The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-07-01
KATIE HAnseM,s EenruHE.


reared from her home In TiOga County, Pa.
She was only eighteen years Of age, and had
crown up among the lumber woods " North
srn Pennsyivania. She had a prediiection
masculine ways. She was expert with
he rifle and fi~shing-rod, and spet much..of her
time in the woods. Her family was highly
respectable, and she was more than usually
In spite of her dislike for the
Of her sex, she bore an unsnl-
lied reputation. She left home one day with
rifle, which her father had given her.
She never came back. Nothing was ever
heard of her. Her father advertised through
the country for traces of her, and visited
all the large cities in the State seeking for IT,
dings Of her. 1t being known in the neigh
borhood wheS the Hansons lived that Katie
had formed an attachment for a worthless
young man named johnson, and that her
parents had positively forbidden her to have
anything to do with with him, many believed
she had run away from home for that reason.
Others held hat she had either accidentally
shot herself in the woods, or had become lost
and died in some o~ut-of-the-way part of the
forest. Her parents, after searching a year
or two, gave her up as dead.
Colonel Grant Wilson, Of Philadelphia,
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 a fine plantation
in the interior o fthe island, and Colonel Will
son accepted bis invitation to become his
guest during his stay in Cuba. The Majors
family consisted Of a handsome and dignified
wife of about forty and two interesting child
dren. When Colonel Wilson left Cuba he
was intrusted with an Grand in this country
by Mrs. Hopkins. On arriving in New York
he started at once for Tioga county, Penn,
and found the family of Eliza Hanson. He
caused great rejoicing by the announcement
that he knew their long-lost daughter, Katie;
that she was alive and well, and preparing to
pay the old homestead a visit in the summer
of the present year. Katie Hanson and Mrs.
Major Hopkins were n 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 accompanying Kate Han
son on her hunting expeditions, and, being
an excellent woodsman and hunter, was a
most c~ongenial companion for her. His fam
lily was cissolute and ignorant. When her
father ordered her to cease associating with
johnson, Katie rebelled against the order for
a time. The last day she left her house with
her rife she concluded that the association
was rot a proper one for her, but she could
see nj 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 a suit
OF their clothes, and disguised herself in them.
Her features and short hair favored the de-
ception. She reached Dunkirk, N. Y, in her
wanderings. She secured the position of
cook in a lake boat running between Detroit
and Buffalo. This position and lite 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
a minute description of her. This alarmed
her, for she feared that she would be appre-
hended and returned home. On returning
to Detroit, she gave up her position and went
to Cincinnati. She found employment OH
ad Ohio river steamer. She continued on
the steamer until the breaking out OF the war.
No one had ever suspected her sex. She de-
! tarnnippA RI anlict onI icinoI ON Oht<, ,or,
ment, and was in all of the engagements of
General Thomas division. In 1858 she was
promoted to Sergeant in her company. In
1864, her Captain met her one day as she was
returning from stationing a guard. He said
to her that he had long suspected that she
was a woman, and demanded to know If such
was the case. The charge was so sudden and
unexpected That she lost her self-possession
and convicted herself by her reply. She beg
ged 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,
and ordered to resume her proper attire. She
became a nurse in the hospital, and soon had
care her Captain, he having been wounded
in a skirmish. Betweun the Captain aud the
nurse, whom he had detected in the ranks of
his company, a strong affection formed. At
the close of the war they were 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 5000, which she
had saved from her earnings on the steamers.
out, and, with her husband, went to Cuba,
There they prospered, and were found by
Colonel Wilson in 1876. Word has been re.
ceived from Mrs. Hopkins that she and hel