 During this time, all four of the McPhelim children turned to writing stories, poems and articles for such publications as "The Chicago Tribune" and Philadelphia's "Saturday Night" as a source of income for the family.Two years later in 1880, McPhelim's family moved to Chicago, where she married local businessman Michael Timothy Cleary in 1884.That same year, she and her mother both relocated to Hubbell, Nebraska, where Michael Cleary had established a lumber business in partnership with his brother-in-law John Templeton.