The other Carrie Wilkins: Territorial Prescott's young actress
by Tom CollinsVisitors to the Sharlot Hall Building will find in the military exhibit a faded photo of Carrie Wilkins, the second daughter of Colonel John D. Wilkins of Fort Whipple. Carrie and her sister Emma were, according to military legend, much courted and much desired by the young officers in the 1870s, when women were scarce in this Arizona Territory's rough and male-dominated mining town. Colonel Wilkins departed from Prescott forever "with his excellent family" in late July 1878, when he was ordered to join his regiment in Benicia, California (Journal-Miner, July 19). Captain Charles Porter eventually won Carrie's heart, and the two married on the 24th of April 1879, in Washington, D.C. "The Captain is a jolly good fellow and richly merits the grand prize he has secured. The wedding tour will include Europe and a visit to Capt. Porters relative's" (Miner, May 2, 1879).
Did Carrie perform in the amateur theatrical productions at Fort Whipple during the command of General August V. Kautz? A Miss Carrie Wilkins and Mrs. E.D. Thomas, wife of Lieutenant Earl D. Thomas, sang Growne's beautiful duet, "Evening Song to the Virgin" at a soiree musicale directed by Fannie Kautz at Fort Whipple in early February, 1875, and a Miss Carrie Wilkins played one of the two eligible daughters of Moses Mulligrub in the comedy 'The Boston Dip' performed as the inaugural profusion of the Fort Whipple Dramatic Association in October 1875. This was undoubtedly Colonel Wilkins' daughter. But was this the same Carrie Wilkins who appeared repeatedly in the productions of the Prescott Dramatic Club, beginning in August 1878? The historical evidence suggests not.
That there were two Carries becomes clear in the Miner's report of the Masquerade Ball held at Fort Whipple in January 1878: 1) "Miss Carrie Wilkens (sic), of Whipple, wore silk skirt with lace Basque, hair powdered, and diamonds," and 2) "Miss Carrie Wilkins, of Prescott in white dress and pink roses, was tastefully arranged." The Prescott Carrie was the l6-year-old ward of the Miner's editor, Charles W. Beach, and his wife Cora. She had been born in Connecticut, but perhaps her parents had died, leaving her in the care of the Beaches. The Whipple Masquerade, with music provided by the 8th Infantry Band, attracted the elite of Prescott society, who costumed themselves exotically. The renowned orator and lawyer Thomas Fitch came disguised as Othello, and his partner Clark Churchill as lago while Sam and Morris Goldwater appeared respectively as King Henry the Fifth and as the eighteenth-century English actor David Garrick. Colonel Wilkins was a "Country Gentleman" (Miner, Jan. 18).
Fort Whipple's Carrie left Prescott just after Thomas Fitch founded the Prescott Dramatic Association and just as he was building the new Prescott Theatre on Alarcon and Liberty Streets. The roster of actors included members of the Bar and their wives as well as Colonel James Porter Martin and his wife Alice of Fort Whipple. Several other prominent citizens, including Misses Etta Parker, Carrie Pine, and Carrie Wilkins were soon to strut and fret their hour upon the amateur stage.
A "Miss Wilkens" (as spelled in the theatre programmes) played the "maid of all work," Tilda, in the inaugural production of 'Helping Hands', as well as the flirtatious Suzanne O'Hara in the Club's production of the comedy 'Led Astray' (Aug. 16 & 18, 1878), although the review in the Miner spells her name "Wilkins." No family by the name of Wilkens is recorded in the Yavapai County Great Register of 1878. But it's clear from later theatrical notices that the "Miss Wilkens" of the first two productions and Charles Beach's ward are one and the same.
On January 14, 1879, Carrie Wilkins of Prescott appeared in the role of Arabella Pell, "a gushing girl" in Henry J. Byron's comedy, 'One Hundred Thousand Pounds.' If Charles Beach himself wrote the review, it is interesting that he could both praise and criticize his ward in one sentence: "She has more natural stage talent than any of our lady amateur performers, but lacks training." He is suggesting, in other words, that she hasn't mastered the grace and polish of good stage deportment and the clarity and modulation of good stage elocution. Indeed, how could any of the amateurs have received professional training, since there were no schools of acting in Prescott. About a week later, Carrie was "immense" as the saucy maidservant, Tilda, in the one-act farce 'A Regular Fix.'
In what was apparently an uncomfortable performance for her, Carrie Wilkins sang for the funeral of the Mother Superior of Mercy Hospital, who died in June 1879. Lily Fremont notes in her diary that "the little church was packed & in a soft scared voice Carry (sic) Wilkins blundered through the singing part of the Mass whilst Father Becker, who knew better, gabbled through the fine Latin Mass" (June 16). Singing was not Carrie's forte.
It must have been a disappointment for Carrie when the Prescott Dramatic Club announced (Miner, Aug. 2, 1879) that she was going to play the leading female role of Marinara, the gypsy girl, in the three-act romantic drama 'Don Caesar de Bazan' but then canceled the production (or so it seems) in deference to the popular actor Harry DuSouchet, who chose instead two one-act plays for his benefit. There are no ads or reviews in the newspaper for 'Don Caesar de Bazan' and Lily Fremont, who surely would have supported her young friend by attending her performance, makes no mention of the play in her diary. She instead mentions the minstrel and variety shows that were done in August and September.
Carrie Wilkins enjoys three more acting triumphs. The first is on September 30, 1879, when she plays the title role in Buckstone's one-act farce, 'Nan, the Good for Nothing' at the Prescott Theatre. Actually this would have been a triumph were it not for Harry DuSouchet who failed to memorize his lines and threw the other actors off. Lily Fremont wrote (Sept. 30) that the acting was so bad it was funny. The second is in October 1880, nearly a year after Fort Whipple's Carrie has become Mrs. Lieutenant Porter, when she plays the minor but mature role of Arria in John Banim's verse tragedy, 'Damon and Pythias,' at the Prescott Theatre. Charles Beach (or another reviewer) was clearly impressed: "Carrie Wilkins was more like Mrs. Judah, of San Francisco, than anything we have see for a long time. She sustained Arria well, and shows her usual versatility." (Mrs. Judah, doubtless renowned in her time, has disappeared from history.)
In the midst of the second performance, after Carrie's scenes in Act 11, the audience called her before the curtain repeatedly. Clark Churchill, Tom Fitch's law partner, stepped onto the stage and presented her with a set of gold earrings "emblematic of the purity and unselfishness of your life and thoughts" which had been donated by her friends in appreciation of her many services in Prescott. Overcome with both embarrassment and gratitude, she reflected for a moment and then replied humbly and elegantly: "Ladies and gentlemen: in expression of this kindness, so unexpected and unmerited, I hardly find words with which to thank you. If my services as an amateur have been appreciated by the Prescott public, then my only aim has been accomplished. Allow me to tender my sincere thanks" (Miner Nov. 5, 1880). The third and last success comes when Carrie plays the delightful kitchen wench, Melinda, in Henry J. Byron's international hit comedy 'Our Boys' at the Prescott Theatre (Feb. 10, 1881): a minor but memorable role.
Carrie was also interested in politics, and the Territorial Council and Legislature met with some frequency in Prescott. The Daily Arizona Citizen noted (Nov. 19, 1880), that Carrie and her good friend Minnie Atkinson were candidates for clerkships in the territorial council. It is unclear whether Carrie ever obtained such a position.
What happened to the Prescott Carrie after this? Little information is available about Miss Carrie after 'Our Boys.' The Prescott Theatre changed its repertoire from legitimate to musical theatre with the arrival of the professional touring star, Miss Pauline Markham, in January of 1880, with her oft-repeated production of Gilbert & Sullivan's 'H.M.S. Pinafore.' When Miss Markham departed in June of 1880, the local amateurs floundered, and when the Prescott Theatre burned to the ground in November 1883, the amateurs seem to have lost heart and disengaged. At the end of 1883, Charles Beach sold the Miner but remained in Prescott for a year or so. Cora Beach acted in an evening of farces with several other actors in October of 1884, but Carrie is notably absent from the cast. Beach left Prescott to live in Kirkland Valley, probably taking his wife Cora, his son, and Carrie Wilkins with him, in 1885. There is no mention in the Prescott papers of Carrie after this. It is surprising that this charming young lady did not receive a marriage proposal from one of the well-to-do bachelors or widowers of Prescott who found women so scarce in that predominantly male population.
(Tom Collins is a Sharlot Hall Museum volunteer, researcher and writer of several other Days Past articles.)
References:
Mick Woodcock's Fort Whipple's Miss Carrie: "The Colonel's daughter"(printed in the 'Days Past' series in the Prescott Courier June 20, 1999); The 1880 Yavapai County Census; The Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner (various dates, as specified in the text); The Arizona Diary of Lily Fremont
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Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Map #819, cropped) Reuse only by permission.
A Bird's Eye View of Prescott", by C.J. Dyer, c. 1885. Carrie Wilkins performed numerous shows at the Prescott Theater, the building seen here marked "17" in the lower right hand corner. The large brick structure on the left of the image is the Prescott Free Academy, on the current location of the Washington School on East Gurley Street.