Beforehand she served as the dean of women at Allegheny College, and afterwards she worked with the Northwestern Branch of the Methodist Woman's Foreign Missionary Society.
Stephen J. Herben largely merged her career with his, with both devoted to the ministry,[1] although from 1891 to 1892 she was also a graduate student at Northwestern.
[15][16] She also chaired both the YWCA,[17] and a committee related to food production, distribution, and conservation,[18][19] and was a member of the Literary and Social Circle of the First Methodist church; in 1918, Mayor H. W. Evans appointed her to represent the town's Community Market at the meeting of the State Board Markets.
[20] Shortly after victory was declared in the war, Herben urged that saloons be closed and alcohol sales prohibited on the days of celebration.
[21] The following year she traveled to Houston for the annual conference of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, delivering a speech on "Waging Peace".
[26][27] The bullet lodged above her left knee and was not deemed serious,[26] although her husband's initial refusal to answer questions about the matter led to sensational headlines,[28] such as Lips are Sealed: Rev.