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In the summer of 1910, Katie Nurse and her young son, Bernard, left Norfolk, England, to begin a new life in what the locals in Utah called Promontory Station, where the ceremonial driving of the "Golden Spike," connecting the Union and Central Pacific Railroads, furthered the development of the American West.

Traveling with nine trunks — three were lost then found, and one was filled with hats — she arrived at the station amid the locomotive's belch of black cinders, and wondered, "Is this what I'm coming to?"

Katie had corresponded with fellow Englishman and friend Frederick Houghton, from Promontory. Upon seeing him, her fears were quelled. He was kind without guile. They married in 1911.

A boomtown during railroad construction, Promontory Station settled into a small community comprising some 20 families. It became a housing and work camp for railroad employees who maintained the rails, and a commercial center for burgeoning cattle ranchers seeking access to national markets. The station's "helper" engines boosted "trains up the steep Promontory grades." Its railway offered a "backup line" for those living north of the Great Salt Lake.

In 1894, T.G. Brown operated a successful general store, hotel and restaurant at the station's depot. He advertised "groceries, cigars, tobacco, boots and shoes" and "first-class meals, 50 cents," and in 1907 sold the enterprise to Houghton. Renamed the Houghton Store, its collection of offerings, including a post office, remained a welcome sight at the notable historic junction.

Inside, an expansive dining room and English-style furniture dominated the living spaces along with a large kitchen and pantry. Long-term boarders and overnight travelers discovered ample lodging. No indoor plumbing or heat existed, so the Houghtons gathered sagebrush to burn for winter and filled buckets with water brought in by train. According to section foreman Joseph Nelson, Katie Houghton was a fine cook who served roasts and brewed coffee that tasted "better than what they served on the railroad."

A refined—and fiery—woman, Houghton was known to bake 80 loaves of bread a week, roll out pies for the train engineer and baggage car crew, care for the sickly, feed the needy, and somehow remain impeccably dressed whether cleaning silverware, mopping floors, or traveling by horse and buggy.

In 1912, Katie became pregnant with their child, Bernice, and Frederick built the long-promised home, The Bungalow.

Located away from their primary residence at the store, "it was a pretty little blue house and the home of her dreams," Bernice Houghton Gerritsen wrote in 1973 memoirs, "but we only lived in it for two years because she felt Dad needed full-time help in the boardinghouse. She always expected to go back to live in the bungalow but never did."

Country life was challenging. The store owner worked as a farmer and gardener, postmaster, justice of the peace, notary public, Sunday school teacher, and custodian of Promontory's one-room schoolhouse. He grew Martha Washington vines to cover and cool the store's exterior. After a cow backed into the store and broke a window, he built a low fence, framed it with flowers and planted a box elder tree. Houghton doted on his children. There was a dog, Max, and horse named Coley. For years, Houghton collected and saved buffalo nickels.

Diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1926, Houghton died within weeks.

"Mother cried," Gerritsen wrote, "but with the mail train due, she had a new task to do before planning his funeral."

Katie Houghton purchased her husband's headstone with some buffalo nickels and bought farmland with others. She immersed herself in business, didn't believe in credit, paid off all debts and happily "burned the mortgage."

Houghton carried on until 1935, when she shuttered the store and moved to Ogden with her daughter.

In 1941, Promontory's metal rails were stripped to aid the war effort. Promontory became a ghost town. Houghton's tree still stands.

Eileen Hallet Stone is the author of "Hidden History of Utah," a compilation of her Living History column in the Salt Lake Tribune. She may be reached at ehswriter@aol.com. Special thank you to Aaron Nelson. Sources: Gerritsen and Nelson 1973 interviews, University of Utah Marriott Library, Special Collections.