When Charles Earl Cochran Sr. was born on 10 November 1884, in Saint Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota, United States, his father, Charles Oscar Cochran, was 28 and his mother, Mary Olive Dilley, was 23. He married Edna Muldoon on 8 February 1913. They were the parents of at least 4 sons. He lived in Decatur, Macon, Illinois, United States in 1935 and Lakewood, Shelby, Illinois, United States in 1940. He died in March 1974, in Peoria, Peoria, Illinois, United States, at the age of 89, and was buried in Decatur, Macon, Illinois, United States.