He was the son of Nathan Jewett (1767–1861) and Ruth Payne (1770–1828), early settlers of Montpelier, Vermont.

Elisha Payne Jewett was raised and educated in Montpelier, and at age 15 he was apprenticed to Daniel Baldwin, a local merchant.

Jewett was also one of the original commissioners of Montpelier's Green Mount Cemetery.

Jewett became a Republican when that party was founded in the mid-1850s, and was one of Vermont's presidential electors in 1872.

[3] In 1861 Jewett married Julia Kellogg Field of Brattleboro, Vermont.