Ione Troyer (maiden name: Tinker) was born around 1838 in New York to Charles and Mary Tinker. Her father was a Baptist minister who owned $7,000 of real estate and $1,500 of personal property by 1860. The family eventually moved to Henry County, Illinois, and she married William Troyer there on July 4, 1855. They had at least four children: Ada, born around 1859; William, born around 1863; Albert, born around 1867; and Leroy, born around 1869.
They lived in Annawan, Illinois, and her husband worked as a farmer. By 1860, they owned $2,000 of real estate and $500 of personal property. A decade later, they owned $9,000 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property, and they employed at least two domestic servants. They moved to Dorchester, Nebraska, in 1884, and her husband died there on October 13, 1899. By 1900, she was living in her son Leroy’s household in Friend, Nebraska. She moved to Utah in the early 1900s. She applied for a widow’s pension in November 1908 and eventually secured one. By 1920, she was living with her son William in Los Angeles, California. She died in Etiwanda, California, on April 23, 1922.