Born in Newfield, Maine in 1852, she grew up around newspapers – her father, Edward S. Morris, was an editor. She moved with her family to Biddeford from Portland in 1866 and she graduated from Biddeford High School in 1869. After working briefly as a teacher in Massachusetts, she returned to the area, where she met and married Harry Tatterson, an attorney who later became the principal of Birch Street Grammar School. They settled at 98 Temple Street in Saco and had two children.
