Charles Gardner was one of the many children of John Frederick and Catherine (Lansing) Gardner [married 1803] of New York City. In 1845 Charles married Sara Ann Young of Babylon, Long Island, NY. They lived in New York City for a few years before moving to New Utrecht, NY, now part of Brooklyn, and later settled in Patchogue, Long Island. They had a daughter, Sara Dorothea [1854-1935], who married Hubert Henry Schrader [d. 1937] of Southampton, Long Island. Charles owned a painting of a cat (now in the NGA) by an unknown naive painter, which his daughter Sara inherited. After her death, her husband Hubert kept the picture until his death in June of 1937. The work eventually became part of the large folk art collection of Edgar and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch.