Edward P. Browning was born on April 15, 1843, in Pennsylvania to Charles W. Browning and Huldah Montgomery. His father was a farmer who owned $2,500 of real estate and $1,163 of personal property in 1860. The family lived in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, and Browning attended school there. By 1870, he was working as a farmer, and he owned $4,000 of real estate and $640 of personal property. He probably married a woman named Charlotte sometime before 1870, but she may have died several by 1878. He married Eva E. Allen around 1878, and they had at least two children: Pearl, born around 1883; and Emerald, born around 1892. By 1900, Browning was working as a clergyman in Rush, Pennsylvania. He died there on April 29, 1922.