George E. Carson was born in 1846 in Maryland. He moved to Indiana where he met and married Matilda. They had two sons and a daughter there from 1876 to 1886. In 1898 they all moved to Skagway. In February 1898, as the U.S. Customs officer, he logged in five thousand stampeders.
In Skagway and Dyea he had help from U.S. Customs officers William Denny, Lewis C. Harman, C.L. Hobart, I. Myre Hoffstad, J.W. Ivey, A.I. Jones, DeWitt P. Lea, L.S. Luke, Oliver McCulloch, Thomas G. Payne, William H. Robertson, W.H. StClair, Clarence Leroy Andrews, R.W. Bellman, and others in later years.
Georg’s son, George C. also worked for U.S. Customs in Skagway in 1906 and the family stayed until George E. died on February 20, 1931 in Skagway. He is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery.
Seen above is City Hall in Skagway, it is perhaps where the Customs had their office, but maybe not.
Hmmm?
On page 422 of my book (Alias Soapy Smith) a letter to Soapy Smith from Bat Masterson mentions a “St. Clair.” There are two St. Clair’s listed in your population listings and there were probably more, but I can’t help wondering if W. H. StClair of the U.S. Customs office might have been a member of the Soap Gang. It does seem like a nice position in which to gather information on prospective prey does it not?
Jeff Smith
I published a post about W. H. StClair on my Soapy Smith blog: http://soapysmiths.blogspot.com/2012/02/was-w-h-stclair-of-us-customs-office.html
Jeff Smith
Do you remember in the movie with Tom Hanks, the DaVinci Code, the name St. Clair indicated the family descended from Mary Magdalene and Jesus? I’m just sayin……