Mette Johanna Andersen was born on August 29, 1834 in Toreby, Denmark. She was the youngest of nine children. In 1862, she learned about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was baptized. She traveled with a group of other Saints to Utah. In the group was the Madsen family. Mette originally settled in Gunnison, Utah.

Shortly after their arrival in Utah, Ole Madsen's wife died and a year later, in 1864, he proposed to and married Mette. She moved to Manti to be with him. The couple had four children together, three sons and one daughter, as well as raising Ole's seven children by his first wife Anne. Mette lived in Manti for the rest of her life and died on April 18, 1896, at the age of sixty-one, after fifteen years of being a widow.