As a teenager, Stead felt called to be a missionary. She went to America around age 21, and lived for a while in Cincinnati, Ohio. Attending a camp meeting in Urbana, Ohio, she felt the missionary calling even more strongly, but was unable to go to China as she wanted due to her frail health. She married a Mr. Stead in 1875. Tragically, her husband drowned off Long Island, New York. As Louisa Stead, her husband and their little daughter were enjoying an ocean side picnic one day, a drowning boy cried for help. Mr. Stead rushed to save him but was pulled under by the terrified boy. Both drowned as Louisa and her daughter watched helplessly.
    Around 1880, Stead went to South Africa, and served as a missionary some 15 years. She remarried, to Robert Wodehouse of that country. She returned to America in 1895 to recover her health, but once again went into missions in Rhodesia in 1901. Her daughter Lily married D. A. Carson and became a missionary like her mother.