John William (J. W.) Draughon was born in Newton, Dale County, Alabama on September 24, 1867 to James William and Mary (Fulton) Draughon. He attended Troy State Normal College in the late 1880s and began working as a teacher in Dale County in 1890. He relocated to Geneva County in 1892 where he continued to teach. In 1895 he changed professions and began working as a bookkeeper with the Beal and Travis Log and Mill Company. Two years later he and his brother-in-law began a mercantile business in Hartford, Alabama. From 1898 to 1904 he served as city councilman, and from 1904 to January 1923 he served as Geneva County's Clerk of Circuit Court. During the First World War, Draughon was a member of the Selective Draft Board of Geneva County. In 1923 he was appointed Register in Chancery for the county.

He married Vassie L. Roney on January 14, 1897. They had seven children: Wells Roney, Ralph Brown, Lucille, John, James E., Mary, and Henry Pierce. Their son, Ralph Brown, would become president of Alabama Polytechnic Institute (presently Auburn University) from 1948 to 1965.