Malvina D. Calkins was born around 1826 in New York. She married Lorenzo D. Calkins around the mid-1850s, and they had at least two children: Clara, born around 1854; and Harriet, born around 1858. The family lived in Ellicottville, and by 1860, they owned $200 of real estate. Lorenzo served in the Union army from December 1861 until July 1865. They remained in Ellicottville after the war, and by 1870, they owned $1,800 of real estate. The family moved to Franklinville, New York, sometime in the early 1870s. Lorenzo died sometime after 1880. Malvina applied for a widow’s pension but apparently never secured one. She died in New York on December 2, 1890.