In youth, she displayed dramatic and elocutionary talents, and gave many entertaining shows which aided charities.

[2] She began to publish poems and short stories in her early life.

[4] She was one of the charter members of the Illinois Social Science Association, a charter member of the Woman's Club of Evanston, and one of the first secretaries of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

She was trustee of the Illinois Industrial School for Girls (now Park Ridge Youth Campus) at South Evanston for fifteen years, and for eight years,[4] she edited the organ of that school, The Record and Appeal.

[1] Mary Crowell Van Benschoten died March 29, 1921, at the Chicago residence of her son, William.