After teaching for several years in Virginia, she founded the Science Hill Female Academy in Shelbyville and led the institution to gain a national reputation for excellence.

Julia Ann Hieronymous was born on December 5, 1799, near Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky[1] to Mary "Polly" (née Bush) and Pendleton Hieronymus.

[6] On March 9, 1824, Hieronymous and Tevis married[1] and traveled to Kentucky on their honeymoon trip to see the property his parents had given them as a wedding gift.

[6] John was appointed to serve the Louisville Station and Tevis, who remained in Shelbyville[7] founded the Science Hill Female Academy on March 25, 1825.

Tevis sought to teach her students to have a strong social conscience,[9][10] but more importantly, she felt that women were as "capable of mastering the sciences as were young men".

[14] A cholera epidemic in the 1830s nearly forced the closure of the school, but Tevis persevered and built the student body from its initial thirty-five pupils to 250 by 1857.

[13][15] Around the same time as her husband's death, Tevis' likeness was featured in the Nashville-based Home Circle newspaper's February 1861 issue.

[20] The following year, she sold Science Hill to Dr. Wiley Taul Poynter[13] and on her birthday a large "founders celebration" was held in her honor at the school.

[23] In 1939, Rachel M. Varble published Julia Ann a work of juvenile fiction based on the diaries of Tevis.