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Winnifred Marion Telfer


Happy Birthday to Winnifred Telfer born on this day, August 9, 1919 in Skagway. Her mother, Mary Peterson, was the matron of the White Pass Hospital since 1915 when she met Eric Telfer. Eric was an accountant for White Pass. They married in November 1917. Eric took lots of pictures in the years the family lived here and Winnifred donated them to the Canadian Archives. Some photos were of hockey teams, the one above is of the women’s curling team in 1922, Mary Telfer may be in this picture. The family moved south in 1930.

Winnifred stayed in British Columbia most of her life and became a famous artist.

Archives Canada – Eric Telfer fonds. census.

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Dwight B. Fowler


On this day, August 8, 1897, Mr Fowler was found on the Chilkoot trail with a 100 pound pack on his back, drowned. I shudder to think how this happened…
His body may have been shipped out – another good reason to belong to a fraternal organization that promised to bring a brother home if he died in some god-forsaken place.

Bond p. 26; Skagway death record; Wells

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Marshal Alfred James Daly


Marshal Daly was the Special Marshal appointed to Skagway after Marshal Rowan was murdered in February 1898. Daly was here in April, May and June 1898 and prosecuted Soapy Smith in an assault case in June.

Daly achieved some notoriety in 1897 when U.S. Deputy Marshal William C. Watts was shot and killed on Admiralty Island on September 1, 1897 whiled serving a warrant, (he was the first lawman killed in the line of duty in Alaska).
Hiram Schell and William “Slim” Birch, the murderers, wounded three other lawmen. They escaped but were apprehended soon after with the help of the U.S. Marines and a bunch of outraged volunteers.
The Assistant District Attorney who prosecuted the case was our Alfred J. Daly. Despite his good efforts in that case, the jury found the men not guilty saying the Marshals had not adequately identified themselves before the attempted arrest. Governor John Brady was horrified and compared the decision to let them go to the outrageous things happening in Skagway with the Soapy Smith gang. Perhaps that is why he sent Daly to Skagway.

Alfred James Daly, died on this day, August 6, 1912 in Tanana Alaska, he was 39 years old. His remains were taken to Nome for interment. Pictured above is Tanana around the turn of the century.

Alaska Library; Skagway Museum Record; News account list NPS library; The Daily Alaska Dispatch, 1912-08-29; Sitka Daily Alaskan various dates in 1897; Forgotten Heroes of Alaska by Wilbanks.

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Harriet Matilda Pullen


photo by Henry Alaska Dedman

Happy Birthday Mrs. Pullen!
Hattie Smith was born on this day, August 5, 1869 in Hope, Dane County Wisconsin. she married Mr. Pullen in 1880 and the clan moved to La Push Washington.
When the call of gold came, Harriet packed up and came to Skagway where she lived the rest of her life. She saw it all, horses that could not be off-boarded at Dyea – she jumped on their backs and rode them off through the water to the beach. She made pie tins out of flattened cans and started selling pies. With the money she made there she built a hotel that became the pride of Skagway, the Vanderbilts, President Harding and movie stars stayed there.
I first read of her in an article in Reader’s Digest in the 1960’s as one of their “Most Unforgettable Characters”. Quite a lady!
She died on August 8, 1947 in Skagway and is buried near her home on the east side of the railroad tracks.

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Father George Edgar Gallant

Father Gallant was born in 1894 in Rustico, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

In 1898, during the Klondike gold rush stampede, Father Rene and Father Philibert Tumell, established Saint Mark’s Church in Skagway.

Young Father (later Monsignor) George Edgar Gallant, became the first priest ordained in Alaska on March 30, 1918. He came to Skagway in 1921 and built a new church and school here, which were named for Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus.
In 1931, Monsignor Gallant would establish Saint Pius X Mission Home for Native children who were either orphans or from destitute families, staffed by the Sisters of Saint Ann. It would be rebuilt in 1946, and would operate until the 1960s. Father Gallant stayed in Skagway until about 1929.
He was a Redemptorist Oblate and quite instrumental in encouraging and promoting the Redemptorists to establish a foundation in Alaska. He was a great devotee of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Devotions.
Monsignor Gallant died in 1975 back in PEI, Canada. His Findagrave is 262426052. This picture was taken of him by Bessie Dedman in Skagway.
The church above is St Theresa’s on State Street and 9th Avenue, services on weekends year round.

Redemptoristsdenver.org; census; directories; familysearch

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Black Cross Rock

On this day, August 3, 1898 while working on the railroad track at Mile 13, there was a rockslide. A huge rock slid down and buried two workers, Maurice Dunn and Al Jeneux. I have never been able to find any record of those two men, but the story continues to this day by the train agents. At the time, Michael J. Heney decided that it would be too dangerous and costly to blow up the rock to recover the bodies so they were left in place. At first there were rumors that there were more bodies, but White Pass announced that there were only two and erected a small cross with the names there at the rock.

legends

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Patrick Comer and John Stanley

On this day, August 2, 1903 two men went out fishing and never returned. They both drowned when they ran into trouble out in Lynn Canal. Patrick Comer was buried in the Skagway Gold Rush Cemetery but Mr. Stanley or Standley was shipped down to Seattle to be buried.
Stanley was the first Mayor of Skagway and joined the Arctic Brotherhood in 1899, he was 50 years old when he died. Comer was a fisherman and was 45 years old when he died.

Also died on this day was Herman Meyer, famous in this town for his building “Meyer’s Meat Market” which is now under reconstruction by the National Park Service on the corner of 5th and State Streets.
Meyer was a butcher, owned the Arctic Meat Company, and also managed the Arctic Telephone Company. He moved to Valdez in 1903 and died in Alaska on August 2, 1923.

Skagway death records; 1900 census; 1902 directory.

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Walter and Winnifred Scott

Walter and Winnifred were twins born in Seattle in 1904, but they were baptised on this day, July 30, 1907 in the little church seen above in Carcross. Their parents were John Wallin and Mamie Emmerson Scott who moved to Carcross about 1903 and bought the Caribou Hotel from Walmsley there. Johns brother, Alfred helped them run it. John also worked as the town’s first postmaster. The hotel was known as the Scott Hotel and it burned in 1936.

Yukon Archives COR 275 f 6; Explorenorth

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Martin Wilburn Tarwater

Mr. Tarwater was born in 1876 in Santa Rosa California. He came to Skagway in 1897 and was a friend of Jack London who was also from that part of the world.
Martin was reportedly a shoemaker and kept busy making and repairing shoes of the men who walked to the Yukon. Jack London wrote a story about “Old Man Tarwater” called “Like Argus in the Ancient Times” in his book The Red One.
London completely fictionalized his life and family to the consternation of his descendents.
Martin Tarwater died on this day, July 29, 1948 also in Santa Rosa.

Aunt Phil’s Trunk by Carlson p 233 online; descendents in Sonoma Co:Rootsweb posting

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Vincent Tony Dortero

Antonio and Sabina Dortero were born in Italy and came to Skagway in the goldrush with their three children, John, Vincent and Rosie. Vincent was born in Astoria Washington on this day, July 28, 1894 but went to World War One where he died in 1918. There is a memorial across from the Skagway Museum/City Hall with his name and other names of war veterans.
Vincent was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery next to his father. Vincent was 24 years old when he died.

1915 directory; World War One registration; Cemetery record
photo of his father’s store online

photo of Vincent, shortly before his death from influenza, from great granddaughter of John Dortero, Bettie Ogden.