From "History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and 
Representative Citizens," by Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902. 

Contributed by Linda Fluharty.

Pages 611-612

JOHN B. GARDEN is a general superintendent of the Wheeling Electrical Company,
of which he was one of the organizers, in association with A. J., J. M. and
John M. Sweeney, and his father, A. T. Garden, in February, 1882.  The plant
supplies the commercial and incandescent lighting for the city from First to
Forty-eighth street, and does a very successful business.  Mr. Garden was born
in 1860, at No. 439 Main street, Wheeling; his father, A. T. Garden, was also
born there.
     His grandfather, David Garden, was born in Scotland, came to Wheeling in
1820, and operated a tannery in North Wheeling, when all of the city lay north
of Twelfth street.  His wife was an English lady, and for a time they lived on
Middle Island Creek, known as "The Jug," and ran a flouring mill.  David Garden
then started the first tan-yard in the city and conducted it until 1858, when
he retired and bought a farm at Glenn's Run, where he lived until his death;
the farm is still in the possession of the family.
     A. T. Garden, father of John B., was identified with the tannery until
1858, and then farmed for some time.  He returned to Wheeling and lived a
retired life until his death, in November, 1897, at the age of seventy-one
years.  He married Mary M. Bankerd, who was born in 1833, and now lives a
part of the time with her son, John B., and the remainder with other members
of the family.  Her father was from Massachusetts, and was a member of the
firm of Stockton, Bankerd & Co., glass manufacturers of Wheeling, where he
located with his family in 1825.  Mr. and Mrs. Garden had three children:
D. A., who is in the rolling mill business at Steubenville; Mrs. John M.
Sweeney, who lives at Chicago; and John B., the subject of this sketch.
     John B. Garden was reared at Wheeling and his first work was in the
employ of  A. J. Sweeney & Company, in a foundry and machine shop, when
he was about twenty-one years of age.  In the meantime he became secretary
of what is now the Wheeling Electrical Company.  It was a private plant,
established in 1879, with Mr. Garden as one of five partners, and was
located on Twelfth street, and later, at the corner of Twenty-second and
Chapline streets, it now stands at the corner of Thirty-sixth and McCulloch
street.  The firm was incorporated in February, 1882, as the Wheeling
Electrical Company, with A. L. Snowden as president and F. B. Ball,
secretary and treasurer.  About 1883, Mr. Garden accepted the position of
superintendent of the company and also acted as secretary and treasurer
until June, 1899, when he sold his interest in the concern, and was made
general superintendent.  It furnishes electric light and power, has eight
generators or dynamos and eight steam engines of large capacity, and employs
about 25 men. The company has been very successful, and is one of the flourish-
ing enterprises of the city.
     Mr. Garden was united in marriage with Mary R. Sweeney, a sister of the
present mayor of Wheeling, and they are the parents of two children, namely:
George Alan, aged sixteen years: and Gertrude, aged thirteen years.  The Garden
family resides at No. 439 Main street, where he has built a comfortable home.
In politics Mr. Garden is a strong Democrat, and was elected a member of the
board of education in 1898, for a term of six years.  Religiously, he is a
member of the United Presbyterian church, his grandfather having been one of
the first members of that church in Wheeling.