Gardner Asaph Churchill taken from The Churchill Family in America. (1904)
Gardner Asaph Churchill was born May 26, 1839. On April 16, 1862, he married Helen Brastow Barrett, and he died on August 20, 1896.
Mr. Churchill was educated in the public schools of Dorchester. In his youth he went on several voyages as a sailor, part of the time in a ship engaged in the East Indian trade. He gained experience and studied navigation, so that he was fitted to fill a position of trust. During the Civil War, he enlisted in the Navy and was appointed acting ensign on December 15, 1862. After a period of training in gunnery on board the ship “Macedonian,” he was assigned to duty on board the United States ship “Release,” and served as sailing-master of that vessel. Afterwards, he served in the same capacity, on the United States steamers “Memphis” and “Shawmut,” and (with an interval of a few months’ furlough on account of sickness) he served until the surrender of General Lee, when he resigned.
He was a gallant officer, and on one invasion, by his coolness and prompt action, saved the “Memphis” from destruction by a rebel torpedo ram, in the North Edisto River, March 6, 1864.
After the war, Mr. Churchill engaged in the business of printing with the firm of Rockwell & Rollins, and on the death of Mr. Rollins, in 1869, be became the junior partner of the firm of Rockwell & Churchill, in which progressive and prosperous house be remained till his death. He had excellent taste in all matters pertaining to the business, was of quick perception and good judgment in all matters in which he took an interest.
He served as representative to the Legislature from Dorchester for two years, 1875-1876, and was a trustee of the Insane Asylum at Danvers three years. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, of the Grand Army of the Republic, and of several patriotic societies, including the Society of Colonial Wars and the Sons of rhe American Revolution. He was interested in history and genealogy and was an active member of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society. He had for many years been interested in gathering material for a genealogy of the Churchill family, and in company with Mr. N. W. Churchill had, at the time of his death, nearly completed an account of the Plymouth branch of the family, to which his own line belonged, to the seventh generation. His family decided to publish the volume which has grown to include the three great branches, and eight or nine, instead of six, generations of one branch. After his marriage and return from the War, Mr. Churchill lived at Wrentham for some years, and then removed to Milton Lower Mills, in Dorchester, where he lived till 1884, when he removed to Alban Street, Ashmont.