Thea Kronborg : the protagonist. She is eleven years old in Moonstone, Colorado. After studying in Chicago, she becomes a renowned opera singer in Dresden and New York City.
Doctor Howard Archie : the young town doctor in Moonstone. He is a lifelong friend of Thea, who gives her financial support, which she in her turn repays. After he is widowed, his investments in silver mines pay off handsomely so he moves to Denver.
Mrs. Archie : Doctor Archie's wife, born Belle White. She met her husband in Lansing, Michigan. She is a dull, penny-pinching woman. She dies in a house fire that she likely caused while using an unsafe cleaning product. The fire burned the house completely, about four years after her husband sees Thea in New York City.
Larry : Doctor Archie's errand boy.
Reverend Mr. Peter Kronborg : Father of seven children, including Thea. He is a Methodist minister. He was born in a Scandinavian colony in Minnesota, and went to school in Indiana.
Mrs. Kronborg : Wife of Peter and wise mother of Thea, who understands what is due to her daughter's talent.
Anna : Thea's older sister, who becomes a devout Methodist. The two sisters are not much alike.
Thor Kronborg : Newborn when the story begins, and eleven-year-old Thea often cares for him. When Dr. Archie lives in Denver, Thor repairs and drives his automobile, as his chauffeur. He was born waiting for the automobile to be invented, per Dr. Archie.
The Kronborg children : namely Gus (clerk in a drygoods store, age 19), Charley (works in a feed store, age 17), Anna (the elder daughter, in high school), Thea (pronounced Tay a, age 11), Axel (age 7), Gunner , and Thor (the baby, pronounced Tor).
Aunt Tillie Kronborg : Unmarried sister of Reverend Kronborg who lives with her brother's family. She is 35 years old. She lives in Moonstone at the end of the novel, and looks happily back over Thea's singing career.
Professor A. Wunsch : a music teacher in Moonstone, perhaps 50 years old, short and stocky, who recognizes Thea's talent. He lives with the Kohlers for a few years, then roams to another town. Dr. Archie sees him as a man with a drinking problem. He has taught in St Louis and Kansas City.
Spanish Johnny : a harness maker in Mexican Town in Moonstone. He had been a painter in Trinidad. He plays the mandolin. His full name is Juan Tellamantez. He is present in the audience when Thea has her outstanding performance in New York City.
Mrs. Tellamantez : Johnny's wife, after whose death, her husband becomes a travelling musician.
Famos Serrenos : Spanish Johnny's cousin. He works in a mine in Moonstone.
Mrs. Paulina Kohler : She comes from the Rhine Valley and speaks little English. Her sons are grown and working for the railroad, travelling. She has a magnificent garden in dry Moonstone, with fruit trees, a grapevine, European linden trees, vegetables and flowers. She tends to Herr Wunsch's clothes, so he is respectable as a music teacher.
Mr. Fritz Kohler : Husband of Paulina, and the local tailor, who enjoys a drink with Herr Wunsch.
Mrs. Smiley , a millinery shop keeper.
Billy Beemer : an old drunkard who died while playing with a switch engine.
Ray Kennedy : Freight train conductor, age 30, and friend of the Kronborg family. On his days off, he takes Thea on outings to noteworthy places easily reached by horse and cart, especially the sand mountains. He wants to marry Thea, but dies in a train wreck before she is old enough.
Joe Giddy : Ray's brakeman, who enjoyed the trip with Thea and her mother, but a few years later he failed to set out warning flares at the rear when the freight train was stopped to take on water, mistakenly trusting his ears to hear any train coming. Thus was Ray Kennedy killed in the stopped train.
Mrs. Livery Johnson : a Baptist and a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She is the wife of the owner of the livery stable, hence the nickname, and president of a committee in the Moonstone Orchestra. She learned to play the piano in Grinnell, Iowa.
Lily Fisher : Thea's young rival in Moonstone at a multi-church Christmas concert.
Upping : a jeweller, the 'trainer' of the drama club in Moonstone.
Mr. Carsen : Local carpenter in Moonstone.
Last summer in Moonstone
Maggie Evans : a girl from Moonstone who dies the day before Thea returns from her winter in Chicago. Thea at first refuses to sing at her funeral until her mother persuades her it is the right thing to do.
Miguel Ramas : a Mexican from Moonstone. He has two young cousins, Silvo age 18 and Felipe age 20. They dance often with Thea at the Mexican Ball.
Mrs. Miguel Ramas : Mother of Miguel Ramas.
Famos Serrenos : a bricklayer.
Chicago
Reverend Lars Larsen : a friend of Mr. Kronborg in Chicago, who takes Thea on for paid church and funeral singing, and recommends her to a family where she could stay.
Hartley Evans : a friend of Dr. Archie's, a throat specialist in Chicago, who directs them to Harsanyi.
Andor Harsanyi : Concert pianist of Hungarian background, age 32 at the start of grand career, and teacher for Thea in Chicago, and the first artist she meets. He ran from his home in Hungary as a boy, because his father pushed him too hard on his music. His wife is not yet thirty and very much likes Thea. They have a son, Andor 6 years old, and a daughter, Tanya , 4 years old, when Thea meets them. They move to New York City during Thea's second season in Chicago, so Andor can take on the students of a retiring music teacher there, and then live in Vienna. He returns to New York City and performs in Carnegie Hall. He sees Thea on the opera stage for his first time, years after teaching her.
Mrs. Lorch : a German parishioner in Chicago, in whose home Thea spends her first winter in Chicago.
Mrs. Irene Andersen : Mrs. Lorch's widowed daughter. She sings in the Mozart society in Chicago. Her husband Oscar had been Swedish, so she keeps to the Swedish church.
Mr. Eckman : one of Mrs. Lorch's lodgers. He works in a slaughterhouse in Packingtown, which Thea tours with him, wanting to see where all the animals that passed through Moonstone were sent.
Theodore Thomas : Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with whom Harsanyi consults as to the best singing teacher in Chicago for Thea.
Madison Bowers : a singing teacher in Chicago. He is well-qualified but a rather unpleasant man.
Miss Adler : Accompanist for Madison Bowers, who is "an intelligent Jewish girl from Evanston, Illinois."
Hiram Bowers : Father of Bowers, and a choirmaster in Boston.
Mrs. Priest : A popular singer in Chicago, also taking lessons from Bowers, whose voice lacks the qualities that Bowers teaches to Thea. She bothers Thea, and disappoints her, for low general knowledge, as well as singing style. Mrs. Harsanyi advises Thea to forget about her, the same advice Bowers gives, so she will focus on her own voice.
Jessie Darcey : A soprano singer training under Bowers who is soon to go on tour, singing songs that Harsanyi taught to Thea the in her first winter. Thea thinks Darcey is not very good in her singing, as she tells Mrs Harsanyi, who says, what does it matter how the others are doing?
Mr. Philip Frederick Ottenburg or Fred Ottenberg : Scion of a beer magnate. He went to Harvard and has a particularly engaging personality. He loves opera and likes to sing himself, but not professionally. He connects with Thea, understanding her stages of development in both understanding her talent and pursuing her career. At least by Aunt Tillie's description in the Epilog, he is Thea's husband when the opera tours in Kansas City.
The Nathanmeyers : Wealthy Jewish family in Chicago, friends with the Ottenburgs and lovers of the music that Thea sings. They host music parties, for which they hire her to perform, after Fred introduces them.
Katarina Furst Ottenburg : Mother of Fred Ottenburg, of the St. Louis brewery family.
Henry Biltmer : He lives on Ottenburg's ranch in northern Arizona.
Mrs. Biltmer , Henry Biltmer's wife. She cooks meals for her husband, Thea and Ottenburg after the days spent in the ancient cliff dwellings.
Edith Beers : Ottenburg's wife. Soon after the marriage, she lives in Santa Barbara, unwilling to give Fred a divorce. She was originally engaged to Dick Brisbane. A bit later, she lives in an asylum, still binding Fred to her because of the laws protecting her. Her family is owner of a large Kansas City brewery.
Alphonse : the hansom driver for Ottenburg and Edith in New York City in their very brief courtship years earlier.
Denver
Captain Harris : The friend and financier who loans Dr. Archie cash in Denver so he in turn can bring cash to Thea in New York.
Thomas Burk : Dr Archie's assistant in Denver, at San Felipe mining.
Jasper Flight : an undaunted prospector who never finds silver, but Dr. Archie will give him another stake.
Pinky Alden : the governor that Doctor Archie helped get elected.
Tai : Doctor Archie's Japanese servant in Denver.
Therese : Thea's maid.
New York City
Mr. Oliver Landry : An accompanist and singer. He grew up near Cos Cob, later inherits a home from his aunt in New York, and helps Thea whilst in Germany and New York City. He is a link to Fred, letting him know which roles Thea will perform.
Madame Necker : a successful opera singer.
Nordquist : a singer Thea nearly marries in Europe, mentioned in discussion between Thea and Fred in New York City.
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