Aaron Burdick was born in New York, and in 1855 he lived in Rensselaer County, five miles down the road from a girl named Hannah Green. By 1860, Aaron and Hannah were married, and living on a farm in Green County, Wisconsin. In 1861, their son Leslie was born in Wisconsin, and after Aaron was discharged from the Army, they moved back to New York. Three more children were born to them in New York, and sometime before 1876, they moved to Sibley County, Minnesota, where another child was born. Aaron died at age 44 in 1881, leaving Hannah a young widow with five children.