Katherine Elkins and William Hitt
A Portrait of a Marriage...or Two
William Hitt and Katherine Elkins were scions of two of the most powerful and wealthy Washington political families at the turn of the twentieth century. They grew up together in Washington, and Billy pursued Katherine for years. It was assumed by both families that they would eventually marry. They eventually did—twice—but not without some significant complications along the way.
Robert Roberts Hitt's political career began as an expert stenographer for the Illinois state senate where he became a very close friend of future President, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln appointed him as the stenographer for the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Hitt later briefly served as Assistant Secretary of State under James Blaine during the Garfield and Arthur administrations in 1881, and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1882, representing Illinois's 5th district. While in Congress, he served as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs for eig…
