Her education was received in the schools of Janesville, and under Mary Mortimer, in Milwaukee College, and in Baraboo Female Seminary from which she was graduated in 1861.

She traveled from 1886 to 1888 in England, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, after which she wrote In and Around Berlin (1889).

[3] She wrote and published many articles on various topics during the last quarter of the 19th century in periodicals, including the Independent, Christian Union, New York Observer, New York Evangelist, Congregationalism, Advance, Sunday-School Times, Journal of Education, Education, and Wide Awake.

In addition to Service in the King's Guards and In and Around Berlin (Chicago, 1889),[4] she also wrote A True Teacher and the Life of Miss Mortimer, and was one of the editors of the cyclopedia entitled A Woman of the Century.

[1] Norton made her home in Beloit, Wisconsin,[4] and died there on October 2, 1894,[2] after a lingering illness.