Alice was one of a family of twelve children, her siblings being, Philo, Charles Roxcenia, George, John, Abigail, Louisa, Cornelius, Parker, Lucretia, and William.

[3] Alcoholic liquors -beverage, flavoring, and medicine- were not allowed in the family home and at an early age, Alice became a "Daughter of Temperance".

[1][4] While still a teenager, on September 17, 1848, in Belmont County, Ohio, she married Francis Cochran (1824-1853),[3] a Virginian, who died in 1853, leaving her with a family of three small children.

He enlisted as one of the sixty-days soldiers at the beginning of the civil war, and was killed in the battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg, Maryland, September 17, 1862).

Putting that in complete running order, she next removed to Nashville, Tennessee, and under General George Henry Thomas took charge of the work and supplies of the White Women Refugee's Hospital.

[1] Mrs. Cadwallader resigned her position as president of the Florida WCTU to engage in the establishment of the Woman's Industrial Home in Augusta, Georgia.

[1] After relocating to Asheville, North Carolina, she attended the WCTU Assembly of 1898 in Saint Paul, Minnesota,[6] and made reports of the meetings to the state paper, The Telephone.

[1] With Mrs. Kells, of Florida, Mrs. Cadwallader made a 2 miles (3.2 km) climb to speak with the residents of the Blue Ridge Mountains regarding temperance.