Ellen Porter French was born in Cummington, Massachusetts, on December 29, 1834. She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and graduated in 1857. She also attended Oberlin College and graduated from there in 1860. After finishing her education she taught in Granville, Ohio, Plainville, Connecticut, Westford and New York, and was Principal of Chatham Academy in Chatham, New York, from 1867-1878. French died in Cummington, Massachusetts in 1916.