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 176o 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 .