She was a founding member of temperance, suffrage and civic organizations, and played a central role in establishing the First Baptist Church of Saint Paul.

[6][7] The first schoolhouse, which she opened in a former abandoned blacksmith shop with rats and snakes in the corners on July 19, 1847. covered with bark and chinked with mud" at what is now St. Peter Street and Kellogg Boulevard in the relatively isolated fur trading post of Saint Paul.

In 1867 she helped found the Ladies Christian Union and spearhead the construction of the Home to the Friendless, which is now Wilder Residence East.

[3] While Bishop quickly established herself as a dynamic public force in the soon-to-be new state of Minnesota, there is little information about her private life.

This marriage lasted until 1867 when, having evidently been broken by experiences as a soldier in the First Minnesota Regiment in the Civil War, McConkey had become an alcoholic.