"At the age of 15, she [Susan Waters) and her only sister later, Amelia M. Pierce, attended a seminary at Friendville, Penna. Where she paid her tuition by painting copies of specimens for the class in natural history. She was considered a prodigy by her teachers. At seventeen she was married to William C. Waters, by whom she was encouraged to develop her talent and became a portrait painter. A number of her early portraits, painted in Upper New York State, are in a private collection in Convent, NJ After her husband's health failed, Mr. and Mrs. Waters established themselves in the business of taking fine ambrotypes and daguerreotypes. She moved to Bordentown, NJ where she teached and did painting and drawings there of nearby cities....