Born on the Illinois prairie August 20, 1846, the son of Stimson B. Gardiner one the pioneer lumbermen of Clinton and Lyons, Iowa. When Silas reached young manhood's estate his father had charge of a small saw-mill and also a mill for grinding land plaster, a sort of fertilizer. During his minority he was employed a part of the time working in these mills He attended the public schools and a local academy, finishing with the latter when he was sixteen years old. His early life was that of a normal, healthy minded young man who gave heed to paternal authority and helped in the way that would do the most good. His first responsible post was secured in 1863, when he performed the duties of assistant postmaster at Oil City, Pennsylvania. In the winter of 1864-65 he supplemented his education by a course in the Eastman College at Poughkeepsie, New York, one of the early business educational institutions. Meeting with financial reverses at Penn Yan in 1866, he and his father decided to ascertain if better opportunities existed in the then rapidly developing Western states. They reached Chicago in the latter part of 1866. Employment was secured and a few months later the remainder of the family joined the prospectors. Silas secured a position in the Chicago office of Rogers Brothers & Company, a commission concern, and later with the insurance agency of Holmes Brothers & Company, where he remained during his stay in Chicago. His father's old friend, Chancy Lamb, in whose company he had moved to Illinois, in 1844, had located at Clinton, Iowa, and engaged in the manufacturing of lumber. In April, 1867, his father went with the family to Clinton and secured a position as yard superintendent with C Lamb & Sons, proving a valuable assistant to a friend who had developed into one of the big lumbermen on the upper Mississippi, and in April, 1868, Silas joined the rest of the family at Clinton. This marked his first connection with the lumber manufacturing interests. He always took as active a part in social and political affairs as the business demands upon his time permitted. His interest in political matters made him the choice of his Iowa district for state senator in 1892, when he was elected as a Democrat. His interest in local affairs is illustrated by his selection as director of the public schools of Lyons, Iowa. Silas Gardiner was married at Clinton on November 9, 1870 to Louisa C. Henkel, a lady of culture and refinement and the representative of a prominent old family. He was a thirty-third-degree Scottish-rite Mason and a Knight Templar, a Shriner and a Hoo-Hoo. He was an attendant of the Episcopal Church.