James Harvey Gwin was born on October 16, 1845, in Pennsylvania, to Alexander and Sarah Gwin. His father was a millwright who owned $700 of real estate in 1850. The family lived in Antis, Pennsylvania, until the 1850s, when they moved to Logan, Pennsylvania. His father died in the 1850s. By 1860, he owned $500 of real estate and $150 of personal property. He remained in his mother’s household until at least 1870. He never married. By 1910, he was working as a farmer in Logan and helping care for his older brother George. He died of cerebral apoplexy in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on October 19, 1927.