As the First Lady of Illinois, Oglesby was a prominent figure in state and national social circles, known for her extensive hospitality and involvement in various civic activities, including the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Her father then arranged for her to be tutored by his cousin, a scholar of the classics, who guided her through a rigorous course of reading that included works by Shakespeare, Plutarch, Rollin, Gibbon, Guizot, Motley, Bancroft, and others.

She was a social leader, a board director for the World's Columbian Exposition, and gained further recognition through her international travels.

[2] In 1897, Caroline Fairfield Corbin, a Chicago homemaker, founded the Illinois Association Opposed to the Extension of Suffrage to Women (IAOESW).

Her organization contended that women should remain in their traditional domestic roles, allowing men to legislate on their behalf.

[4] On April 1, 1898, Oglesby attended an IAOESW meeting at her former residence at Decatur, alongside Corbin.

[2] In November 1873, she married Governor Richard J. Oglesby at her father's house in Elkhart, Illinois.

The bridge connects to Elkhart Cemetery through Gillette Memorial Arch on County Road 10.

[2] Schmeeckle Reserve Interpreters from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point note a local legend associated with Elkhart Cemetery, which claims it is haunted by the ghost of Emma Gillett Oglesby.