Catherine Houston Alexander was an orphan who had been working in the house of Horace Martin Alexander and his wife Nancy Reeder Walker Alexander, assisting them with the housework and care of their 3 children children. When Nancy Reeder Walker Alexander died in Winter Quarters, Nebraska in 1847, Catharine went to Utah with Nancy Reeder Walker's sister Evaline Walker and her husband, James Henry Rollins in Brigham Young's company in 1948. She later married Horace Martin Alexander in 1849 when they arrived in Salt Lake City, UT.