When Katherine Erskin Russell was born on 3 August 1858, in California, United States, her father, Andrew Campbell Russell, was 35 and her mother, Katherine Pickett, was 29. She married Joseph Henry Smith on 10 August 1886, in San Joaquin, California, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 daughter. She lived in Anthony, Doña Ana, New Mexico, United States in 1920 and Berkeley, Alameda, California, United States in 1930. She died on 11 April 1947, in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States, at the age of 88, and was buried in Stockton Rural Cemetery, Stockton, San Joaquin, California, United States.