Happy Birthday to Capt. Moore born on this day, March 30, 1822 in Emden, Hanover, Germany. He came up here from Vancouver in 1862 as an explorer. He and his wife, Hendrika Fenn had several kids and grandkids who lived here prior to the gold rush. He once owned much of the land that is now Skagway, but was over run by goldrushers in 1897-1898. His original cabin and house is now owned and has been renovated by the National Park Service.
When Capt. Moore left Skagway, he and his family moved back to their lovely home in Victoria. In November I walked the road where the house once stood, but unfortunately has been replaced by condos. There are a few renovated Victorian Houses on that street. He and Hendrika are buried in the Ross Bay Cemetery, a two mile walk from downtown Victoria. Try as we might, even with the exact plot number, we could not find the actual graves, but I’m sure they are there.
Kate Mason Carmack
Kate Mason also known as Nadagaat Tlaa Kaachgaawaa, married George Washington Carmack around 1889, or so she thought. After finding the gold in the Klondike and starting the whole Gold Rush thing, they became very wealthy and moved to Hollister California. Being away from home was not good for Kate or her daughter Gracie, as George left them and married someone else. Long sad story there, written up many places.
Kate returned home and on this day, March 29, 1920 she succumbed to the flu in Carcross and is buried in the little Carcross Cemetery. She was variously reported to have been born in either 1857, 1862 or 1869 in Tagish, perhaps.
Skagway Death Record and Jennifer Duncan in Frontier Spirit; Wikipedia
James Wesley Young
Mr. Young was an integral part of the Skagway community at the turn of the century. He was born on August 15, 1853 to a large family in St. David Parish, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada. He was assistant to Erastus Corning Hawkins, the White Pass Chief Engineer.
Young was also the proprietor of the 5th Avenue Hotel by 1904 (see above photo) and the chief agent for the Great Northern Railroad in Washington.
Young died on this day, March 26, 1905 of pneumonia in Dawson, Yukon. His wife, Emma had died 3 days earlier in Dawson. They left behind a daughter, Edna.
family chronicles; photo of 5th Ave hotel on p.58 of “Skagway District of Alaska, building the Gateway to the Klondike” by Spude, NPS; Minter; Hunt; Pennington; genealogy.com
Mary Elizabeth Stewart
Mary died on this day, March 25, 1919. There is absolutely no information other than her name and date of death on the death certificate, so I will try to view the newspaper records for additional info. During the spring of 1919 the influenza hit Skagway and took down quite a number of people.
Helen Cecil Wilson, wrote to her mother at this time:
“Skagway, Alaska 3/23/1919
Dear Mother;
We are still “flued up.” The hospital filled up and they had to open what was formerly The White Pass Rooming House. They could get no one to cook & keep house so I volunteered to do it. I came here yesterday and had to order food – dishes etc. I think they are scared & feared the worst. So far I have 2 of the teachers – all others are at the Hospital. I am fine – I hope I had it when I was sick a month ago but I am not sure. I never was better in my life.
Our doctor was the first to get it and we have a government doctor and 2 nurses at the Hospital. The doctor comes every day & the nurse was here at home this morning. Otherwise I am monarch of all I survey. I brot my oil stove an there ws a coal stove here. I had a chicken cooked and a dinner partly planned – So I brit
the chicken along. You should have seen Mr Hohn & I get the horse ready – We came down in a taxi with my oil stove strapped to the running board. Mr Hohn carried the chicken and I lugged a dish of gelatine – When I get back to my type writer I’ll tell you the funniest tale ever –
Love to all Helen”
from the Alaska State Library papers of Helen Cecil Wilson
Murder in Dyea
On this day, March 24, 1894 there was an infamous murder in Dyea. This murder involved Scum Doo or Scundoo, a native medicine man/witch doctor (known to be a medicine man because he was born with a double crown and had red hair).
“In July, 1894, Skun-doo was arrested for causing the death of an Indian woman, Ches Oqhk, while practicing shamanism. A death had occurred in the village, and the relatives of the deceased employed his services, at a fee of 20 blankets, to determine the cause of death. As a result of his divinations, Skondoo settled on Ches Oqhk, suspected of being a witch, as the cause of death. Under his direction, the deceased’s family bound the woman for 10 days, and she died from lack of food and water.
Because she had died, she was declared to have been a witch, establishing her guilt (The Alaskan 1895). Gleh-Naw, a member of the woman’s family, made a complaint to the white authorities and Skondoo was arrested for murder and taken to Juneau to stand trial (U.S. court Records 1894) As an outcome of the trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to 3 years at San Quentin for manslaughter (The Alaskan 1895)” (Emmons)
Scundoo was sent to San Quentin for some years. He returned home and was photographed in 1907 by W.H. Case, see photo above.
The Tlingit Indians,by George Thornton Emmons, Frederica De Laguna;
Sackett: 1977 pp 77-80
On To Alaska with Buchanan!
George Buchanan was a successful businessman, a coal merchant in Detroit. During the Depression he decided to help boys to get out of town and see Alaska. Every summer from 1923 through the Depression, Mr. Buchanan and 50 or 60 boys journeyed across Canada to Vancouver, sailed up the coast to Skagway, spent several weeks touring Alaska, climbing glaciers, panning for gold.
Part of the deal was that their parents would donate 1/3 of the money ($81), George would donate 1/3 of the money and the boy would work selling items such as kitchen implements door to door to raise the remaining 1/3.
In the White Pass depot building there is a glass display which has one such kitchen gadget that was sold as part of the fund-raising.
On the rocks below the U.S. Customs Station at Clifton are the words “On to Alaska with Buchanan” which was their motto. In 1935, he agreed to take girls, the sisters of the boys who had gone, but he made them earn money by baking pies and darning socks also.
George was born in Thamesville, Ontario on January 29, 1869 and died on this day, March 23, 1939 in Stuart, Florida at the age of 70. He is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit.
Kiwanis Newspaper Online; Time.com article of May 13, 1935 online
John Laurence Fetter
Not a good day to be at the top of the Chilkoot Pass. Mr. Fetter died there on this day, March 22, 1898 and was buried in Dyea. He was born in Oregon and was only 36 when he died. His brother Vernor died two weeks later in the big avalanche of April 4, 1898. He too is buried in the little Dyea cemetery.
James Kelley
Sgt. Major James Kelley married his sweetheart at the beginning of March 1898 in Vancouver Washington. He shipped out one week later and arrived in Dyea in March 1898. He was in charge of the 14th Infantry and as they were setting up the camp, he suddenly cried out in pain. He was struck with spinal meningitis and died on this day, March 19, 1898. His body was shipped back to Vancouver Washington and a large stone marker sits on his grave in the military cemetery there. Oddly, cemetery records show a dependent, an infant named James Kelley also buried in the same plot in March 1898. Although this could be a mistake, it paints an odd picture.
Sgt Kelley was born in Greggsville, Illinois on June 21, 1860 and was 38 when he died.
from newspaper article: Columbian of March 31, 1898
online cemetery records: http://robert-crouch.com/vankl.html
photo taken in the Vancouver Cemetery July 2010
Edward Barry
Another death due to a White Pass accident, this on March 18, 1918. Ed Barry had survived the 1917 accident that killed the McKenzies, but on this day, the rotary engine rolled at milepost 106 and killed him.
Ed was born on August 18, 1880 in California and had come to Skagway in 1899 from Tacoma to be a painter and later a WP&YR engineer.
St. Patrick’s Day
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Of the over 5000 people that I have birth location information for that lived in Skagway at the beginning of the 20th Century, over 150 of them were born in Ireland. There was a significant Irish community here with the Mc’s the O’Briens, O’Connors, Farrels, Ryans and Finnegans. Like other communities, among the harworking Irish were White Pass employees, stage performers, prostitutes, longshoremen, blacksmiths, firemen, waiters, sailors and even a Skagway Mayor.
The famous “McGreely’s Express” stamp issued privately in 1898 in Dyea was actually started by a fellow named McGreely. Seymore C. Marcuse came to Dyea in January of 1898 and met McGreely who was doing private mail runs from Dyea to Skagway. The two of them established the mail service and produced 2000 stamps, of which 1000 were used. The other 1000 stamps were divided between the two men. The beautiful stamp was actually created in San Francisco by an unknown artist. When the new postmaser Clum came to Skagway on April 1, 1898, the McGreely’s Express shut down. Both McGreely and Marcuse went to Dawson, but Marcuse returned to San Francisco by 1901 where he wrote a letter explaining the history of the stamp. Today these stamps occasionally come on the market and fetch up to $175 each.
Irish born “Whiskey Finnegan” built boats at Bennett and has a place on the Chilkoot Trail named for him.
“Chris Shea, the son of an Irish immigrant, came to Skagway in 1898, worked as a laborer for the railroad, started signing on as bartenders for the Mascot, the Pantheon, and then the Pack Train. In late 1904, he finally had enough money to partner up with two other men and buy the Pack Train. He organized baseball games, courted the labor unions, organized the men in the saloons, and formed a labor party. In 1907, his political party overthrew the businessmen who had been running Skagway since the gold rush days. For the next three years, he instituted Progressive Era reforms for city government, including equalizing the tax structure, purchasing the power and water company for the city, and overseeing the settling of a lawsuit between the original claimant to Skagway – Capt. William Moore – and the townspeople who staked out the lots in the heart of the town.”
Pennington; Chris Shea info from Skagway News story; Proof of McGreely’s Express Legitimacy by Steve Sims online at esveld.nl