Grace Highley Knapp was born on 21 November 1870 to missionary parents in Bitlis, Ottoman Empire.[3][4] Her father, Reverend George Cushing Knapp, was a dedicated missionary and her mother, Alzina Churchill Knapp, was a teacher. In April 1883, at the age of twelve, Knapp moved to the United States to receive an education in Massachusetts, Vermont and Illinois. In 1889, she began studying at the Mount Holyoke College and graduated in 1893.