After migrating to Thibodaux from Kentucky in the early 1840s, Fayette Clay Ewing practiced medicine with Dr. Thomas Williams, one of the founders of St. John's Episcopal Church, and took over Williams's practice after his death in 1849. In 1852, Ewing married Eliza Josephine Kittredge, daughter of prominent Assumption Parish physician Ebeneezer E. Kittredge, a native of New Hampshire and owner of Elm Hall Plantation. Ewing also partnered with Dr. James A. Scudday in manufacturing bi-sulfate of lime for use in sugar mill processing. The Ewings lived at Ariel Plantation on the left descending bank of Bayou Lafourche, between Lafourche Crossing and present-day Raceland.