Charlotte L. Lasher was born on October 8, 1845, in Pennsylvania to Henry and Lydia Lasher. Her father was a farmer who owned $2,000 of real estate and $830 of personal property by 1860. She grew up and attended school in Norwich, Pennsylvania. She married George E. Perkins around 1870, and they had two children. They lived in Waymart, Pennsylvania, and her husband worked as a railroad foreman. They moved to Canaan, Pennsylvania, in the late 1800s, and she died on January 9, 1900.