[2][3][4] In 1849, she adopted the then-radical style of clothing known as the bloomer or reform dress — an adaptation of Turkish pantaloons with a knee-length overskirt.

[2][5] She continued her education at Elmira Academy and then studied hydropathy at the Hygeio-Therapeutic College in New York City from which she was graduated.

[2][6] Because of their interest in alternative paths to health, hydropaths were among the most active champions of dress reform in the United States.

[2][5] In 1856, John Whitbeck Hasbrouck (1826–1906), founder and editor of the reformist Middletown Whig Press in New York's Hudson Valley, invited her to take part in a lecture tour about dress reform.

[2][4] They married a few months later and settled in Middletown, where they built an unusual octagonal house inspired by the ideas of phrenologist Orson Squire Fowler.

[4] In 1880, after New York passed a law allowing women to hold school-related offices, Hasbrouck was elected to the Middletown Board of Education.