Anna Morris Ellis was born in Muncy, Pennsylvania, on April 9, 1824. She was the daughter of William C. and Rebecca (Morris) Ellis. Captain Samuel Morris, her great-grandfather, was captain of the first city troop of Philadelphia when it served as body guard to George Washington during the American Revolution and was with Washington at the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. He was known as the leader of the "fighting Quakers". Her grandfather, Richard Wells, though an Englishman of noble descent, was commissioned to provision the U.S. fleet on the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War [1]

On September 26, 1848, she married William Hayman Holstein, whose ancestors also were prominent in the American Revolution. Much of her work was accomplished in cooperation with her husband. During the American Civil War, her husband enlisted in the 17th Pennsylvania Militia. Shortly after, on May 19, 1861, Holstein and her husband began a tour of hospital duty, which continued until the end of the War.[2]

Ellis Holstein said at first: “The idea of seeing and waiting upon wounded men was one from which I shrank instinctively. But when my husband returned, soon after, with the sad story that men were actually dying for food, home comforts and home care; lying by the roadside, in barns, sheds, and out-houses; needing everything that we could do for them, I hesitated no longer, but with him went earnestly to work in procuring supplies of food, medicine, and clothing. Through the kindness of friends and neighbors, we were enabled to take with us a valuable supply of articles that were most urgently required. Fortunately, they hurried through without delay, came most opportunely, and were invaluable. The name of Antietam is ever associated in my mind with scenes of horror. As I passed through the first hospitals of wounded men I ever saw, there flashed the thought this is the work God has given me to do in this war.” [3]

Using the pen name Mrs. H., Anna wrote a memoir after the war, entitled Three Years in Field Hospitals of the Army of the Potomac.

She was with the Army of the Potomac during the winter of 1862–63, in General Winfield Scott Hancock's corps. On June 14, 1863, she started with the hospital train, which was 20 miles in length at Fairfax Courthouse when the army began moving north toward Pennsylvania.

Holstein’s work took her to places such as Sharpsburg, Falmouth, Hancock's Division Hospital, Belle Plain, Port Royal, White House, and City Point. In Annapolis, Maryland, she was assigned to care for the men who came from the prison pens. During any lull in army movements, Holstein worked with and for the Sanitary Commission throughout eastern Pennsylvania, where she met thousands of women, explaining the amount of work they could accomplish in helping wounded Union Soldiers.

In caring for wounded soldiers at Antietam, Mrs. H. recalled her interaction with a young soldier, Jim C. from Massachusetts, who realized he had no hope of surviving from his wounds. “He had been very ill with fever but was thought convalescent, but owing to some imprudence, there was a relapse, and he sank rapidly. When he knew there was no hope of his recovery, his greatest comfort seemed to be to have the Scriptures read to him; recognizing my voice, (he) called: "Oh, pray for me! I have sinned, have sinned; but I repent, and 'believe in God the Father," etc. "Jim, who taught you the Creed?" "I don't know, but I want to say it all;" so it was repeated with him and again, with the earnestness of a child, the Lord's Prayer was uttered. He listened with the closest attention as different passages were recited to him and would frequently interrupt the reading, saying: "Yes, I do believe; say that over again." It was a most affecting sight, the dying boy begging God's forgiveness of his sins, that he might be "taken up," as he expressed it, and then his body laid in the earth without a fear. The few days he lingered were all thus spent, and when death was near, almost to the last moment that consciousness remained, and his voice could be heard, prayers for pardon were upon his lips. The evening of the 24th of October, 1862, he suddenly and peacefully died.”

She and her husband sat near President Abraham Lincoln when he delivered the Gettysburg Address during the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863, four and a half months after the battle.

Following the war, Ellis-Holstein turned her focus to the preservation of George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. Holstein and her husband were among the first promoters of the project. It was also due largely to the efforts of Holstein that Valley Forge Centennial and Memorial Association was formed. [5]

Holstein again came into public service as a matron of the Pennsylvania Building at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

The native of Muncy, Lycoming County, Anna Morris Ellis-Holstein, died at her home near Bridgeport, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, on December 31, 1900. [6]