Theodore Yale Gardner

Portrait of Rev. Theodore Yale Gardner, pastor of Glenville, Cleveland Reverend Theodore Yale Gardner (1841–1900) was an American Presbyterian and Congregationalist minister from Cleveland, Ohio. He was the first pastor of Glenville, Cleveland, and the Western Secretary of the American College and Education Society in Boston. He became the cofounder, along with Col. Ransom, of the Alpha Nu Chapter of the Beta Theta Pi at the University of Kansas, seated at John Palmer Usher's house.

Gardner was also one of the 28 members of the Presbyterian Club of Cleveland, along with Rev. Anson Smyth, founder of the Cleveland Public Library, and Rev. Carroll Cutler, president of Case Western Reserve University.

Early life

Gardner was born on December 23, 1841, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Col. James S. Gardner and Griselda Porter. His grandmother was Eunice Yale, daughter of Capt. Josiah Yale, and sister of Rev. Cyrus Yale, members of the Yale family. His sister-in-law, Miss. Oviatt, was the daughter of Gen. Orson Minott Oviatt.

His father came to Cleveland in 1838, arriving from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and founded the firm Gardner & Vincent. Rev. Gardner would become a Presbyterian and Congregationalist minister for several congregations throughout Ohio's Western Reserve. He became a student at the Union Theological Seminary and graduated in 1868. In 1869, Gardner left Kansas for Ohio, and then, in 1871, went to Lawrence, Massachusetts, to serve at the Presbyterian Church.

Gardner was one of the 28 members of the club at the opening of 1896, with members including, Rev. Ebenezer Bushnell, Secretary and board director of Western Reserve University, and Rev. Carroll Cutler, 4th president of Case Western Reserve University, who frequently entertained the members at his home. The fraternity house used for the chapter since 1912 is John Palmer Usher's mansion, who was the Secretary of the Interior of Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.

In 1885, Gardner became the Western Secretary of the American College and Education Society, seated at the Congregational House in Boston. Gardner's brother-in-law, William Nahum Gates, founded the third oldest advertising agency in the United States, and was a board trustee of the Cleveland Trust Co.