Ezra Conaway was born on January 12, 1844, in Fredericktown, Pennsylvania. By 1860, he was working as a farm laborer in West Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the Union army on September 4, 1862, and mustered in as a private in Company K of the 140th Pennsylvania Infantry later that day.
The regiment took part in the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, and the siege of Petersburg. He mustered out in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 1865. He married Isabelle Brewer around 1866, and they had at least five children: Jesse, born around 1867; Greer, born around 1870; Harry, born around 1872; Ella, born around 1875; and Ruth, born around 1894. The family moved to Reading, Illinois, in the late 1860s, and Conaway worked as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $100 of personal property.
They settled in Allen, Pennsylvania, in the early 1870s, and Conaway worked as a laborer there. He applied for a federal pension in July 1889 and eventually secured one. By 1900, they were living in Elco, Pennsylvania, and Conaway was earning a living as a “weigh master” in a coal mine. They moved to Monessen, Pennsylvania, by the early 1910s, and Conaway retired sometime before 1920. He died in Erie, Pennsylvania, on August 2, 1928.