When Donald contracted tuberculosis, the Grahams and Margaret's sister Jennie Collier moved to Pasadena after brief stays in San Francisco and Anaheim.

In 1881, she took a two-month leave of absence to meet travel to Oakland where she met publishers, wrote stories and became acquainted with historian Theodore Hittell and poet Ina Coolbirth.

The Grahams and Margaret's brother Will Collier invested successfully in property near Lake Elsinore north east of San Diego, establishing the town of Wildomar in 1885.

Financially secure, the Grahams built Wynyate,[3] a three-story mansion in South Pasadena where they entertained the literary and civic leaders of the area.

Margaret Graham resumed writing in 1892 publishing striking short stories set in the American West in the Atlantic Monthly and Century Magazine.