Alexander Muirson was born in North Ayrshire, Scotland on May 30, 1807. Muirson was a stonecutter who worked on the construction of the state capitol in Raleigh in the 1830s. He married Eliza Gunn in New York on May 14, 1838. The couple later relocated to San Jose, California, where Muirson died on November 18, 1890.