Jerusha Ann Ewart (maiden name: Gear) was born on October 14, 1833, in Ohio to Hiram and Jerusha Gear. Her father died in 1843. The family lived in Middletown, Connecticut, until the 1850s, when they moved to Marietta, Ohio. She married Thomas W. Ewart in the mid-1850s, and they had at least six children: Edward, born around 1855; Frances, born on July 7, 1861; George, born around 1865; Julia, born around 1867; Frank, born around 1872; and Elizabeth, born around 1875. She also helped raise Ewart’s four children from a previous marriage.
They lived in Marietta, and her husband worked as a lawyer. By 1860, they owned $15,000 of real estate and $400 of personal property. A decade later, their wealth had grown to $30,000 of real estate and $8,000 of personal property. They employed at least three white domestic servants. She helped care for her elderly mother until at least 1880. The family probably moved to Granville, Ohio, in the early 1880s, and her husband died there on October 8, 1881. By 1910, she was living in her son George’s household in Granville. She died in Licking County, Ohio, on September 13, 1919.