Andrew Jackson Warner was born circa 1850 in Washington, Kentucky. During the Civil War, at the age of thirteen, he escaped slavery and fled to Ripley, Ohio, where he joined the Union Army as a drummer. Following his honorable discharge from the service, Warner attended Wilberforce College (now University) and went on to become a minister in the A.M.E. Zion Church. He was a resident of Charlotte, North Carolina, upon his death on May 31, 1920.