Emily P. Hubbard was born on December 4, 1843, in Indiana to George Hubbard and Charlotte Stewart. Her father was a blacksmith who owned $400 of real estate by 1850. She grew up in Vernon, Indiana. She married John W. Irwin around 1868, and their daughter Olivia was born around 1873. They lived in Sugar Creek, Indiana, and her husband worked as a farmer. By 1870, they owned $600 of personal property. They moved to Franklin, Indiana, in the 1870s, and by 1900, they were living in Center, Indiana. Finally, in the early 1900s, they settled in Frankfort, Indiana. Her husband died sometime before 1930, and she moved into her nephew John McMullen’s household in Frankfort. She died there of an acute intestinal obstruction on August 26, 1935.