She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the first daughter of Samuel Davenport Torrey (1789–1877) and his second wife, the former Susan Holman Waters (1803–1866).

From 1846 to 1858, she intermittently published The Yale Gallinipper, a "scathingly satirical" Yale newspaper with Olivia Day (daughter of Jeremiah Day) and Henrietta Blake (descendant of Eli Whitney).

The first, who died aged 14 months of pertussis, was Samuel Davenport Torrey Taft.

Then in Washington, D. C. when he served successively as Secretary of War and Attorney General.

Louise Taft died at Millbury, Massachusetts, aged 80 years, and was interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.