Lydia Emily Persons was born on November 15, 1834, in Jefferson County, New York, to Ira and Eliza Persons. Her father was a blacksmith who owned $300 of real estate by 1860. She grew up in Henderson, New York, and by 1860, she was working as a schoolteacher. She eventually moved to Salem, Kansas, and she lived with her brother Leonard there. She died in Salem on March 6, 1913.