William Franklin Garner

William Franklin Garner Sr. was born on December 12th, 1848 in Kaneville, Iowa, to David Garner and Dolly Durfee. He married Mary Ann Barker on February 8th 1870. Elder Garner was called to serve in the Southern States Mission, and work in Eastern Tennessee. In 1884 or 1885 he and his companion C. F. Christensen

"were laboring in Carter County Tennessee when they were arrested on a charge of teaching polygamy and inducing people to move to a country where it was practiced." (The Latter-Day Saints millennial star)

The rest of their story is related in the post "Arrest Brings Conversion"

After his mission, Elder Garner returned to his home and was called to be the second Bishop of the Clifton Ward in Idaho.

Curtis, who made comments on the "Arrest brings conversion" post, sent me a couple of photos. One was the photo you see above, the other is a group photo (below) which included a man named Wm F Garner.

In the photo is his wife and also several of his children. Given the number of unnamed people in the photo, perhaps all of his children are there. We did note an error. William Garner's wife was Mary A. Garner, not Mary E. Garner. William did have a son (William Franklin Garner Jr.) whose wife was Mary E Garner, which is probably where the (minor) mistake came from.

The authors of the book in which this photo was found made some educated guesses about who was in the photo. They couldn't identify everyone. So if any of you have a connection to Clifton, ID and think you might be able to make better IDs, let me know (bruce.allen.cr at gmail dot com) and I'll send you a better copy.