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John Jerome Healy


On this day, September 15, 1908, John Healy died down south in either San Francisco or Seattle. Healy was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1840, emigrated to the U.S. in 1853 during the great famine. He married in New York in 1863.

He was once boss of a whiskey fort on the Montana-Canadian border w/ partner Dickson(the fort was burned by Indians). He was also sheriff of Cocteau County, Fort Benton Montana in 1880 (see census for kids and wife Mary).
He died a rich man according to Pierre Berton, having come to Dyea and establishing a trading post there with Wilson in 1886. The Healy and Wilson Trading Post lasted for many years in Dyea as there were stampeders before the big gold rush in 1897/98. In 1886 he had 16 stores in Alaska. He also served as U.S. Marshal in Dyea.
The town of Healy, a village on the Alaska railroad, a river flowing into the Tanana River, a rock on Admiralty Island and a locality near Yukon Kuskokwin Delta are all named for him.

He is buried in Seattle.

from: Healy; Greer; Hunt;Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, Dan Thrapp; A descendent says there is a biography of him written by Edwin Tappen Adney. It is currently lodged in the Naval college in New Hampshire.

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Garland Hurst Sturgill


On Sept 14, 1943 Mr. Sturgill died in Skagway, his remains were transported back to Ashland, Kentucky, his findagrave # is 82255919. He was born in Cattlesburg, Kentucky just after the Civil War. Records show that he met his wife in Seattle where they were married in 1897. His wife Miriam or Missouri lived in Skagway for about 30 years. He ran a woodmill on the ocean south of town by bringing a waterway down the mountain from upper Dewey Lake for hydro power. There was remnants of the mill until recently near the creek. There is also remnants of a small rail line still seen on the south side of Dewey Lake. Each summer, hundreds of tourists walk to this point to get out of town. It is a lovely walk through the trees, and at this time of year, the leaves of the cottonwoods are beginning to turn gold.
Sturgill had a number of run-ins with the law over the years. They lived on 7th in town. Missouri Marcom Sturgill left Skagway after the death of Garland and returned to her home town of Cabell, West Virginia until her death on November 19, 1951. She may have had children there from a prior marriage.

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Robert William Service


Robert Service, the poet of the Yukon died on September 11, 1958 in France. His poems brought the “Spell of the Yukon” alive to millions of people who never even visited the North. Although he passed through Skagway, he worked as a bank teller in Whitehorse. His life was long and very interesting. His cabin is still open to visit in Whitehorse, it sits on First Avenue at the museum.

Last year (2011) we visited the bank in Victoria where he worked. It is a beautiful pub now called the “Bard and Banker” downtown. I highly recommend it! (December 14, 2012)

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Prosper Henry Ganty


Happy birthday to Mr. Ganty born in England in 1875 and came to Skagway in 1901.

In the early years Mr Ganty was a prosperous businessman, he was a member of the Arctic Brotherhood, a Councilman in 1912, and Mayor in 1913.

He was a grocer for White Pass and then a bookkeeper for Ross Higgins in 1905. His Grocery store was known as Ganty and Frandson.

He registered for the draft in WW 1. He signed a letter in 1915 to the Governor of Alaska along with other city leaders, asking for a road to be built to Skagway. Unfortunately the road would not be completed for another 67 years.

His son “Pross” born here in 1906 graduated from the University of Washington and was still living in Skagway in 1929 with his mother Jennie. The building pictured above was the original Boss Bakery where he had his grocery store. It is now owned by the National Park Service and rented to a local business.

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White Pass VP Hawkins


September 8, 1860 is the birthday of Erastus Corning Hawkins, the Chief Engineer of the White Pass Railroad construction and later Vice President and General Manager of the White Pass 1900-1902. He died in New York in 1912 from an operation. In the photo above you can see the four main guys responsible for building the railroad: Samuel Graves, John Hislop, E.C. Hawkins, and Michael J. Heney.

from Graves, The White Pass, and the White Pass website

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First Alaska Lawman killed


On this day, September 1, 1897, William C. Watts, a Deputy U.S. Marshal was shot on Admiralty Island while serving a warrant there. He had come to Alaska in 1893 and was frequently in Dyea. He was the first lawman killed in Alaska, the second was Marshal Rowan who was shot here in Skagway in 1898.
Watts was shot by “Slim” Birch who was taken on the Corona by a US Marshal in December 1897 to San Quentin. Birch was acquitted of murder but sentenced to three years for the crime of mayhem instead.
William C. Watts was added to the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington D.C. He was also added to the Wall of Honor at the U.S. Marshal’s Service headquarters building in Alexandria, VA in 1998. The Trooper Museum at the Fifth Street Mall in downtown Anchorage also displays a memorial to fallen officers.

from Forgotten Heroes of Alaska by William Wilbanks; and the AK Tribunal report by Moore p 423; NY times of December 18, 1897 online.

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Mr. Wilbur

Mr. N.B. Wilbur died on August 31, 1897. It was perhaps this instance: “an old man who had his goods as far as the summit of the pass went back to Skagway to get horse feed and died of heart disease. His wife was along, but she has turned back. This is the saddest thing that has occurred.” -from George Young’s letter Sept 19, 1897

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Arthur Hallum


On August 29, 1898 Arthur Hallum tragically died in a railroad accident on the White Pass. He was only 39 years old, but the age of his death was strangely similar to that of his famous grandfather, Sir Arthur Henry Hallum who died in 1833.

Sir Arthur was a poet and author friend of Alfred Lord Tennyson who wrote a monumental tribute to his friend, “In Memorium” in 1850.

from: Mission Klondike by Sinclair

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Lynching?


On August 27, 1897 it has been written that a Frenchman, unknown name, was tied to a stake, shot and hung as an example to thieves. Although this story cannot be corroborated, it was said that some lynchings did occur on the trail.

In 1897 there were several U.S. Marshals in both Dyea and Skagway, so if this lynching did occur, it was not in town. Despite Skagway’s reputation for lawlessness, this period was mostly in the spring of 1898 when Soapy’s gang gained control.

Story of Lynching found on p165 of Fetherling: The Gold Crusades

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Korach family


On August 23, 1907 the infant son of Emil and Lillian Hain Korach died and was buried in the Skagway Gold Rush cemetery. He must have been a twin because his brother, Edward, moved to Los Angeles and died in 1967 at the age of 60 according to the California death index.

A website called drygoodsandwetgoods.com talks about their family. Emil was born in Hungary and ran the Bloom and Korach store in Skagway around 1905. The website says that they moved to Akron Ohio where they passed away. A rootsweb posting also said they were Jewish, but oddly, the headboard in Skagway has a cross on it. Perhaps some well-meaning Skagwegian decided to Christianize the Korach baby in a subsequent remaking of the headboard.

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