Kitty Wilkins facts for kids

Katherine Caroline Wilkins (May 15, 1857 – October 8, 1936) was an amazing horse breeder from the early 1900s. People knew her as the "Horse Queen of Idaho." She was the only American woman at that time who made her living only from selling horses. Her company, the Wilkins Horse Company at Bruneau's Diamond Ranch, sold thousands of horses. These horses went to customers all across North America.

Kitty's Early Life & Education

Kitty Wilkins grew up in the American West. Her parents, John and Laura Wilkins, traveled by wagon train to Oregon City, Oregon in 1853. Kitty was born in 1857 in Jacksonville, near Medford, Oregon.

Her family moved around a lot when she was young. They lived in California, Florence, Idaho, and Washington Territory. They also spent time in Boise City, Idaho. Her father, John, owned a market in Boise. Sadly, a fire destroyed it in 1870.

Even with all the moving, Kitty went to good schools. She studied at the Sacred Heart Academy in Ogden, Utah. Then she went to the Notre Dame Convent school in San Jose, California. Kitty learned to play the piano, and her parents bought her a beautiful "Weber" piano.

In 1876, her father became interested in a silver mining boom in Tuscarora, Nevada. He built a new hotel there. Kitty lived in Tuscarora for a while. The hotel later burned down, but her family was still doing well. Kitty even spent a winter in San Francisco.

Becoming the Horse Queen of Idaho

Kitty's father, John Wilkins, started raising cattle and horses in the Bruneau Valley in Idaho around 1880. He built up his herds in southern Idaho. By 1885, he had a ranching station near Murphy Hot Springs. The Diamond brand of the Wilkins Company became very famous for horses.

In 1887, newspapers reported that Kitty and her brothers shipped horses to a market in Omaha. The family soon realized that Kitty was very good with horses. She also had a special talent for selling and marketing them.

Some newspapers called her a "cattle queen." But Kitty told an interviewer, "That is incorrect. My own specialty is horses." From then on, she was known as the "Horse Queen." One writer even called her the "Queen of Diamonds" because of her company's brand.

Kitty was far ahead of her time. She was a very successful woman in a business mostly run by men. She also understood that her unique story was interesting to people. She often told the tale of how she started in the horse business as a little girl. She said her parents used money given to her as a baby to buy her first filly.

For over 30 years, the Wilkins ranch sold thousands of horses. They shipped them all over the United States and even to Canada, as far north as the Yukon Territory. Kitty's company brought in special horse breeds to make their herds even better. They bred Clydesdale and Percheron horses for heavy hauling. They also bred Morgans for riding and pulling carriages.

Her customers included the U.S. Cavalry, which bought horses for soldiers. Some of her best horses even went to Buffalo Bill Cody's famous Wild West Show!

Kitty managed the entire horse business. She also handled all the marketing and sales herself. She often traveled alone, which was very unusual for a woman at that time. This made her even more famous. A reporter from the Denver Post praised her, saying her face "glowed with intelligence" and "glorious health." He also noted that Kitty "has made a magnificent success of horse ranching, in which enterprise so many men have made failures."

Kitty didn't like cars, calling them "ugly" and "unsafe." But she could see that cars would soon replace horses. The horse market began to shrink after 1910.

World War I brought one last big boost for the Wilkins Ranch. They sold thousands of horses to the U.S. Army. But after the war, the demand for horses quickly dropped. Kitty moved from the ranch to a nice home in Glenns Ferry, Idaho in the early 1920s.

Later Life and Legacy

Kitty Wilkins never married. She stayed close with her friends and family. She was known for being very kind and helping people in need, though she kept most of her good deeds private.

Kitty's last public appearance was in 1934. She attended the Fort Boise Centennial Celebration. This event remembered the founding of an old trading post. Kitty Wilkins died two years later in Glenns Ferry, Idaho, in 1936. She was buried in Mountain Home, Idaho.