She was born at
Royalston, Massachusetts, in 1836. She worked in a mill in New Hampshire for several years. Her fame rests upon the popular poem, "Over the River", published in the
Springfield Republican in 1857. According to some accounts, she wrote the first draft of the poem while at work in the mill. In 1865, she was married to Lieut. Arlington C. Wakefield. She died at
Winchendon, Massachusetts, in 1870, leaving behind her husband and three children, one only an infant. Her poems were published 13 years after her death by her mother, Mrs. Francis D. Priest, with a memoir by the Rev.
Abijah Perkins Marvin (
Boston, 1883). ==Selected works==