[6][2] Gardner was small but unusually strong, tough in the ring but "quiet, affable..., gifted with a winning personality, who made friends easily" when not boxing.

[2][8][12] As a teenager, he and Eddie worked at the Salisbury & Satterlee mattress factory, where many of the workers "engag[ed] in rough and tumble battles... during the lunch hour.

"[2] Gardner struggled at first and was often used by more practiced boxers to pad their stats, but eventually became a top contender and earned himself the nickname "The Fighting Machine.

[19][20] Stout lost consciousness after hitting his head on the unpadded floor, cited by many as the fault of the event promoters, and he died the next morning.

[2][10] Among those he fought were George Dixon, Harry Forbes, James J. Corbett, Eddie Santry, Dave Sullivan, Solly Smith, Torpedo Billy Murphy, Terry McGovern, Joe Bernstein, and Austin Rice.

"[27][28] In 1912, he moved to Washington with a plan to open a fight club in Vancouver, and by 1914 he owned a boxing school in Portland, Oregon.

[29][30][31][32] In 1918, Gardner was reportedly back in Minneapolis, this time as a bar owner with his brother Eddie and, according to writer Jack Grace, as a politician, but was in Pittsburgh by 1924.