Jonas Peter Hagstrom was born on April 11, 1871 in Sweden. Although happily married with a daughter, he decided to go to the Yukon to search for gold around 1906. Maria and Elsa stayed in Sweden but he wrote to them during the decades that he lived at Teslin in a little cabin. Here is part of one poem he wrote:
“…for you know tis constant dripping
wears away the hardest stone.
Never slack sublime endeavour,
nor midst cheerless toil despair;
If you’d rise above your fellows
Remember you must “Win and Wear”.
Jonas, or John as he adopted the local name, was found dead in 1941 in his cabin.
Every Trail has a story: Heritage Travel in Canada, by Bob Henderson and James Raffan.