[1][2] She was born in December 15, 1844, to William Weightman,[3] "the quinine king," [4] and Louisa Stellwagen, and lived with her family at Ravenhill, in the East Falls section of Philadelphia.

In 1880, Anne Weightman and her husband moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where her father purchased thousands of acres and real estate after Peter Herdic's financial collapse.

[4] At the death of her father in 1904, Anne solely inherited Ravenhill, a $60 million valued estate, his properties in Williamsport, and a partnership in his drug company.

[8] In 1908, she married Frederic Courtland Penfield, an orientalist, a Harvard alumnus and the United States Austria-Hungary ambassador, at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

[10] While in the Austro-Hungarian Empire as the wife of the American ambassador Frederick Penfield she was awarded the Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of Elizabeth for her work among the sick and wounded soldiers of the dual monarchy.