She went to Iowa, where she taught classes in French and German in a seminary for a short time, and rhetoric and elocution at Western Normal College. She next went to Salt Lake City, Utah, where she took a position as teacher. While there, she received an offer of a larger salary to return to the Iowa University, in which she had taught. She had seen enough of the Rocky Mountains and of the people of that region to make her willing to remain in the West.