Ellen J. Woodward was born on May 29, 1853, in York, Maine, to George W. Woodward and Tamara Dennison. Her father was a farmer who owned $1,500 of real estate and $328 of personal property in 1860. Ellen grew up and attended school in York. Her mother died in June 1863, and her father followed in January 1870. In 1870, she was living in her brother John’s household in York, along with her sisters Priscilla and Elizabeth. She married John M. Moulton, a farmer, around 1879, and they moved to Newington, New Hampshire, sometime in the late 1800s. John worked as a farm manager there, and they employed at least one servant. Her husband died in 1910, and she returned to York soon afterward. She died from a cerebral hemorrhage on June 13, 1921.