[2] Maria Louise Palmer was born on May 14, 1822, in Mount Holly, New Jersey,[3] during the temporary residence there of her parents, both of whom were natives of Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

[3] Her father, Judge Strong W. Palmer,[4] was of Puritan descent, being on his mother's side a lineal descendant of Gov.

[7] During the American Civil War, Philadelphia became a busy center for the North including for the treatment of injured soldiers.

Thomas helped organize the Woman's Sanitary Association, to nurse and care for sick and injured soldiers.

She organized a system of correspondence with friends, and of personal visitations to the sick and wounded, during which she wrote thousands of letters.

[9] In 1867, they purchased a 20 acres (8.1 ha) farm which was the former estate of Thomas Lloyd Wharton in Tacony, Philadelphia.

She was closely involved with the details of field, garden, woodland and dairy work, and her crops of wheat, rye, oats, corn and hay were equal to neighboring farms.

[1] In 1892, in response to the Russian famine of 1891–1892, the U.S. Government appointed her,[15] along with Dr. De Witt Talmage, to travel to Russia and investigate the conditions.

[4] Thomas died of heart failure in New York City on February 14, 1907, and was interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.