Ruth Scoville was born around 1859 in Iowa to John G. Scoville and Ruth Chapman. Her father was a carpenter who owned $400 of real estate and $200 of personal property by 1860. The family lived in Brighton, Iowa. By 1880, she was living in Montgomery, Ohio, with her mother and her sister Princess. She married Robert E. Thew on March 15, 1885, and they had at least six children: Clarence, born around 1886; Anna, born around 1889; Hazel, born around 1892; Samuel, born around 1894; Vernon, born around 1896; and Eulala, born around 1899. They lived in Montgomery, Ohio, and her husband worked as a machinist. By 1910, they were living in in Lorain, Ohio. She died in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 11, 1915.