Euphemia O. Gillett was born around 1844 in New York to James McBurnet Gillett and Eliza Berry. Her father was a farmer who owned $6,000 of real estate and $1,300 of personal property by 1860. She grew up and attended school in Hopewell, New York. She apparently never married, and she remained in her parents’ household until at least 1880. She died sometime after 1880.