John Jacob Young was born on June 2, 1833, in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France, to Elizabeth Young. His mother was a farmer who owned $1,500 of real estate and $100 of personal property by 1860. The family immigrated to America around 1840 and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. They moved to Richland, Ohio, around 1843. By 1850, he was working as a laborer. According to an early biographer, in 1850, he “went to the gold fields of California and Idaho where he remained twelve years.”
He returned to Ohio in the 1860s, and he enlisted in the Union army on January 30, 1865. He mustered in as a private in Company B of the 184th Ohio Infantry. The regiment spent the year on garrison duty in Tennessee, and he mustered out on September 20, 1865. He returned to Richland after the war and earned a living as a farmer. He married Nancy Elliott on November 6, 1866, and they had at least six children: Philip, born around 1868; Gustave, born around 1869; Josephine, born around 1870; Charles, born around 1874; Mary, born around 1875; and Annie, born around 1879. By 1870, he owned $800 of real estate and $1,550 of personal property. His wife died on April 17, 1900, and he died on January 23, 1923.