Soon after, around 1730, Thomas Brown and George Haig became business partners in a large trading post near the fort along the Congaree River. They became important traders for merchants and Indians (mostly Cherokee and Catawba) alike. Some records refer to the trading post as the Congaree Factory. This was the first trading post erected in South Carolina. This area would later become known as Saxe Gothe, named for the daughter of  King Charles II. Some sources claim that Thomas' brother, Patrick Brown, also was a partner in the business, but there is no definite proof.

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Thomas Brown married a Catawba Indian maiden sometime during the late 1720s. Some records list the Catawba Indian woman as being born in South Carolina around 1705 and the Christian name of Mary was given to her. She and Thomas had at least one confirmed child, William Brown. Other sources claim Thomas and Mary had a daughter named Elizabeth, who married a prominent man named Mr. Tweedie; they resided mostly in Georgia and South Carolina. In December of 1745, Thomas Brown wrote his last will and testament leaving everything to his son, William Brown. Thomas' estate consisted of the trading post, 300 acres of land, up to 22 slaves and around 185 horses. The practice of slavery would be passed down through the generations of Thomas Brown's descendants.

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Thomas Brown died in 1747. It is unknown when his Catawba wife died. In that same year (1747) George Haig and William Brown, son of Thomas, were captured by the Iroquois Indian tribe who were part of the Northern Federation located in French-owned Ontario, Canada near New York and Pennsylvania. The Northern Federation of Indians also included the tribes of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Shawnee and Seneca; these Indian tribes were enemies of the Catawba. Some speculate this was the reason the trading post was attacked and Haig and Brown were captured. George Haig, now in his 50s, was marched into Pennsylvania at a fast pace from South Carolina and it is said that he begged the Iroquois to kill him as he could not go any farther "due to exhaustion". 

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The fate of William Brown, who was only 17 at the time, was quite different. He was sold to the Shawnee tribe as a slave and remained with that tribe until Chief Nopkehee (aka: King Hagler) of the Catawba nation was murdered in 1763 by a Shawnee scouting party. During his imprisonment with the Shawnee he was given another captive to marry - her name was Louisa Riley and she descended from the Miami Indian tribe. Not long after Chief Nopkehee was killed in 1763, William and Louisa managed to escape from their Shawnee bondage and returned to South Carolina. That was short-lived as the Catawba shunned William because he had married into an "enemy tribe". It was during this time frame that William Brown changed his name to Jacob Gardner and left the Congaree River area, never to return.

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With his large inheritance William/Jacob began buying land between 1766 through 1790 in Union, South Carolina, Rutherford County, North Carolina and near Bristol, Tennessee in Sullivan County before finally settling in Barren County, Kentucky. He would later sell off his land in the Carolinas and Tennessee. Not long after the Revolutionary War, Jacob and a man named James Boydstun, a Revolutionary War veteran, were employed by the Army as Indian Scouts. Jacob was not classified as a "soldier" as he was half-Indian. Jacob was located in Bristol, Tennessee during this era of time. Jacob's daughters, Nancy and Mary, married sons of James Boydstun.  By 1790, when the first U. S. Census was taken, the Gardner family was listed as residing in Rutherford County, North Carolina (present-day Henderson County).

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William Brown/Jacob Gardner (b. 1729 SC) and Louisa Riley (b. c/1730 VA) were most likely married during the mid-1760s as their first child was born in 1766. From this wedded union Jacob and Louisa had seven children:   

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1) Nancy Ann Gardner (1766-1854)      3) Daniel Gardner (1774-     )         5) Mary Gardner (1777-1845)          7) John Gardner (c/1780-    )

2) James Gardner (1767-      ).                4) William Gardner (1775-1846).   6) Thompson Gardner (1778-1851)   

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Note: It was through the William Gardner lineage that the Gardner family was brought to Miller County, Mo.

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William Brown/Jacob Gardner died in Barren County, Kentucky on 5 Sep 1812. Louisa (Riley) Gardner died on 11 Aug 1798. It is unknown which state the family was living in when Louisa passed away. Their burial locations are unknown as well.

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