Catherine Wilson

Catherine's father, Ebenezer Fairchild Tiggins, was born in Kentucky in 1808 and her mother was born in North Carolina in 1805. The Wiggins owned a large plantation in Virginia and had many negro slaves.

In 1852, Catherine came with her family from Virginia to Hancock County, Illinois to join the Saints going to Utah. Catherine was six years old. The Wiggins went on to Ogden, Utah.

Catherine was baptized when she was eight years old.

She was educated in Ogden and taught school in Ogden. She was an excellent teacher and an expert speller and a beautiful hand writer. She was such a good speller that the other teachers often inv ited her to join their classes in spelling contests at school.

She often told the story of the first fruit she ate in Utah which was brought to her by Apostle Orson Hyde who was a good friend and spent much time in their home.

At the age of seventeen, on December 31, 1862, Catherine became the wife of Lewis Dunbar Wilson, Jr. a well-Io-do business man in Ogden. She and her husband owned a hardware store, a lumber yard and a fine ranch in Wilson Lane named tor the Wilson families.

Their first home was in Ogden City where the train depot stands now. Later a lovely home was built in Wilson Lane where most of her ten children were born.

In 1877, Catherine gave her husband consent to take her niece, Eliza Ellenor Hunt, to become his second wife. The two families lived in a two story duplex in Wilson Lane for several years. The principal of polygamy was lived loyally, honestly and honorably by both families.

In 1887 Catherine, together with her five unmarried children, left their lovely home and traveled to Blackfoot, Idaho to join her husband. He had been there two years with his second wife making a home for them.

Her husband spent some time in prison because of polygamy. When the Edmunds Law was passed, L.D.S. men having more than one wife were asked to give up all but one wife and family. Lewis loved both wives and his children. Because he decided to keep both wives and children he was sent to prison for about two years.

All of her ten children, except one who died in infancy, were married in the LDS Temple. Catherine and her family always retired at night with an earnest prayer and arose in the morning with the same protection.

Catherine and her husband lived forty-six years in their home west of Blackfoot, Idaho. This place was later named Riverside, Idaho. In 1932, they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary with all the family members present.

Lewis died when Catherine was seventy-seven years of age. Their son Arthur, who never married, was home with her. When she was eighty years of age she suffered a stroke which left her entirely helpless. She could talk and her mind was clear. Her son hired women to care for her and her daughters took turns being with their mother.

The last fourteen months of her life her daughter, Elvaretta Watson, brought her mother to Thomas, Idaho and cared for her. Catherine passed away on June 6, 1931, at the age of eighty-six. She is buried beside her husband in the Thomas-Riverside cemetery.

(PIONEER WOMEN OF FAITH AND FORTITUDE 3405)