On her mother's side, she was connected with the Morses, from whom she inherited the persistent industry and independence which moved her in young womanhood to seek some means of earning her own living.

[4] After several years of most difficult and rapid dictation work in the Capitol, she became ambitious to try her skill in the committees of Congress, but the conservative controlling powers there felt it would be most unbecoming for her to do what no woman had ever done before.

General William Rosecrans, the chairman, being a genial man, she thought he would be less likely than the others to object to the radical change in having a woman reporting the grave and weighty proceedings under his charge.

In her choice of chairman, she had neglected the selection of matter to be reported, and she was obliged to plunge into the obscurity of "heavy ordnance", just as fast as General Benet saw fit to proceed.

The year after her return, her friend, Clara Barton, asked her services during the relief work of the Red Cross in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.