His parents were both born in New Hampshire and moved into a log cabin in the predominantly native American west of Illinois.

He had a very modest upbringing and attended the school of the settlers before enrolling at Rock River Seminary (today Mount Morris College) and the Iowa Conference Seminary (today Cornell College) in Mount Vernon, Iowa which was founded by his maternal uncle Samuel Fellows.

During the American Civil War, in 1861, he worked briefly as secretary in the Department of Military Affairs in Washington, D.C.

[8] In 1866, Page and his younger brother Charles formed the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company in Cham, Switzerland.

Initially, the company is called The Alpine Condensed Milk Company and the co-founders of the corporation with capital of 100,000 Swiss Francs are listed as: David Hilton Wheeler, president and secretary; Philippe E. Lockwood, resident of Wohlen and owner of the Hilfikon Castle; L.P. Merriam; James Kerez-Parvacini, the only Swiss citizen among the founders; Charles Albert and George Ham Page.