Category: Goldrushers

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Arthur Allen Richards

 

Arthur was the eighth child born to the Richards family in 1859 in Ohio. His older sister, Clara ran the post office in Dyea, a story which I wrote about earlier here. Apparently her two brothers were also here, Arthur and Daniel.

Arthur was appointed  by the U.S. Commissioner to be U.S. Marshal for the Dyea District. In a letter he wrote:

“I have been over the trail to the headwaters of the Yukon several times, to arrest men for getting into rows – generally for using guns…The wonder to me is not so much that men die but that any can survive the hardships. So much packing in mud and wading waist deep in ice-cold water, right from the glaciers above. A good many give up their outfits here for what they can get, and return home. ”

One descendent said that family lore has it that Arthur was responsible for laying the first telephone line from Dyea to the top of the Chilcoot Pass. That would have been during the 1897-98 time as there were several tramways built at that time also. They had better communication then than now, even cell phones don’t always work on the trail today.

He also said ” It is a pleasant trip up here from San Francisco except that accommodations are limited, and while the excitement keeps up the ships will be overcrowded. The steamer I came on, the Mexico, sank on her return trip in 200 fathoms of water and everything lost but the passengers.” this would have been in August 1897 because I found the following article:

The Alaska Searchlight of August 14, 1897 reported on the wreck of the Steamer Mexico: “near the end of Dixon Entrance. The steamer was southbound when it ran upon some hidden rocks at 4 o’clock on the morning of the 6 th . The rocks stove a big hole in the bottom of the boat, but luckily there was not freight on board and the bulkhead compartments of the boat kept it afloat for about two hours, when it finally sank in 100 fathoms of water. The shock caused confusion on board and passengers were thrown from their berths. In a few minutes, however the officers quieted down the passengers while the crew quickly launched the boats and every passenger was transferred from the sinking ship. The hand baggage belonging to passengers was taken from the ship and it is reported that the mail was taken off, although it is not definitely known. There were one hundred persons on board….”

1900 census; Daily Alaskan 3/13/1900 (in 2001 Skagway News); Skagway Museum record; CA death rec; Photo and letter courtesy of Diane Richards Design. Information and updates courtesy of Glenn McKinney – many thanks!

 

 

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“Packer Jack” Newman’s two loves

While most of us have heard the story of Mollie Walsh and her great admirer Pack jack Newman, I only just read the curious story of the second monument in Seattle. Mollie met Packer Jack in Skagway where he was smitten with her. He once shot a fellow in the legs right on Broadway so that he could not go up and visit Mollie at Log Cabin where she sold pies. Mollie later married Mike Bartlett who murdered her in Seattle in 1902.  In 1930 – 28 years after Mollie’s death Newman decided to honor the memory of his “Angel of the White Pass.” He commissioned a bronze sculpture of Mollie to be placed in Skagway.

And here the statue stands today, by a children’s playground that has become known as Mollie Walsh Park.

The inscription, written by the man who lost Mollie to the man who killed her, reads:

ALONE WITHOUT HELP / THIS COURAGEOUS GIRL / RAN A GRUB TENT / DURING THE GOLD RUSH / OF 1897-1898. / SHE FED AND LODGED / THE WILDEST / GOLD CRAZED MEN. / GENERATIONS / SHALL SURELY KNOW / THIS INSPIRING SPIRIT. / MURDERED OCT. 27, / 1902.

Jack Newman was unable to attend the dedication ceremony in Skagway, but sent a message.

“I’m an old man and no longer suited to the scene, for Mollie is still young and will remain forever young, her spirit lingers still reach across the years and play on the slackened strings of my old heart and my heart still sings – MOLLIE! – my heart still sings, but in such sad undertone that none but God and I can hear . . .”

However, his wife, Hannah let her husband know that she was less than thrilled with his tribute to his lost love.

To appease his wife, he quickly placed a dinner-plate-size bronze profile of Hannah on the exterior of the Washington Athletic Club, at Sixth Avenue and Union Street. The inscription:

MRS. HANNAH NEWMAN / WITH COURAGE AND FAITH IN THE / DEVELOPMENT OF OUR CITY OWNED / THIS GROUND FROM PIONEER DAYS / UNTIL THE ERECTION OF THIS BUILDING / 1930

Jack Newman died soon after Mollie’s statue was unveiled in Skagway – on May 4, 1931 of appendicitis. Although Newman had requested that he be buried in Skagway, beside Mollie’s monument, Mrs. Newman had him buried in Seattle. I could not find a photo of Hannah’s bronze on the WAC building on the corner of 6th and Union. If someone would like to photograph it, I will post it, but in the mean time here is a great picture of young Packer Jack. Cute guy!

HIs gravesite can be viewed by going to Findagrave and entering the Memorial ID number 104500403

I was contacted recently by Art Petersen who has spent years researching Mollie Walsh and Packer Jack Newman. In fact he has written a new book entitledMarch 2022 update

Promised Lands, MOLLIE WALSH: An Irish-American Story (2021 Klondike Research). available from Klondikeresearch.com

In this book he describes new corrections which I will now point out:

A few facts:

          Packer Jack never shot anyone.

          The statue was erected after Packer Jack died.

          Packer Jack wanted to be buried at Inspiration Point on the White Pass Trail.

          Leo Alphonse was born on August 27, 1900, not 27 May 1899. He forged his birthdate to be old enough to join the U.S. Army.

          Mike Bartlett did not put on a party to celebrate the birth of his son; he was not even on the boat.

          Mollie did not help Reverend Dickey establish the Union Church in Skagway.

          Mollie’s husband never entered an insane asylum; rather, he suffered torturously for six years after his trial before ending his own life before a horrified audience.

Here is the pic of the bronze, care of Lindsey Haight

IMAG1965

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The Laughing Woman

This photo is from the Dawson City Museum and Historical Society Collection and is available from the Yukon Archives for a few dollars. I have always wondered what her story was, certainly she laughs with her wrinkled dress as if she doesn’t have a care.  Laugh on Lady – worthy of a bard’s ballad.

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Steamship Willamette

 

On page 66 of The Inside Passage to Alaska, Anderson says that the S.S. Willamette left Tacoma on August  7, 1897 with 800 passengers and 300 horses and bales of hay stacked so high on deck that forward view from the bridge was obstructed. In Tacoma 7500 people watched her leave and almost miraculously she arrived in Skagway and was photographed by Winter and Pond unloading, seen above. J.M. Houghton was the ship’s engineer, and H.W. Skinner was the purser, along with a crew of 22. Eighteen men deserted the ship when they arrived in Dyea. The ship had to pay a $50 dockage fee and $1 a head for the horses and cattle to dock there. The ship stayed for 9 days while the Captain and Engineer tried to find a crew to head south.  Apparently Robert Bonine shot a film of the Willamette leaving Tacoma in 1897 which is saved somewhere:

http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/SSWillametteLeavingFor1897.html

“The Oregon Improvement Company’s old steam collier Willamette was quickly converted to carry 600 passengers in temporary berths erected in her coal holds, and she made her first voyage to Skagway and Dyea on August 3. The best that can be said of her as a passenger liner is that she carried a lot of passengers; but the stampeders of 1897 were not fussy about accommodations. Among the first passengers was Capt. Everett B. Coffin of the side-wheeler Idaho, who went north with Fred Fickeff as representatives of a Port Gamble grubstake pool.” Gordon Newell, Maritime events of 1897, H.W. McCurdy, Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle: Superior, 1966, p. 15.

In 1903 The Pacific Coast Company renamed her the S.S. Montara or Montana which later ran aground in 1920 near Nova Scotia.

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View of Chilkoot Trail

This is a great image that I have not seen before. – Also from the October 1898 edition of Munsey’s Magazine. Someone must have said “Smile – er, try to anyway!”

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THOMAS JAMES JESSOP 1871 1956

The other day a descendent of T.J. stopped in here to my office and gave me a copy of his ancestor’s diary.

T.J.Jessop had started from Australia in late 1897 and after several adventures wrote this about Skagway:

“I will revert to Skagway it was a very lawless city and was terrorised by a notorious gang of criminals, the chief was known as “Soapy Smith”, He was very amiable and meek in his manner and very like a parson in more ways than one, and very deceiving in every way.

Several Aussies were forcibly robbed by the gang. Members of the gang would turn up by boat from Vancouver and of course they, or some of them, would play “Two Up” and the gang took particular notice of those who had plenty of money, and on arrival at Skagway would introduce them to members of the gang. They would then propose to show them Indian Totem Poles and rain gods (which were mythical) and when a secluded spot was reached would forcibly rob them. The robbed would appeal to the Marshall (he was in charge of the soldiers) no police and he would just laugh at them at being caught as there were hoardings everywhere containing warnings.

In Vancouver and Skagway really there was no excuse at being caught. The gang even went as far as to establish information bureaus (which were bogus), but on entering these places there was always some form of gambling going on and if the entrant did not join in, they cut his gold belt off from around his waist.

I read this after I came back to Australia that a man named Reid was in Soapy’s gambling den when a dispute arose and Reid got the drop on Soapy. There were not many members of the gang present and he was bluffed, and it preyed so heavily on his mind that next day he was seen making for the jetty with a gun in his hand. Reid was an engineer and was supervising repairs or extension to the jetty. He saw Soapy coming and both fired at the same time. Reid was shot through a wrist and Soapy was shot dead. The gang then became disorganised and the townspeople rounded them up and put them in a steamer and sent them down to the “States”. (U.S.A.)”

An interesting take on the Soapy-Reid gun battle!

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Winfield Scott Woolever

W.S. Woolever was born on this day, May 17, 1863.    Before heading out for the gold rush, he was a partner in a hardware store in Wallaceburg, Ontario, Canada.  He caught gold fever and abandoned his wife Clara (Ayres) and his two daughters,  Miriam and Yula.  The daughters had a brief reunion with him some years later in Seattle at which time, he gave my grandmother Miriam his  gold rush journal. For those interested in his journal is presently at the Wallaceburg museum.

Between 1901 and 1904 Woolever staked gold claims in the Yukon and actually came away with some profits. During his time here in Skagway, he became an active member of the Arctic Brotherhood. Woolever married Paulina Scott Banks after 1905. When Paulina died in 1927 Woolever met Daisy Banks Haner, also a widow in 1926.  They married on August 01, 1927 in Whatcom Co., WA.

Winfield Scott Woolever died on May 4, 1945 in Wickersham, Washington at the age of 82. Seen above is his third wife, Daisy with her son Lawrence Haner, born 1912, and taken at their Wickersham, Washington home.

Paulina was not the sister of Robert Bruce Banks who died in the fiery explosion of the Clara Nevada here in Skagway in 1898.

Many thanks to John Martin for the early history in Ontario, and to Beverly Banks Hammer and Malcolm Haner, grandson of Daisy for setting this story correct!  As with all family histories, the true stories lie with the family, not all of which are as stalwart as we would hope. I just try to spotlight the goldrushers for their feats here in Skagway and the Klondike!

 

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The Rath Brothers

William Sinnot Rath was born in County Wexford (Ireland) on May 3, 1832. His brother George Rath was born January 26, 1833. The Rath family were farmers, and had a 999 year lease on their property, paying a tax twice a year. They were strong farmers or major tenants which would have made them more educated then most people were. William Rath was quite the adventurer and made several trips to North America from Ireland. His brother George and himself traveled to the California Gold Rush, fought in a war, and joined the Klondike Gold Rush. In 1878 they were some of the first gold rushers to cross the Chilkoot Trail with Ed Bean. William and George Rath were part of the first miners to join the Cassiar Gold Rush in Northen British Columbia. Captain William Moore proposed appointing Rath as the recorder for the gold claims there to prevent disputes, which proved very handy to Moore. After George Rath died about 1884, William, at age 52 returned to Ireland and married a 20-year old woman. They returned to beautiful British Columbia and settled near the coast at a place they named Rathtrevor Beach which is now a Provincial Park. The Biographical Sketch of William Moore; rathtrevorbeach.ca;

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“Fighting Dan” Sutherland


Born on this day, April 17, 1869 in Pleasant City, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Daniel Alexander Sutherland came to Circle City Alaska during the gold rush. He moved to Nome in 1900 and staked some gold claims. He came to Juneau and Skagway about 1909 and succeeded Marshal Shoup as the town Marshal here. He later went on to run for Congress and served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the territory of Alaska in the 1920’s. He was very popular and it was there that he earned his nickname for being so contentious.
He was most famous in Alaska for promoting air transportation to reach isolated communities in the winter.
He died on March 24, 1955 in Abington Pennsylvania at the age of 86.

usmarshals.com; Fairbanks news list, NPS; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.