John Garrett Redmond was born April 1, 1851 in Georgetown, Illinois. He graduated from Georgetown Seminary and then taught school in Georgetown and Fithian and also had a grocery store and a real estate business.

September 5, 1877 John married Jessie Louise Payne, the daughter of Hamilton and Mary Helen Payne. They had eleven children; Pearl, their second child is the ancestral line followed in this book.

He considered himself a writer and tried to be a lawyer, but never passed a bar exam. This did not seem to keep him from practicing law, however. John was very active in politics and went to many conventions and rallies for the Populist Party, often being gone for weeks or months. When he was 70 he wrote and published a small booklet called The Great Financial Conspiracy urging people to adopt more socialistic ways.