Born in 1841 in New Brunswick, at that point a British settlement, Edmonds grew up with her sisters on their family's homestead close to Magaguadavic Lake, not a long way from the State of Maine. Edmonds fled home at age fifteen to get away from a planned marriage and the maltreatment of her dad, who needed a child rather than a girl. Supported by her mother, who herself married young, Edmonds got away from the marriage and pretended to be a man to travel more easily. A male mask let Edmonds eat, travel, and work freely. Edmonds worked selling Bibles door to door. for a Bible book retailer and distributer in Hartford, Connecticut.