1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gardiner

GARDINER, a city of Kennebec county, Maine, U.S.A., at the confluence of Cobbosseecontee river with the Kennebec, 6 m. below Augusta. Pop. (1890) 5491; (1900) 5501 (537 foreign-born); (1910) 5311. It is served by the Maine Central railway. The site of the city is only a few feet above sea-level, and the Kennebec is navigable for large vessels to this point; the water of the Cobbosseecontee, falling about 130 ft. in a mile, furnishes the city with good power for its manufactures (chiefly paper, machine-shop products, and shoes). The city exports considerable quantities of lumber and ice. Gardiner was founded in 1760 by Dr Sylvester Gardiner (1707–1786), and for a time the settlement was called Gardinerston; in 1779, when it was incorporated as a town, the founder being then a Tory, it was renamed Pittston. But in 1803, when that part of Pittston which lay on the W. bank of the Kennebec was incorporated as a separate town and new life was given to it by the grandson of the founder, the present name was adopted. Gardiner was chartered as a city in 1849. The town of Pittston, on the E. bank of the Kennebec, had a population of 1177 in 1900.