The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-06-19
KATIE HANsoN,s FORTUNE.

the lumDer WOODS OF Northern Penn.
sylvania. She had prediction for
masculine ways. She was expert with
the rifle and 6shing-rod, and spent
much of her time in the woods. Her
family was highly respectable, and she
was more than usually intelligent. In
spite OF her dislike for the pursuits of
her own sex, she bore an unsullied rep
utation. She left home one day with
her rifle, which her father had given
her. She never came back. Nothing
was ever heard of her. Her father adj
vertised throughout the country for
traces of her, and visited all the large
cities in the State seeking for tidin9s
of her. It being known In the neigh
borhood where the Hansons lived that
Katie had formed an attachment for q
worthless young man named johnson,
and that her parents had positively
forbidden her having anything to do
with him, many believed that she had
run away from home for that reason.
Others held that she had either ACCT
dentally shot herself in the woods, or
had become lost and died in some out
Cf-the-way part of the forest. Her
parents. after searching q year or two,
gave her up as dead.
Colonel Grant Wilson, of Philadel-
phia, was spending the winter in 1876
in Cuba. During his stay there he met
Major James Hopkins, formerly of
Ohio, who served in General Thomas
Division during the late war. Major
Hopkins owned tine plantation in the
Interior of the island, and Colonel Will
son accepted his invitation to become
his guest during his stay in Cuba. The
Majors family consisted of q handsome
and dignified wife of about forty and
two interesting children. When Colo
mel Wilson left Cuba he was intrusted
with an errand in this country BY Mrs.
Hopkins. On arriving in New York
he started at once for Tioga County,
Penn, and found the family of Elijah
Hanson. He caused grea. rejoicing by
the announcement that he knew their
long-lost daughter. Katie; that she was
alive and we'll, and preparing to pay
the old homestead q visit in the sum-
mer Of the present year. Katie Han
son and Mrs. Major Hopkins were one
and the same, and the following was
the strange story she told to the friend
she found in Colonel Wilson.
The young man johnson referred to
above was in the habit of accompany
ing Kate Hanson on her hunting expe-
ditions. and, being an excellent woods
man and hunter, was most congenial
companion to her. His family was dis
solute and ignorant. When her father
ordered her to cease associating with
johnson, Katie rebelled against the or
der for time. The last day she left
her house with her rifle she concluded
that the association was not q proper
; one for her, but she could see no way
for its dissolution but by leaving home.
She passed that night in the woods,
and the next day went to the cabin of
some hunters in the vicinity. The
hunters were not in the cabin,
but she appropriated q suit of
their clothes, and disguised her.
self in them. Her features and short
hair favored the deception. She
reached Dunkirk, N. Y, in her wan
derings. She secured the position of
cook i'll lake boat running between
Detroit and Buffalo. This position and
life were entirely to her liking.
One day in Buffalo she read in one of
the papers an advertisement offering a
reward for any Information of where
she was, and giving minute descrip-
ton of her. This alarmed her, for she
feared that she would be apprehended
and returned home. On returning to
Detroit, she gave up her position and
went to Cincinnati. She found EN-
plOyment on an Ohio River steamer.
She continued on the steamer until the
breaking out of the war. No one had
ever suspected her sex. She deter.
mined to enlist, and Joined an Ohio
regiment, and was in all of the engage
ments Of General Thomas division. In
1868 she was promoted to Sergeant in
her company. In 1864, her Captain
met her one day as she was returning
from stationing guard. He said to
her that he had long suspected that she
was q woman, and demanded to know
If such was the case. The charge was
30 sudden and unexpected that she lost
her self-possession and convicted her.
self by her reply. She begged the
Captain not to reveal her secret, but he
took her before General Thomas and
made the strange fact known to him.
Katie was at once sent back to the
rear, ard ordered to resume her proper
attire. She became q nurse in the
hospital, and soon had in her care her
Captain. he having been wounded in a
skirmish. Between the Captain and
the nurse, whom he had detected in
the ranks of his company, q strong
affection formed. At the close of the
war they we're married, the Captain,
meantime, having been promoted TO
the rank of Major. Major Hopkins
family was one of the best in Ohio,
and it refused to recognize his wife.
She had $500, which she had saved
from her earnings ON the steamers.
This was in q Cincinnati bank. She
drew it out, and, with her husband.
went to Cuba. There they prospered,
and were found by Colonel Wilson in
1876. Word has been received from
Mrs. Hopkins that she and her husband
and children will sail for New York in
August, and visit the home she so
mysteriously left nearly a quarter of
century ago.-ElnstrG IN. ~ Cor.
N. Y. Times.
Nihilism In Russia.
Scene: At st. Petersburg.
Janitor-I can't stand this any Ion