[2] St. John was married first, in 1857, at Syracuse, New York, to Joseph P. Laws, a merchant of Richmond, Indiana, where they resided after marriage.
Her poems appeared in the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, the St. Louis Democrat, and Journal, and some of them were extensively copied by the press.
Of The Empty Chair, as it first appeared in the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, George Washington Cutter thus wrote to that paper:—[2] "If my poor judgment is worth any thing in matters of this kind, I unhesitatingly pronounce it "beautiful exceedingly".
I know of few poems in our language, that, for freshness and originality of thought, justness of metaphor, picturesque arrangement, pleasing melody, and depth of pathos, surpass or even approach this 'gem of purest ray serene,' these beautiful buds of promise."
[3] In my heart there liveth a picture, Of a kitchen rude and old, Where the firelight tripped o'er the rafters, And reddened the roof's brown mould; Gilding the steam from the kettle That hummed on the foot-worn hearth, Throughout all the livelong evening Its measure of drowsy mirth.