J. Herbert Comins lived in Eddington all his life. He had one older brother. He went to school in Eddington until he was a junior in high school. In high school, he drove the other students to school (with horses). He worked on his family's dairy farm, which later became a tree farm. He, his father, and grandfather all were in the state legislature at some point, him in 1925, 1927, and 1929.