When Jefferson Tolin was born on 7 April 1857, in Missouri, United States, his father, Hugh Tolin, was 33 and his mother, Mary Jane Pickett, was 22. He married Mollie Edwards Tolin on 11 December 1877, in Buchanan, Missouri, United States. He lived in Saint Joseph, Buchanan, Missouri, United States in 1860. He died on 16 August 1891, at the age of 34, and was buried in Mount Mora Cemetery, Saint Joseph, Buchanan, Missouri, United States.