Clarissa W. Munger was born in East Guilford, Connecticut, in 1806 to George Munger, a portrait painter and engraver, and Parnel Kelsey Munger [REF].
In 1828, she married the Rev. Milton Badger, who was a minister in Andover, Massachusetts and later became the associate secretary of the American Home Missionary Society, a job requiring him to spend time in the western United States [REF].