Anna’s fa­ther was Hen­ry War­ner, a wealthy New York C­ity law­yer. When he lost most of his for­tune in the 1837 de­press­ion, the fam­i­ly was forced to move to their sum­mer home (Good Craig) on Con­sti­tu­tion Island in the Hud­son Riv­er. It was then that Anna and her sis­ter Su­san be­gan writ­ing to earn mon­ey. They al­so con­duct­ed Bi­ble class­es for ca­dets at the near­by Mil­i­tary Acad­e­my at West Point.