Kitty Wilkins - Early Life

Early Life

Kitty Wilkins was Western born and raised. Her parents, John R. and Laura (Smith) Wilkins emigrated by wagon train to Oregon City, Oregon not long after their marriage in 1853. According to regional historian Adelaide (Turner) Hawes, who knew Kitty personally, the couple’s first child, “Burt” (Elbert or Albert), was born on the trip west.

Within a few years, the family moved to Jacksonville, near Medford, Oregon, where Katherine Caroline was born in 1857. Between July 1860 and May of the following year, they moved to California. There, in Placerville, Kitty’s brother Samuel was born. They next moved to the booming town of Florence, Idaho. Mrs. Wilkins was reportedly the first woman in that isolated mountain gold camp. Kitty and her siblings surely had few playmates outside the family.

For the next several years, the family moved often. That included stops in Washington Territory and then Boise City, Idaho. In the late 1860s, they seemed to alternate between Boise and points in Eastern Oregon. Then, in late 1869, John bought the “long-established” City Market on Main Street in Boise. Starting on December 6th, he began advertising “the largest variety and best meats that can be procured in the Territory.”

Unfortunately, just a month later, a fire swept along the block and totally destroyed the City Market, along with eleven other businesses. John soon sold the now-empty lot. It’s not clear where the family lived for the next few years. Still, they had the resources to send Kitty to school at the Sacred Heart Academy in Ogden, Utah. From the Academy, Kitty continued her education at the Notre Dame Convent school in San Jose, California. She learned to play the piano, after which her parents bought her a fine “Weber” piano.

In 1876, prospectors discovered a silver lode bonanza near the old gold mining town of Tuscarora, Nevada. That set off a huge rush into the area, swelling the population from about 150 to around 3,000. The rush soon drew John’s attention. From a regional newspaper, we learn that “J. R. Wilkins of Idaho is building a new hotel in Tuscarora.”

Kitty seldom spoke of her life in Tuscarora. Being young, attractive, and talented – and given the times – she surely attracted more than her share of young male suitors. The venture prospered, but some time in 1879, the new hotel burned down. The structure was a total loss, yet the family was not at all destitute. Not only did John continue with other ventures, but Kitty, at least, was able to spend the following winter in San Francisco.