Rebecca Usher grew up in a large brick house on the Saco River. Her father had made his fortune in the lumber industry and she and her sisters were all very well educated and involved in the community. It is not surprising that she and her sisters Ellen, Martha, and Jane all did volunteer work to aid the Maine soldiers. What is surprising is that Rebecca left her home and family to become a nurse during the Civil War. She worked first at what she called the Chester School Hospital and later she worked for the Maine Camp Hospital Association at City Point, outside of Petersburg, Virginia. She had met President Lincoln on her second trip south. When she learned of his death, she wrote, " I could not believe it at first, but when the terrible truth was forced upon me, I was almost paralyzed. It seemed as if the sun would never shine again."
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