Charles Krutch was born in South Carolina, the son of Emile and Emma (Wiersing) Krutch, who emigrated from Germany in the political turmoil of 1848. His father was a music teacher who married one of his former pupils. For a time they lived at the German settlement of Wartburg in Morgan County, East Tennessee. They may have lived in Virginia also, but by 1861 the family was in Knoxville.