Kate Hammond was born in California in the late 1860s or early 1870s, the daughter of Dr. Josiah Shaw Hammond and his wife Ann Eliza. In 1875 the family moved to Nevada, where Dr. Hammond practiced medicine for ten years. In 1885 they moved to Butte, Montana Territory. From 1894 until 1901, Kate Hammond was an assistant librarian at the Butte Free Public Library, working for a time under head librarian Granville Stuart. While working at the library she acquired an interest in Montana history, especially the early days of Butte mining. In 1916 she published The Story of Montana, a history of the state designed primarily for use in the classroom. She also conducted extensive research in the Silver Bow County Courthouse for a planned book on the early mining history of the Summit Valley Mining District near Butte. Kate Hammond married Reverend Joseph W. Fogarty in 1901 and was later widowed with one son. She died July 7, 1936, while on vacation from her job at the Fairfield, Connecticut, library.
From the guide to the Kate Hammond Fogarty Papers, 1860-1879, (Montana Historical Society Archives)
