Julia Hieronymus was born in Clark County, Kentucky in 1799. While she was still a child, her father Pendleton moved the family east to Virginia and Washington D. C. to seek better educational opportunities for his children. Though the move left the family financially unstable, Julia went to school until she was 19. She obtained a secondary education, which was the highest level of education available to women at the time.
Pendleton often had trouble finding work. In 1820 he left his wife and children in Washington and took a job as an Indian agent in Missouri, where he died only months later. With the family on the brink of financial disaster, Julia took a teaching job in Wytheville, Virginia, to support her mother and younger siblings.
