On 11 February 1905, Ernestine became an American citizen. On 27 May 1905, in Chicago, Illinois, she married her manager William Rapp, Jr when she was forty-three. She and her new husband lived on Grandview Avenue, North Caldwell, New Jersey in her "Villa Fides" from April 1906 to December 1911; she then moved to 500 acres (2 km²) of farm land located just outside San Diego, California (in an area then known as Helix Hill – now known as Mt. Helix – in Grossmont), purchased by her in January 1910, where she would live for most of her life. Her residence there is still standing.