When John Peter Harmison was born on 31 March 1884, in Kansas, United States, his father, Samuel Harrison Harmison, was 41 and his mother, Rebecca Crist, was 35. He married Lillian E. Kelly on 26 June 1907, in Great Bend, Barton, Kansas, United States. He died in November 1966, in Colorado Springs, El Paso, Colorado, United States, at the age of 82, and was buried in Colorado Springs, El Paso, Colorado, United States.