Ellen Farrar was born around 1841 in New York to Lysander Farrar and Melissa Keyes. Her father was a lawyer who owned $31,500 of real estate and $5,000 of personal property by 1860. She grew up and attended school in Rochester, New York. Samuel C. Pierce courted her throughout the Civil War, and they got married on May 2, 1866. Their daughter Ellen was born on January 30, 1867. She died on March 14, 1867.