George W. Gardner was born on August 5, 1851, in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, son of Dempsey and Elizabeth Hooker Gardner. A graduate of Furman University (1876), he later served on the Board of Trustees 1916-1926. Gardner attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville 1876-1878 and was ordained as a Baptist minister in Lexington County at the Sardis Baptist Church. He became the pastor of the Baptist Church at Lancaster Court House on January 1, 1880, a position he held until January 15, 1884. Gardner moved to Greenwood from Fort Valley in 1897. That same year, he became the editor of The South Carolina Baptist, Greenwood, S.C. Gardner was also publisher and editor of the Greenwood Journal. Gardner retired in 1918.

Gardner married Dora L. West (1858-1883) in 1880, Laura Kendrick (1861-1897) in 1885, and Sadie Shelor (1859-1938) in 1898. His children were Mrs. Tweedie Durst (1881-1986) and G.W. Gardner, Jr. (1888-1948). Gardner died on July 23, 1926 in Greenwood, S.C.