Folger was born in Massillon, Ohio, on 19 May 1844, the son of Robert H. Folger and grandson of the famed whaling captain Mayhew Folger. He was appointed a midshipman from Ohio on 21 September 1861, shortly after the April 1861 outbreak of the American Civil War. He entered the United States Naval Academy, which moved from Annapolis, Maryland, to Newport, Rhode Island, for the duration of the war, as a member of the class of 1865. He graduated early from the Academy, on 22 November 1864, because of the pressing need for officers in the greatly expanded wartime U.S. Navy, and reported for duty on 6 February 1865 aboard the receiving ship USS North Carolina at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York. He then served on the training ship USS Sabine, where he remained through the end of th