John Fain Anderson was born to Samuel and Hannah Crawford (Fain) Anderson on November 17, 1844 in Blountville, Tennessee. Samuel Anderson was a farmer and slave owner and John Anderson worked on the farm and attended some primary school as a child. During the Civil War, Anderson served as a messenger boy for the Union Army in Knoxville and Loudon, Tennessee. After the war, he operated a mercantile business in Washington County, Tennessee until 1881 when he retired to concentrate on his historical work. Anderson wrote several articles on local history for the Knoxville Tribune before his death in 1929. In 1869, Anderson married Susan Florence Lady (1852-1932), and the couple had fifteen children: Samuel Eaton, Fannie Fain, Henry Wheeler, Mary Ellen, Horace Maynard, Hannah Amanda, William Montgomery, Margaret Elizabeth, Carrie Amelia, Hugh Mitchell, John Lady, Laura May, Lillian Jean, Sarah Ruth, and Florence Isabella.