Foote was born in 1819 in Goshen, Connecticut but grew up in Troy, New York. Her father was Isaac Newton Jr., originally of Goshen, Connecticut and later a farmer in East Bloomfield, New York and her mother was Thirza. She had six sisters and five brothers.
Eunice attended the Troy Female Seminary, later re-named the Emma Willard School, from 1836-1838. Students at the seminary were permitted to attend a nearby science college, which was where Foote learned foundational chemistry and biology. There she was influenced by the textbooks of Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, Emma Willard’s sister, who was a female pioneer of women in science, botany expert and third female member of the AAAS.
