David I. Walsh and Progressive Charles Sumner Bird.

At the beginning of World War I, Gardner's sister in law, Mrs. George Cabot Lodge and her children (Henry, John, and Helene) were stranded in France. In August 1914, Gardner traveled to France to extract them and bring them to safety in London.

Shortly after the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, Gardner resigned from Congress to enter the army on May 24, 1917, as a colonel in the Adjutant General's Department. He was first assigned to the headquarters of the Eastern Department at Governors Island in New York Harbor and later as adjutant of the 31st Division. Desiring combat duty, he requested and accepted a demotion to the rank of major on December 8, 1917. He was then placed in command of the 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry, 31st Division at Camp Wheeler in Georgia.

Gardner died of pneumonia while on active duty at Macon, Georgia, on January 14, 1918. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1923, he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for meritorious service during World War I. His award citation states, "His entire service was characterized by untiring zeal, devotion to duty and marked success." His other military awards were the Spanish Campaign Medal and the World War I Victory Medal. Constance later remarried to Major General Charles Clarence Williams, U. S. Army Chief of Ordnance.