Caroline J. Harding was born on March 20, 1839, in Indiana to Samuel and Jane Harding. Her father was a farmer who owned $15,000 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property by 1860. She grew up and attended school in Wayne, Indiana. She never married, and she remained in her father’s household until at least 1870. By 1880, she was living in her sister Elizabeth’s household in Indianapolis. She earned a living by sewing for a dressmaker. She died of pneumonia in Indianapolis on March 21, 1915.