Following graduation, Culver moved west with her brother Robert, settling near their grandfather in DeKalb, Illinois.

[2] In this period, Culver developed her relationship with her cousin, Charles Jerold Hull, a real estate businessman.

[1] During the American Civil War, Culver served as a nurse under the United States Sanitary Commission.

After the Battle of Stones River, Culver was stationed near Murfreesboro, Tennessee and was put in charge of a one-room, forty-bed hospital.

[1] From 1868 to 1889 Culver worked with her cousin, Charles Hull, in his real estate ventures in Chicago and around the country, including Atlanta and Jacksonville, Florida.