Amelia Diana Pardee was born November 5, 1843 in Warren County, Pennslyvania, the eldest child of Horance and Rachel (Walker) Pardee. By 1860, the Pardee family had moved to Paola, Lykins County (later renamed to Miami County) in the Kansas Territory.

In 1862, Pardee married George Ellis (1832-1864), an Irish immigrant who had spent most of his youth and young adulthood in Pennyslvania. Ellis enlisted in Company I of the Kansas 12th Infantry in the fall of 1862, was quickly promoted to first lieutenant, and was mortally wounded in the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry in April 1864, dying the following day. The Ellises had one son, born in March 1864 and dying in August 1865 at the age of 18 months. Ellis County in west-central Kansas and Ellis City in the county were both named for Lieutenant Ellis.

In 1866, Amelia Ellis remarried to Charles Edward McQueen (1840-1911), who had been born in Noble County, Indiana. Known as "Ed," McQueen had been a bodyguard to General George McClellan during the Civil War. The McQueens had two children, Guy Herbert (1868-1946) and Bessie Amelia (1877-1961), who later married John William Mattingly.

In 1879, the family moved from Miami County to Bachelor Township, Greenwood County in southeastern Kansas. The family continued to live in Greenwood County, sometimes in Eureka, sometimes in Bachelor.

Charles "Ed" McQueen died on October 20, 1911. Amelia McQueen remained active in the Woman's Relief Corps, the women's auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and in her church until her death on March 20, 1942.