John Axe was born on September 20, 1845, in Ohio to Jacob and Susannah Axe. His father was a farmer who owned $3,000 of real estate and $600 of personal property by 1860. The family moved to Richland, Indiana, in the 1850s, and Axe attended school there. She married Mary Elizabeth Stalcup around 1872, and the couple apparently had no children. They lived in Fairplay, Indiana, and Axe worked as a farmer. His wife died in 1908. By 1910, he was working as a sexton in Washington, Indiana. He died on June 2, 1921.