John Gurnels Alexander was born March 8, 1888 in Franklin county, Georgia. As a teenager he worked as a National Guard for Georgia and in 1906 attended college at the Georgia Tech., in Atlanta, but never graduated. From 1911 to 1917 Alexander worked as a clerk for different companies, among them the 'Southern Railroad System' and in 1917 joined the Army's first officers training camp. By April 1918, at 30 years of age, he was on his way to Europe as a Lieutenant and Intelligence Officer for World War I. He was stationed in France and Germany for six months, from where he wrote regularly to his sweetheart Alma Hood.

It is not clear when Alexander married Alma Hood (from Lutherville, Maryland), but in 1917 they were living in Atlanta and their son John "Hood" Alexander was born. When the war ended Alexander worked in Atlanta for a few years until 1922, when he enrolled as a law student at the University of Maryland College Park. In February 1927 Alma died of "illness" at Johns Hopkins hospital, Baltimore, after being sick for about a year. A newspaper clipping of her obituary is among the documents of this collection. Alexander continues to take care of their son, who, as a teenager, writes enthusiastically from Summer Camp "Dixie", in Colorado.