Elizabeth C. Smith was born around 1849 in Indiana to Nathan Smith and Clarissa Watkins. Her father was a farmer who owned $1,500 of real estate and $500 of personal property by 1860. The family lived in Union, Indiana, until the 1850s, when they moved to Franklin, Indiana. Her father died on March 5, 1861, and her mother married Henry Raper sometime in the 1860s. Elizabeth never married, and she lived with her mother until at least 1900. Her mother died on June 11, 1901, and by 1910, she was living with her half-brother, Watson Raper, in Franklin. She died in 1914.