Mason Samuel Browning was born on September 1, 1848, in Pennsylvania to Reuben Furman Browning and Adelia Wealthy Gregory. His father was a farmer who owned $1,500 of real estate and $863 of personal property in 1860. Browning married Hester Learn in the mid-1870s, and they had at least two children: Morris, born around 1875; and Ralph, born around 1880. They lived in Bradford County, and Browning worked as a farmer. He died there on May 22, 1927.