author
Kate Boyles Bingham
1876–1959
A novelist of the early American West, she helped turn South Dakota landscapes and frontier conflicts into popular fiction. Her books, often written with her brother Virgil D. Boyles, blend ranch life, homesteading, and regional history with a strong sense of place.
1 Audiobook
Langford of the Three Bars
by Kate Boyles Bingham, Virgil D. (Virgil Dillin) Boyles
About the author
Born in 1876 and dying in 1959, she was part of a South Dakota family deeply involved in public life. Sources on her life describe her as the daughter of Judge Samuel A. Boyles and Martha Jane Dillin Boyles, and note that she grew up in Yankton with her brother and frequent collaborator, Virgil D. Boyles.
Before and alongside her writing, she also worked in education. A South Dakota history study says she attended Yankton College, taught fourth grade in Yankton, and later taught English at a business college in Mitchell connected to her brothers.
She is best remembered for western and regional novels written alone and with Virgil D. Boyles, including Langford of the Three Bars, The Homesteaders, The Spirit Trail, The Hoosier Volunteer, and A Daughter of the Badlands. One historical source also notes that she supported women’s suffrage and served as secretary of the Brule County Equal Suffrage Committee in 1918.