Kitty’s Tale
Update 43
Fall 1884
Like so many others, Lee Shao arrived in America with a shirt on his back and determination in his heart. His hard work and perseverance led him to Steamer Bay and a job with the Northern Pacific Railroad. After years of sweat and toil, Lee had earned a sizeable savings, as well as a reputation as an honorable and decent man. But after President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act into law in the spring of 1882, it looked as though Lee Shao’s big dreams could come crumbling down.
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Kathleen Blake was no stranger to disintegrating dreams.
‘Kitty,’ as her family called her, was born on a farm near Elizabethtown, KY in the spring of 1837, not too far from where the 16th President of the United States first entered this world. Tragedy first struck the Blake family when Kitty’s mother passed away during child birth three years later.
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Fortunately, Kathleen had two older brothers who treated her like a brother too. She spent much of her childhood traversing the countryside catching frogs, fighting (imaginary) Indians and hunting rabbits.
Her father did his best to raise three kids and provide for his family. He remarried when Kitty was 6 years old. Virginia, Her step-mother, was a kind women but after giving birth to Kitty’s step-sister, she never had time to develop a close bond with her step children. Kathleen’s brothers were her real family, and they continued to remain close through adolescence.
Years later, President Abraham Lincoln, who was born only miles from where Kitty was raised, watched the country he swore to protect begin to crumble before his very eyes. The American Civil War was erupting across the country, and Kitty’s two brothers found themselves enlisting in the Union army to join the adventure, like thousands of like-minded young men. The brothers would see action across the western theater, but on one ill-fated day in 1862 both siblings fell defending their home state in the Battle of Richmond.
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The news devastated her father and shook Kitty to the core. The fall and winter months were the darkest she could remember, but one cold night brought a dream so vivid, Ms. Blake knew her life would never be the same. As the spring of 1863 warmed the frozen ground and her epiphany still fresh in her mind, Kitty joined one of many wagon trains heading west. With a new life ahead of her, Kitty felt alive for the first time since she received word of her brothers’ deaths.
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The journey lasted over 4 months, but in that time Kitty struck up a romance with a tailor by the name of Henry Timworthy. The pair married near the end of their trip, and Kitty followed her new husband up the pacific coast to a frontier town by the name of New SorGun. Mr. Timworthy earned a good living by mending and selling clothes to loggers passing through the area, while Kitty learned the ins and outs of being a homemaker on the edge of civilization.
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Frontier life suited Kitty, but married life did not. The adventures and challenges of a pioneer was exactly what Kitty yearned for, but Mr. Timworthy made it clear that he expected a prim and proper wife. Acquaintances would note that the pair fit together like oil and water. Mrs. Timworthy, like so many other women of the time, veiled her unhappiness and struggled on. She passed the time throwing herself at any community project that caught her interest, which often times included helping folks who were down on their luck. She enjoyed serving meals at one of the first soup kitchens in New Sorgun.
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By the summer of 1865, Kitty was well known and respected around New SorGun and she was beginning to feel at home in this new frontier. The Civil War, which took her two precious brothers, was all but over and a feeling of renewal and hope began to fall over the citizens of SorGun. But in a strange twist of fate, Mr. Timworthy fell ill and passed away soon after.
As anybody would surely expect, Kitty was devastated. Although the two were not necessarily the closest of married couples, the unexpected death shocked Kitty. Was she destined to be deprived of love and happiness? These thoughts filled Kitty, and as she mourned the death of her husband the only sliver of joy that struck her was when she found herself at the soup kitchen feeding the hungry souls who passed through the door. Suddenly, the dream she so clearly recalled came flooding back, and Kitty realized what she must do.
Mr. Timworthy was a frugal man and he left a sizable savings to Kitty when he passed. She could have easily used the money to live the rest of her days in modest comfort, but that life didn’t interest her in the slightest. Instead, Kitty Timworthy opened up a saloon in the up and coming area of New SorGun, right near the Yarahi Mill. Business was booming, and by 1867 Kitty was using much of the profits from the Saloon to offer free meals to the town’s homeless and destitute citizens, fulfilling her philanthropic instincts.
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As a business owner, Kitty became more involved in the political world of the growing frontier town. As a woman, she was acutely aware of the near monopoly men held on the governing of day to day life in New SorGun (that could be said of the entire world, as well). Naturally, she became interested in anti-establishment philosophies that touted change, including suffrage, socialism, prohibition and others. Kitty was even honored to host a dinner with Susan B. Anthony and Abigail Scott Duniway as they toured the Pacific Northwest in the fall of 1871.
A few years later, after the shocking decision of the Northern Pacific Railroad to make the western terminus in Steamer Bay, Mr. Eastman T. Finch was hailed as the savior of New SorGun after he and completed the coal line from Foxton to New SorGun. Like most residents, Kitty was glad New SorGun wasn’t turned into a ghost town, but she became distraught after learning the plight of some of the railroad workers. The pay was paltry and the labor was hard and dangerous.
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During one town council meeting, Kathleen Timworthy suggested an ordinance to ensure that every worker receive a hot meal each day, and medical attention if necessary. Of course, she was nearly laughed out of the hall by the town’s gentry for suggestion such an absurd notion. Mr. Finch delivered a haughty rebuke of her proposal, which incensed Kitty even further. It became apparent to Kitty that convincing the towns ruling elite to enact change for the good of the people was a losing proposition.
Fortunately for Kitty, the winds of change were in the air.
I'd like to thank krashspeed for creating all the awesome HH models, including the mind blowing details like the various sims... These future entries wouldn't be half as good without his amazing craftsmanship.
Also, thank you all for hanging in there - I know it's been quite a while 
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