Category: Skagway families

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Louis Scott Keller


Dr. Keller was a dentist in Skagway from 1899 to about 1922. He also published the Daily Alaskan from about 1905 to 1915 according to the directories.
He was born in St. Paul Minnesota in 1860. The 1880 census in St. Paul Minnesota shows Mrs Aunice Keller with eight children that ran a lumber business. Her husband must have died in 1879 because the youngest child was still a baby.
Louis married Martha in 1891 and moved to Skagway in the Gold Rush. He was President of the Fraternal Order of Elks in 1900 and was a member of the Arctic Brotherhood in 1907. He was also president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1903. He was elected Mayor of Skagway in 1922 but became ill with throat cancer and died on this day, November 30, 1922 in Seattle. He and Martha had no children.
Louis’ brother, John Michael also moved to Skagway and started a drug store, “Keller’s” which is still run, but as a jewelery store today. John also helped to run the newspaper with Louis and Martha.
Seen above, in hard times before restoration efforts in the 1980’s is the store.

1900;1902;1905, 1915 directories; Skagway Museum Record

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John Albert Baughman


Dr. John Baughman was a Physican and assayer. He was born in Barberton, Ohio on March 10, 1856. I read somewhere that his family was Jewish which would add to my growing list of Jewish families in Skagway in the gold rush, but I cannot find that source again, so just a possibility there.
After graduating from college as a doctor, John Baughman married Mina Barber in Manistique, Michigan on February 25, 1897. Struck with gold fever Dr. Baughman joined the stampede to Dawson in 1897. Expecting to practice medicine there, he found the profession barred from him because he was not a Canadian citizen, so he joined in the search for gold.

Later her returned to Michigan where he brought his wife to Skagway in 1899. Dr. Baughman practiced medicine in Skagway until 1905. Their first son, Paul was born here in 1899 but died in 1904. Their second son born in 1903 also died in 1903 and both are buried in the Gold Rush Cemetery. Their daughter Dorothy, born around 1905 lived a long life and is buried in Juneau.
After leaving Skagway in 1905, the family moved to Seward where Dr. Baughman was a doctor for many years and established the Pioneer Hospital, ministering to a large section of Alaska. While in Seward, he was Game Warden of the Third Division for eight years. He also operated a drug store. The Daily Alaska Empire obituary said he was Alaska’s oldest physician when he died on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1937 in Juneau. He was a life member of the Masonic Order, affiliated with the organization for 45 years. He is buried in the Juneau Evergreen Cemetery.

1902 directory; Juneau Evergreen records; family search; The Daily Alaska Empire–Friday, 26 November 1937-Page 1 & Page 8.

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Lead Ore


In the 1950’s through the 1980’s quite alot of lead ore was mined in the Yukon and moved by train to Skagway. It was then unloaded onto barges. In those years, the effect of lead contamination was not known, hence you see the Skagway longshoremen above moving cloth bags of lead and zinc ore by hand onto pallets in the hold of a ship. No gloves, respirators, or other safety equipment.

photo taken in 1952 by Paul Sincic

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John Wilson Snook


John Snook was the nephew of Marshal James McCain Shoup who was a member of the Arctic Brotherhood and the Midnight Sun Conspiracy. Perhaps Shoup was suspicious of everyone and so appointed his young nephew Snook (sometimes incorrectly spelled Shook) to be a Marshal in Dyea in February 1898 after Marshal Rowan was shot.
John Snook was only 22 years old, born October 20, 1876 in Salmon Idaho. He was only Marshal until April of 1898, (perhaps things got a little out of hand, more than he could handle). In any event, he made one very good contact while in Skagway – the sister of Frederick Clayson (famous Christmas Eve murder December 1899).
Charlotte Clayson was a bit younger than John, she was only 14 in 1898. So John waited until 1903 and married Charlotte in Portland Oregon. They moved to Salmon Idaho soon after and had at least two boys, John and Frederick there. John Wilson Snook was active in Republican politics in the 1920’s in Idaho. There is a law firm in Salmon that bears the Snook name, so apparently the law played an important part of this family’s tradition.
Charlotte’s sister, Esther Clayson Pohl was the subject of an earlier blog for her work in Portland.
John W. Snook had a long life, and died at the age of 99 in 1975 in Salmon Idaho. Charlotte, his wife of 67 years, had died in 1970. Seen above is the Salmon Idaho Cemetery where they probably lie.

“Law of the Yukon” Dobrowsky; 1909 AB book; Idahohistory.net;1902 directory, family chronicles; Mission Klondike by Sinclair; Mills; familysearch

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David Nathan Hukill


D.N. Hukill was born in 1858 in Covington, Kentucky. He came from Seattle in 1899 with his new wife Henrietta Catherine McKenzie. They had four daughters and three sons born here in Skagway. His granddaughter still lives in Skagway, (Mavis Irene).
David first worked White Pass construction, and then as a janitor and carver. He later worked for the City of Skagway as a laborer for streets. He was said to be a labor organizer. He died on this day, November 15, 1917 in Sitka at the Pioneers Home there. He was 59 years old.
Seen above is a modern Skagway fossil mammoth ivory carver with his supply.

1900 census;1905 and 1915 directories.

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Frederick Verbauwhede


Mr. Verbauwhede was born in 1850 in Wareghem, Flanders, Belgium. His family, wife Nathalie and three kids came to Skagway in 1898 from Portland Oregon. His store which sold candy and cigars is still standing on Broadway and is owned by the National Park Service which leases it to Klondike Tours.
The photo above is of the other two cribs which he owned around the corner in “French Alley” between 2nd and 3rd off Broadway. The young lady pictured is not related to the family, she was a tenant.
Frederick and family stayed here until 1904 when they decided to go back to Europe and landed in Roubaix, France. His grandson, also named Frederick Verbauwhede still runs a casino in Normandie.

Frederick Verbauwhede died on this day, November 12, 1933 in Roubaix, France, he was 83.

1900 census;1902 directory;family chronicles Gold Rush participants website; descendant in France.

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Samuel Haughton Graves

Mr. Graves was born in 1852 in Chicago, Illinois. He came to Skagway as the President of White Pass in 1898. He drove the ceremonial golden spike which finished the railroad line from Skagway to Whitehorse. This happened at Carcross on July 29, 1900.
So much has been written of him and his work supervising the 35,000 workers who built the railroad that I would not know where to begin.
Seen above is the administration building that once housed the offices of the White Pass President and staff. Today it is the administration building of the National Park Service. Graves’ office is the corner office overlooking the station and the harbor and is now the park’s Superintendent’s office. The office next to that was the railroad’s chief of operations but is now the park’s chief of administration (my husband, Reed). Some winter evenings when I go over to meet him for our walk home, the office is quiet and yet the ghosts of those great men linger on, I can almost smell the cigar smoke…
Graves died on this day, November 11, 1911 of a heart attack in Ottawa but is buried in the Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

On the White Pass Payroll by Graves, 1908, Chicago; Minter

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Leon Edward Henry Hudson

Born on this day, November 10, 1874 in New York, Lee Hudson came to Skagway around 1905 which is when he appeared on the directory.
He worked as a White Pass carpenter, a janitor for the bank, and a cook. He was the Chief of Police in 1923 and the Town Marshal in 1929. His wife Anna was originally from Germany or Norway and his daughter Lucilla was born in this area, in 1909. Anna died in 1912 at the age of 32 leaving Lucilla and Lee. Lee stayed on in Skagway and died in 1934 in Skagway. He is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery.

The photo above was taken in 1923 when President Harding visited. Is that Hudson holding the little girl? His daughter Lucilla was 14 then, perhaps that is her standing on the boardwalk wearing a white bow on her head…

1905, 1915, and 1923 directories;1920 and 1929 census; Mason directory; WWI registration; Skagway death record

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John Nicholas Hansen


John Hansen, known as “Nels” was born on this day, November 1, 1874 in Bornholm, Denmark. He came to Skagway in 1897 and married Ethel Mae Feero about 1907. His three children, John Egbert born 1908, Aden Nels born 1909, Frank born 1917 and William born 1919 were all born in Skagway and stayed here most of their lives.

Nels worked as the White Pass bridge foreman and as a fisherman. He was a member of the Arctic Brotherhood and was Skagway councilman from 1920 to 1922. Nels and Ethel were in Skagway for the 1929 census but I have no idea what became of them after that.

1910,1920, 1929 censuses; 1915 directory; 1909 AB book; rootsweb posting; WW1 registration.