Born Geneva Grace Stratton in Wabash County, Indiana, she married Charles D. Porter in 1886, and had one daughter, Jeannette, with him.
She became a wildlife photographer, specializing in the Limberlost Swamp of Indiana, before she explored writing and produced her first novel, The Song of the Cardinal. Her novel Girl of the Limberlost is set in the swamp she loved and explored. She eventually wrote 12 books.
She moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1920s to join the movie business, and died there in 1924.