By the time Katie married James Junkin, her mother, Augusta, had died. Katie's stepbrother, Charles Blank, had married and had two children that Katie must have been quite fond of; they were included in the wedding as attendants and are in the photo to the left (John and Lydia Blank).

Per information obtained by a Junkin relative, James was originally from Doylesburg, Pennsylvania. He was in LeMars, Iowa because he and a friend had answered an ad Katie and a girlfriend had run in a Colorado paper, calling themselves mail order brides. Recent attempts to find the ad have proven fruitless. They fell in love, and after their wedding, they told family that they were going to Cripple Creek, Colorado, where James had a hide and tallow business. However, they had gone there to pan for gold. This failed, and the couple then moved to Virginia.

Sadly, Kate and James did not lead a long life together. They celebrated the birth of a daughter, Katie, on December 3, 1901, but Katharina died in childbirth.

James then married what we believe to be a young woman who was the daughter of the local grist mill operator. We assume that initially she had been hired to care for his newborn, but they must have fallen in love. James and Ella VanScyoc were married on July 7, 1903. Ella bore him two children. Ella is believed to have died on June 27, 1910 in the back of a buckboard as James was taking her to a doctor. She had a ruptured appendix after delivering their daughter Amber. James now had his 9-year-old daughter, Kate, his 6-year-old son and a baby.

Lizzie Fluck, Katharina's younger sister, then came from Iowa to help James with the children. It is assumed they fell in love and married. She and James had no children.

James' grave is surrounded by his three wives, two of which were sisters.

Note her name is spelled "Catharine" on her gravestone; it was common to interchange Ks and Cs when spelling Katharine..