Adaline Knowlton was born on April 20, 1846, in New York to Thomas and Louisiana Knowlton. Her father was a farmer who owned $2,500 of real estate and $200 of personal property by 1860. The family moved to Whitewater, Wisconsin, in the 1850s.
She married William H. Spaulding, and they had at least four children: Mary, born around 1867; Jane, born around 1869; Mina, born around 1874; and William, born around 1877. They lived in Moline, Illinois, and her husband worked as a moulder. She died on September 8, 1899.