The first Mrs. Herman Kirmse was born in Oregon in February 1869, and came to Skagway with the family in August 1898. She died on this day, July 15, 1900 of convulsions in Skagway, but was buried in Seattle.
Herman then remarried in September of 1900, to Hazel Cleveland. They lived here for a couple of years, but then Herman accidentally drowned in Ketchikan after he fell off the dock there in 1912. The rest of the family stayed only a few years and were gone by the next census in 1920.
The Kirmse’s curio store has recently seen a revival with antique displays and other antiques for sale (corner of 5th and Broadway).
Coincidentally, today a man came in and asked about the “Kirmse Clock” on the mountainside. He was amazed that a clock could have been taken up there over a hundred years ago. Despite being told that the clock is just painted on the rock, he still chose to believe it is a real clock. Alas, we did not argue with him, he went off happy.
Skagway Death Record; census; correct spelling of Shonkwiler from descendent (wrong in Skagway death record)
Ida Shonkwiler Kirmse was my wife’s great grandmother. She was born in Oregon in 1869 (most likely in February) and was Herman Kirmse’s 1st wife. Ida married Herman in Seattle, WA, on 2/15/1892. My wife’s grandmother, Gladys Kirmse Cogswell, was borm in Santa Barbara, CA, on 3/23/1895. She wed Harold Lewis Cogswell on 8/1/1914 in Bonner, Idaho, and had one child, a son, Harold Kirmse Cogswell, born 8/1/1920 in San Francisco, CA. Gladys died on 7/23/1960 in Los Angeles, CA. Her son, my father-in-law, died on 8/16/2009 in Sunnyvale, CA.
If you are receptive to providing accurate information on your website for the Kirmse family, Keller family (Skagway dentist was a brother of Edith Keller, mother of Harold Lewis Cogswell), Hazel Cleveland Kirmse family (Herman’s 2nd wife, born November 1884), and other early Skagway pioneers, please let me know and I will provide the genealogy sources for names, dates, places, and relationships.
I retired 17 years ago and one of my hobbies is family tree research. My wife and I were in Skagway last month. Skagway was a port-of-call for our cruise aboard the Golden Princess.
Thank you for creating and maintaining such a useful and informative website.