Through her older sisters Amalie and Bertha, she came into early contact with the "Society of German Catholics" and later attended the "School for the Female Sex".

After her older sister Bertha divorced her husband Friedrich Traun, she entered a new marriage with the excommunicated priest Johannes Ronge, the founder of the schismatic German Catholics.

In 1851, Bertha and her spouse, Johannes Ronge, opened the England Infant Garden in Tavistock Place, the first Kindergarten in the English-speaking community.

Margarethe Meyer taught at the England Infant Garden before moving to Watertown, Wisconsin with her husband Carl Schurz.

In Watertown, Wisconsin, they started a small farm, where Margarethe's gift for financial affairs put them at an advantage.

She employed Fröbel's philosophy while caring for her daughter, Agathe Schurz, and four neighborhood children in Wisconsin, leading them in games, songs and group activities channeling their energy and preparing them for primary school.

While Mrs. Schurz's health became such that she could not continue with her work, Peabody became a nationally known advocate of early education, and helped bring kindergartens into widespread use.

The restored first kindergarten building originally stood at the corner of N. Second and Jones Streets, Watertown, and was later moved to the grounds of the Octagon House in December 1956.