Lewis Gardner was born in the Carolinas around the year 1810. He was the grandson of Daniel Gardner, a "Regulator". Tradition says that Lewis left home after a fall out with his father over a horse. He came to Georgia in the 1820s or 30s, where he married Martha Ann Sykes/Sikes around the year 1834 and settled on Sand Hill in Monroe County. They had several children and then in 1845, he moved to Pike County. He sold his land to his oldest son, and then in 1859, Lewis moved his family to Newton County, Mississippi. He was on the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. The story goes is that Lewis came home one day during the Civil War and he and Martha got into a fight, so Lewis got back on his horse and rode away. He obtained a divorce in September of 1863. Lewis was once arrested for a crime in Mississippi. He went to Texas and they think he was in Houston County for a time, and then near Denton, and then spent his last years in Johnson County. There were rumours that Lewis was a horse theif. Lewis Gardner was said to have died in a gunfight in Texas. He died before the year 1880 in Texas.