When the Wards left Wellington in 1868, a local newspaper, The Independent, wrote: "Mrs. Ward's benevolence has been of the most active kind, and many a poor family will miss her when she is gone..."[11] She might have been the "Mrs. Ward" who collected a "large sum" for a Magdalen Refuge in 1867–1868.[12] This fundraising was part of the work by the Wellington Benevolent Society which had been active since 1867. This group typically offered funds or services for indigent immigrants, the elderly, ill or impoverished who had no family to take care of them.[13] Ward might have also been doing this work as part of her Primitive Methodist church outreach efforts. Besides organising soup kitchens or working with new immigrants, evangelist church work often included finding homes for single women seeking a way to earn a living other than prostitution.[14]