As a medical missionary in the north-central Chinese province of Honan (or Henan), Dr. Travis's duties were many and various. She worked on staff at St. Paul's Hospital in Kweitch, and by 1926 was in charge of her own ward and clinic. Each year brought additional challenges as floods, epidemics, famines, and civil war ravaged the province. In 1926 she asserted: "Honan is… one of the worst places in the whole of China. No other Province in the north has had quite so much trouble [with civil war]…. Poor China… people all over the country are suffering from their own soldiers." When bombing threatened to destroy their facility in 1927, she and other missionaries left China and returned home. By 1929 however, Dr. Travis was back in Honan treating refugees, but still "thoroughly discouraged over China's peace prospects." When not treating patients, Catherine visited local families, directed a Sunday bible class for girls and studied Chinese.