Choosing to relocate to Grand Detour, Illinois, the journey would have involved travel by stage coach, navigating the Erie Canal and boarding a series of sailing vessels through the Great Lakes, first to Detroit, and onto Chicago, where they remained for a short time, until reaching the Rock River area of Illinois.

This journey westwards involved much hardship, suffering and discomfort, particularly with the loss of her follow on shipment of personal heirlooms she had inherited from her grandmother, which sank to the bottom of Lake Erie.

When her husband became mentally ill, she worked as a domestic nurse to help defray his medical expenses and help support her mother, who was living in Vermont.

Serving under Austrian born, Dr John N. Niglas, she nursed soldiers in the sick tents near Peoria, Illinois.

I cannot tell you how well this work suits this restless heart of mine.In January 1862, she wrote to another friend[14] as follows: Quite a little incident took place yesterday; we, as nurses, were sworn into the United States service.

I cannot tell you how well this work suits this restless heart of mine; my great desire to do something to benefit my fellow creatures is gratified in my present occupation.She would later care for Union soldiers at Ovington Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Of particular note were the tributes from pastor John Roach Straton, Reverend Galusha Anderson and other ministers and her nephew Frank S. Atherton.

At the end of the service, Members of the Grand Army of the Republic escorted the hearse to her place of rest at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

The following tribute from 1906 is from the Christian Herald: There died recently, in the City of Chicago, a woman whose career was so remarkable for its heroic self sacrifice and dauntless courage, that she could be ranked as high as the bravest soldier who does battle for his country.

Her name was, Mrs. Eliza N. Aiken, but perhaps this would have an unfamiliar sound to the grizzled veterans; but say, "Aunt Lizzie" the angel of the hospitals of Memphis and Paducah, and they would raise their hands to the salute, out of respect and love to America' s Florence Nightingale.Her family came from Cavendish, Vermont.

Her ancestral home, the Atherton Farmstead, is a historic farm located at 31 Greenbush Road in Cavendish, Vermont.