People and Places of Buffalo Coat

Carol Ryrie Brink

In this work of historical fiction, Carol Ryrie Brink weaves a fascinating story around events which took place in Moscow, Idaho, from 1885 through 1902. Her characters are drawn from people she knew or had heard about. She has exercised a novelist's prerogative to fictionalize them to fit her story's needs, and many are a composite of differing personalities. The actual events around which the story is written are documented in the early public records. The places around which the story was built are actual ones which were in Moscow at that time. Following are descriptions of some of the people and places.

Dr. W.W. Watkins

Dr. W.W. Watkins (Dr. Hawkins), 1846-1901
Dr. Watkins came to Moscow from St. Louis in 1887 with his wife and three daughters. He played a leading role in establishing the University of Idaho and served on the third board of regents. He founded the Watkins Medal for Oratory and was president of the Idaho State Medical Society. His office was at 110 East 2nd Street, and the house and yard were at 316 and 320 South VanBuren, with the barn on Polk Street. Carol Ryrie Brink was his granddaughter. In August 1901, an insane man, William Steffen, murdered Dr. Watkins as he was returning from a sick call to a girl living on Orchard Avenue which was then in the country.

Caroline Woodhouse Watkins

Caroline August Woodhouse Watkins (Anna Hawkins), 1853-1940
Born in Boston, she spent her childhood on the Wisconsin frontier before moving to St. Louis in 1865 where she met and married William Watkins. Her husband's death in 1901 left her with few resources and many debts, and in 1904, following the death of her daughter, Henrietta, she took on the rearing of her granddaugher, Carol Ryrie. She also helped raise two grandsons. Her personal qualities and enthralling stories of her childhood adventures inspired her granddaughter's classic children's story, Caddie Woodlawn.

Winifred B. Booth (Jenny Walden), 1880-1902
The second of three daughters, she was teaching school at Kendrick at the time of her tryst with Dr. F.J. Ledbrooke. Her broken leg was the occasion of their meeting and beginning their ill-fated love affair. The lovers' final request to be buried together was not heeded, and her grave in the Moscow Cemetery is by itself. A line from her favorite hymn is on her headstone: "There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus, no not one."

Dr. F.J. Ledbrooke (Dr. Hugh Allerton), 1862-1902
Dr. Ledbrooke arrived in Moscow shortly after Dr. Watkins' death in 1901. The contemporary newspaper reports of his and Winifred's suicides described Dr. Ledbrooke as a former minister who had exerted a hypnotic influence over his young patient. The newspaper reports also stated that he had received an anonymous letter threatening his life if he did not leave town. It is curious that after his death his widow, Alice, lived some time in the Watkins' household where she and the young Carol Ryrie became good friends.

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