[3][4][5] She "grew up in a lovely 1830s Greek Temple Revival house in Portland,"[6] which fell into disrepair and was threatened with demolition, but (as of 2017) may be moved and rehabilitated as part of other area development.

[7] She met Samuel Colt in 1851 in Newport, Rhode Island, and the two were married in 1856[4] The couple resided at Armsmear.

[4] In 1867, she had an Episcopal church designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter built as a memorial to her husband and the three children they lost.

The church's architecture contains guns and gun-smithing tools sculpted in marble to commemorate her husband's life as an arms maker.

In 1975, the Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Hartford Courant ran a full-page obituary of Colt on the front page of the newspaper the following day, calling her the "First Lady of Connecticut".