Biographies of Nome, Alaska
Biographies of Nome, Alaska
The development of the Solomon River mines and the rapidly increasing population last year in consequence thereof, made the appointment of a U. S. Commissioner for this district advisable. The Judge of the District Court selected Will Henry for this position, the appointment dating from June 15, 1904. Prof. Henry is an educator with thirty years experience in educational work. He filled the position of principal of Nome District Schools during the term of 1902-'03. He is a specialist in philology and mathematics, two branches of learning to which he has given much time and thought. During a residence of many years in Colorado he spent his vacations in the mines, studying practical mineralogy, and acquired an expert's knowledge of ores. It was this fact that led to his employment by a capitalist to visit Nome in 1900, with the special object of acquiring extensive holdings if his judgment was favorable to the investment. The subsequent illness and death of the capitalist thwarted these plans at a time when Prof. Henry's future seemed the brightest. But he had acquired a knowledge of the country which impelled him to stay, although he realized the difficulty of accomplishing satisfactory results without adequate capital. When he left Colorado he sacrificed a profitable business as mining expert, but since he has come to Alaska he has obtained a knowledge of the stupendous wealth and great possibilities of this country, and announces his intention of remaining here and fighting to a finish on the condition he has had to accept.
Prof. Henry is a native of Ohio, and was born April 25, 1855. His family moved to Colorado during the Civil War. He was educated at Oberlin College, and began the work of a teacher early in life. In May, 1897, he and Miss Anna S. Skerrett were married at Cripple Creek. Mrs. Henry is a niece of Admiral Skerrett, of the United States Navy. Prof. Henry's learning and wide experience enable him to creditably fill the judicial position to which he has been appointed, and discharge the duties of the office to the satisfaction of the public and the District Court. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 221-222 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson )
In 1897 the United States Government hired sixty-seven Laplanders, Finns and Norwegians to take care of the reinder in Alaska. Most of the Norwegians were bright young men who were selected to fill the position of foremen of the herders. At the time of the employment of these people 500 reindeer were purchased by the Government, and transported from Northern Europe to Haines Mission in Alaska. The object of the expedition was for the relief of destitute miners on the Yukon, and the carefully laid plan was to drive the deer across the country from Haines Mission to Dawson. But the plan miscarried on account of a lack of forage for the deer, the country being comparatively destitute of the moss upon which they feed, and four-fifths of the herd died of starvation before the expedition reached its destination.
Magnus Kjelsberg was a member of this expedition, having been employed in the capacity of foreman of the herders. He is the son of a merchant of Kaafjord, Norway, a town supported in a large measure by the industry of copper mining. He was born October I, 1876, and received his early education from private tutors, subsequently attending school at Bergen. He had not attained his twenty-first year when he left home, but he possessed a robust physique, good health, native intelligence and an inexhaustible fund of good nature, and in these respects was well equipped for any kind of life fate might have in store for him. The discovery of gold at Dawson was a spur to his endeavor to get into the far north of America.
The trip from Haines Mission was one of great hardships. The expedition started in March, but before it got 200 miles on its journey half of the deer were dead. The rations for the trip proved inadequate as more time was consumed than contemplated, and as the death of so many deer made it possible to dispense with the services of a number of herders several members of the expedition were sent back to Haines to go by steamer to St Michael and thence to the reindeer station at Una-lakleet. Mr. Kjelsberg was a member of this party. The return trip was eventful. The greatest number of the party returned on rudely constructed rafts, and there were many narrow escapes from drowning. Food gave out, and they nearly famished. Beans that careless prospectors had dropped on the trail were picked up and eagerly devoured. But finally, gaunt, half starved and nearly exhausted, all the members of the returning party arrived at Haines, and were sent to Port Townsend the latter part of May. Soon after they were sent to the region in Alaska that has since become famous because of its wonderful gold resources.Mr. Kjelsberg formed a partnership with Jafct Lindeberg, another young man from Norway, who had come to the country in search of gold By the agreement Kjelsberg wax to remain in the employ of the Government, and his salary was to be used to buy supplies for the use of Lindeberg m prospecting. Little did they think when laying their plans for a long period of prospecting that within a few months they would own some of the most valuable mining property in the world, and possess greater wealth than they ever dreamed of owning.
Mr. Kjelsberg was at Unalakleet when he heard of the great strike on Anvil Creek. He immediately went overland to Golovin and started with Missionary Anderson, driving deer teams across the country to Nome. At Cape Nome they met Lindeberg, Lindblom, Brynteson, Kittilsen and Price, who had $1,800 in gold dust which they had rocked out in a few days under adverse conditions, as winter was encroaching and the ground was beginning to freeze. This was a memorable meeting. The prospectors waived their hats and shouted, manifesting the great joy that filled their hearts on account of suddenly acquired riches, when they saw the reindeer teams approaching.
The entire party returned to Golovin Bay where most of the winter was spent making preparations for the next season's work. Supplies were obtained at St. Michael and freighted over the ice to Nome. In the early spring before the snow disappeared Mr. Kjelsberg whipsawed lumber out of drift wood found on the beach. This lumber was used to make sluice-boxes. In June Mr. Kjelsberg established a camp at the mouth of Quartz Gulch at No. 6 Anvil Creek, but he made slow progress with the work of mining on account of the frozen ground. Snow Gulch seemed to offer a better opportunity for expeditious work, and he determined to move his camp. He and his brother carried the sluice-boxes on their backs over the hill a distance of three miles to Snow Gulch, each man carrying one of the heavy boxes at a trip.
By the date of the arrival of the first steamer in 1899 Nome had a considerable population. A large number of people had come down the Yukon from Dawson, and the Alaska Commercial Company and North American Trading and Transportation Company had established stores in the new camp. The N. A. T. & T. Co. offered to transport the first $10,000 of gold dust to Seattle free of cost, and there was great rivalry among the miners. G. W. Price was the lucky man. Mr. Kjelsberg was mining on Nos. 2 and 3 Snow Gulch when the strike on the beach created a stampede. He immediately realized that some extra inducements must be made to retain the services of his employes. He was paying mem $10 the day, and he informed them that every man who remained with him until the end of the season would receive a bonus of $4 the day. By this liberal offer he was able to work the mines as extensively as the limited facilities would permit The wage inducement secured for the employer the best services of his workmen, and ever since then he has been known in Alaska as the friend of the working man. In 1902 when he was mining on Candle Creek he paid more than the going wages because he believed that the men employed were capable of earning all he paid them. He modestly disclaims any socialistic or altruistic ideas on the subject, but proceeds on the theory that the best labor is cheaper at a high price than inferior labor at a low price.
Mr. Kjelsberg has operated in the Nome country since the discovery of gold on Anvil Creek. In the winter of 1899-1900 he visited his old home in Norway and traveled over Europe. He is a stockholder and director in the Pioneer Mining Company, and has invested in real estate in Oakland and San Jose, California. He is married, and he and Mrs. Kjelsberg spend the winters in a pretty home in Oakland.
I have often been impressed by the appropriateness of names. The names of things are usually derived from the character or surroundings of the things, and it is not strange that these names should be expressive, but the names of people are given to them in their infancy, and it is not told in our philosophy why they should possess the attributes of these names when they are grown up. Magnus is the great It makes us think of the Magna Charta. Immediately our minds perceive the English nouns and adjectives derived from the Latin root, magnitude, magnificent and magnanimous. These words convey a picture of something possessing a size that is ample and pleasing to see. and a character by which the world is made better and the joy of living intensified. Magnus Kjebberg possesses the attributes of his name. He is big, broad-minded, generous, magnanimous, kind-hearted, always genial, and his soul is full of sunshine. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 221-224 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
Foremost among the men who are developing the marvelous resources of Seward Peninsula is J. M. Davidson. He was one of the pioneers who arrived in Nome in the early season of 1899. He did not own capital which has been found necessary in the work of the development of this country, but he was equipped with a practical knowledge of mining obtained by experience in the mines of California; he knew the value of water for the operation of placer mines, and withal he was by profession a civil engineer, and brought to Nome the first surveyor's instruments that were ever brought to the country. Working at his profession until he had acquired sufficient means to undertake in a modest way something for himself, he began on a line of work that had for its object the supply of water, first for domestic use for the residents of Nome and subsequently for the use of miners in operating their properties. He is one of the pioneer ditch builders of Seward Peninsula, and his work along these lines for the development of Northwestern Alaska is second to none in the country. He was one of the promoters and organizers of the Miocene Ditch Company, a corporation which has constructed forty-seven miles of ditch, covering the most valuable mineral ground in the Nome region. He is the organizer of the Kugarok Mining and Ditch Company, which will begin work this season on a thirteen-mile ditch in the Kougarok District.
Mr. Davidson is a native of Siskiyou County, California, and was born December 3, 1853. After receiving an education in the public schools of Siskiyou County, he attended the University of California and was in the same class with James Budd, who subsequently became Governor of California, Professor Christie, Professor George C. Edwards, and Harry Webb of South African fame. He took a course in civil engineering, and after he returned to Siskiyou County was elected to the office of county clerk. He served four years as clerk of the county, and filled positions in the clerk's office during a period of eleven years. As mining was the principal business of Siskiyou County, he was associated with mining enterprises on the Klamath River. On account of failing health he left the clerk's office and engaged in farming. During the financial crisis of the early 1890's he struck the reef of failure and went under.Attracted by the possibilities of the Northland as shown by the Klondike strike he determined to go to Alaska to mend his fortunes. He arrived in Juneau in February, 1898, and was one of the first United States Deputy Surveyors in Alaska to make surveys in the great Yukon Valley. He worked his way over the Chilkoot Pass, and was in the region at the time of the disasterous snow-slide at Sheep Camp. He built a boat at Lake Lindeman and went to Dawson. His dissatisfaction with Canadian laws and Government methods at Dawson impelled him to go to Circle before the close of the season. As soon as he and his party crossed the boundary line they unfurled a little American Flag which they had with them and disturbed the stillness of the wilderness with three rousing cheers. They were once more upon their native heath and beneath the protection of the stars and stripes even though they were in northern wilds. He spent this fall and winter mining on Mastodon Creek near Circle.
During the winter a letter was received from Magnus Kjelsberg, telling a cousin of his at Circle of the strike on Anvil Creek and Mr. Davidson took passage on the first steamer down the Yukon for Nome. He arrived at Nome on the 4th of Jury, and used the little money that he had to buy a lot on which to pitch his tent On Jury 10 he set up the first surveyor's transit in Nome. Mr. George Ashford, a pioneer surveyor of this country, was in Nome at the time but his instruments had not yet arrived. During this season Mr. Davidson and Mr. Ashford were associated in the surveying business, and did considerable work surveying claims near Nome. Mr. Davidson was present at the first clean-up on No. 1 below Discovery, Anvil Creek. This was one of the first big clean-ups in the country. The boxes after a short run contained near $20,000 in gold dust. Mr. Davidson remembers the strike on the beach which was made by two soldiers in a little depression in the beach, since known as Soldiers Gulch, in the vicinity of what is now known as the A. E. Company properties. This strike was made Jury 17 or 18, and a few days later several hundred people were rocking on the beach.
On September 25 Mr. Davidson located the Moonlight Springs Water Right He originated the Moonlight Springs Water Company, and the following season with money furnished by the Pioneer Mining Company constructed the water works which have been a boon to Nome. In 1899 zymotic diseases were prevalent in Nome as a result of drinking impure tundra water, and in supplying the money to build the Moonlight Springs Water Works the members of the Pioneer Mining Company were actuated primarily by beneficent motives, and these men are deserving of unstinted praise for accomplishing this work, which has provided Nome with a quality of water equal to the best water supply of any town in the United States. During the summer of 1900 most of Mr. Davidson's time was taken up in the construction of this water system.
He was able to forsee the great value of ditches for mining purposes, and the following year associated himself with W. L. Leland and W. S. Bliss, and began the construction of the Miocene Ditch. Mr. Davidson was the engineer of the company; he supervised the construction of this entire ditch, and was engaged continuously in this work from May, 1901, until the close of the season of 1903. The mining operations of the company were conducted by Mr. Leland and Mr. Bliss. Mr. Davidson spent most of the season of 1904 in the Kougarok District investigating some wild-cat properties which he had taken in exchange for town lots. The result of this investigation was the organization of the Kugarok Mining and Ditch Company, which will begin this season, 1905, the construction of a thirteen-mile ditch to convey water to the company's extensive properties. Prominently associated with Mr. Davidson in this enterprise is Mr. J. E. Chilberg, one of the most progressive and aggressive of Seattle's business men. The Miocene Company in which Mr. Davidson still holds an interest is one of the most successful corporations on the peninsula, and the new company organized to develop the mineral resources of the Kougarok Mining District has the most encouraging prospects, and under the experienced management of Mr. Davidson undoubtedly will be an important factor in the gold product of this district.
Mr. Davidson is a man of marked ability and sound judgment His knowledge of mining and ditch construction has made him a valuable acquisition to the sturdy men who are developing the resources of the frozen north, and has given him the opportunity to lay the foundation of the fortune which is the quest of every man who goes to Alaska. His character is broad, deep and strong, and the attributes are harmoniously blended. He possesses the force which is indispensable to success but with the temperament that does not permit annoyances to disturb nor obstacles to discourage him. Broad, liberal and accurate in his judgment of men and affairs he is both a successful man and a good and useful citizen. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 224-227 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
William H. Metson, lawyer, financier and man of affairs in San Francisco, is prominently identified with the work of developing Seward Peninsula, being president of one of the largest ditch enterprises in the country, the Miocene Ditch £ompany, and president of the Nome-Arctic Railway Company. The two most important problems that confront the miners of Northwestern Alaska relate to water and transportation, and the man that digs ditches and builds railroads in this country is one of the leaders of the industrial army that has recently invaded the Northland. In the practice of his profession Mr. Metson assisted in making the history of Nome. As attorney for the Pioneer Mining Company, in the notorious injunction and receiver law suits during the regime of Judge Noyes, he took an active and a leading part in the famous litigation which makes one of the most interesting stories of this volume. This story reveals Mr. Metson as a man of prompt decision and aggressive action. It shows that he is a master of detail and that he possesses an accurate knowledge of character and motive; that he is frank and fearless, resolute and sincere. Honesty of purpose and directness of method are correlatives, and always accompany a character that is not lacking in courage.
Mr. Metson is a native of California. He was born in San Francisco March 16, 1864. The family moved to Nevada shortly after his birth, and most of his boyhood days were spent in Virginia City. It was here he received his early education, and developed a character typical of the West. Leaving Virginia City when sixteen years old, he went to Bodie and entered the law offices of Hon. Patrick Reddy. A few years later he accompanied Mr. Reddy to San Francisco and attended the Hastings Law School, University of California, and was graduated in the class of '86. He continued the study of the law under Mr. Reddy one of the most distinguished barristers of California, whose reputation as a mining lawyer was preeminent, and in 1900 Mr. Metson became a member of the firm of Reddy, Campbell & Metson. This was a leading law firm of San Francisco, enjoying an extensive and a lucrative practice. Although time has changed the personnel of the firm, which is now composed of J. C. Campbell, Wm. H. Metson, C. H. Oatman and F. C. Drew, it has not dimmed its reputation.
The news that came from Nome in the fall of 1899 revived in Mr. Metson the memory of early days in Virginia City and Bodie, and he resolved to visit the northern mining camp. Going to Nome the following spring he became interested in the litigation mentioned above, and perceiving the prospects and possibilities of the country he associated himself with industrial enterprises, and is taking an active part in developing these gold fields.
Mr. Metson is widely known in California, both as a lawyer and a useful citizen. He has endeavored to keep out of practical politics, although he has accepted office where there is no pecuniary reward while persistently declining salaried positions. He has been Commissioner of Yosemite Park since 1898, having been appointed by Governor Budd, a Democrat, and reappointed by Governor Gage, a Republican. He is one of the Commissioners of Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, receiving his appointment horn Mayor Schmitz in January, 1905. He also held this position under Governor Budd, but the new charter of San Francisco legislated him out of office. Mr. Metson has extensive business interests in California, Nevada, Washington and Alaska. He is a director in a number of corporations, among them the Scandinavian-American Bank of Seattle. He has earned and gained a reputation as a financier, and by inherent strength of character has drawn around him staunch and loyal friends who know his moral worth and repose confidence in his judgment He is a member of the Pacific Union, Bohemian, San Francisco, and Merchants Clubs of San Francisco, and is prominent in the Order of Native Sons of the Golden West. Socially he is an urbane gentleman and a genial comrade. In all matters he shows a keen perception of ethics, and follows a rule of conduct which may be briefly expressed in the following words: Work, fight, if necessary, and have no fear, be honest and be true to your friends.
The law firm of which Mr. Metson is a member has branch offices in Nome, Tonopah, Goldfields and Bullfrog. Mr. Metson directs these offices, most of the business of which relates to mines and mining. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; page 227 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
S. C. Henton is the United States Commissioner of the Port Clarence Mining District, with headquarters at Teller on Port Clarence Bay. He was appointed to this position in October, 1901. The Port Clarence precinct and recording district comprises an extensive area including the consolidated precincts of Port Clarence, Blue Stone, Agai-apuk, York and Good Hope. It is the largest recording district of Seward Peninsula, extending from Port Clarence Bay to the Arctic Ocean and Kotzebue Sound on the north, Bering Strait and Bering Sea on the west and south, and the Sawtooth range of mountains on the east. This region comprises the tin fields, both placer and vein, of Seward Peninsula. Other valuable minerals besides gold and tin found in this district are galena, silver, copper and graphite.
Judge Henton is a native of Iowa, but was reared and educated in Indiana. In 1886 he moved to the Pacific Coast and began the practice of law in 1890. He was United States Commissioner for the State of Washington for a period of several years, creditably filling this position until 1898.
Judge Henton is a courteous gentleman, and by close application to business and polite treatment of the people he has won the respect and confidence of the miners throughout the district, and the good opinion of the District Court from whom he received his appointment. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; page 228 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
There is in America a spirit of unrest. It may be the product of social conditions that permit men to rise from humble walks to exalted stations. It may be the result of the wonderful opportunities afforded by the development of a new country for men to acquire money and the power which wealth gives. Its primary manifestations are dissatisfaction with poverty and an ambition to get away from the lowly surroundings into which many great souls are born. A higher and stronger manifestation is unusual energy and extraordinary activity. The man who abhors idleness and finds pleasure in his work has emerged from the environments of mediocrity. But the highest manifestation of this distinctive American trait is the initative. The ambitious man may accomplish something; the ambitious and industrious man will succeed, but the man who is ambitious, industrious and has confidence in himself and ihe courage to undertake important new enterprises will be anrong the leaders in the commercial world. To see and grasp opportunities that do not lie in the beaten path of commercialism, to explore new realms of thought, to open up new avenues through which may come more light and power, more convenience and comfort to the human family-this is the initiative.
This foreword is suggested by the narrative that follows. Somebody has written: "In the lexicon of youth which fate reserves for a bright manhood there is no such word as fail.' The life of A. E. Boyd is a story in which the possibility of failure never occurs. When he was a boy and had a task to perform, he set about to do it well and with all possible despatch. He was a farmer's boy, and as Lowell said of Ezekiel in "The Courting' "None could draw a furrer straighter" When a boy he studied the character of horses, and learned to know them, and they knew him. In after years he was known as one of the best horse trainers in the Northwest Territory. Most of his life has been spent on the frontier. He knows the language of the wilderness, the stories of the mountains and the plains, and the lore of the Indians.
This knowledge and ihe experiences by which it was obtained, taught him to be self-reliant and gave him confidence in his ability to accomplish whatever he undertook to do. He came to Nome in 1900, and in 1904 he had constructed and was the owner of a telephone system connecting the principal camps of the peninsula, a very valuable property-valuable as a money maker for its owners and as a money saver for the miners and business men who use it. During ihe year 1904 Mr. Boyd went to New York, and incorporated a company capitalized at $ 100,000 of which he is vice-president and general manager, with funds to extend the line to all parts of the peninsula where the development of the country creates a demand for the service that will warrant the extension.
Mr. Boyd is a native of County Grey, Province of Ontario, Canada, and was born in 1862 within a mile and a quarter of Georgian Bay. His father was born in Manchester, England, and his mother was Scotch, a sister of the Rev. Geo. McDougall, ihe pioneer missionary of the Northwest Territory who founded missions from Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Boyds father was a pioneer who cut a trail from the shores of Georgian Bay through the woods to a home in the "forest primeval. Albert was the youngest in a family of six boys and two girls. His early education was acquired in a log school house, but he never attended school after he was fourteen years old. When he was sixteen years old he determined to go to the Northwest Territory. One of his sisters had married the Rev. John McDougall and then was located at Morley Mission. To decide was to act. His parents decided to go with him. It was a long journey, by boat to Duluth, by train to Bismarck, Dakota, by boat to Fort Benton, and thence 600-1/4 miles across country and into Canadian territory-into a new, wild country where white men's habitations were hundreds of miles apart.
Mr. Boyd lived in the Northwest Territory nine years, and these nine years were full of moving incident and thrilling experiences. From his early boyhood a proficient hone-man he became known throughout this region as an expert rider and a great horse trainer. He teamed and freighted, sometimes using the old Red River Cart, a product of the new country. The wheels of this cart were made entirely of wood. The burden of bread winner of the family fell upon his shoulders, and he worked among the Indians and rode the range, and did everything that was necessary to do or required of him, always striving to do well any duty he had to perform. He lived a life of adventure and frontier experience, the narrative of which would make an interesting volume.
The story of one incident is told here because it illustrates the character of the man. When twenty-one years old he made a trip of 262 miles in two days and thirteen hours and a half, total time, and during this trip he drove three teams that had never been in harness before. A woman in Morley was ill, and the nearest doctor was the army surgeon at McCloud, 131 miles away. Mr. Boyd went after the doctor. He started on horseback Saturday evening and rode across country, and as night came on he saw at a distance what appeared to be a black cloud just above the horizon. It was only a few moments until his keen} eyes discovered that he was riding into the most dreaded of al things in that country, a prairie fire. To change his course and ride for miles around the fire, and thus occasion hours delay, or to brave everything and ride through it were his only alternatives. He chose the latter. After riding through the thickest of the fire and smoke successfully, he found nothing but blackness before him. The night became densely dark, and with the burned grass, smoky atmosphere and blackened ground, it was made still more dense. But undaunted he kept on his course as near as his judgment dictated. After traveling long after midnight he decided he should be near the old trail which he had started out to intercept, and getting off his horse and taking a few steps forward he struck a raise in the ground and feeling with his hand discovered a plowed furrow.
He knew at once what that meant. Some one had plowed around a haystack to protect it from fire. In a few more steps he found the haystack where he concluded to let his horse feed and wait for daybreak. As the first light broke the darkness he discovered that within two hundred feet of him lay the trail. He had traveled sixty miles on his journey through the darkness of night. To saddle and away took but a moment. After a few miles ride he encountered a Government surveying party, and pressed into service a fresh horse. Arriving at a stock ranch he secured another relay, and rode on to "The Leavings of Willow Creek,' where he expected to obtain another fresh horse. But the owner of the ranch and the range riders were away, and the only horse in the corral was an "outlaw." Many had tried but no man ever had been able to ride him. But Mr. Boyd had to have a fresh horse, and in this case it was "Hobsons choice." He drove the wild beast into the small corral, roped him, saddled and bridled him, blindfolded him and mounted. To brief the story, the horse traveled a bucking gait the first few miles but finaly broke into a run, arriving at Fort McLoud at 7 o'clock Sunday evening having traveled the last thirty-five miles in three hours and ten minutes.
He found the doctor, who was a man of excellent parts and a good physician, on one of his periodical sprees and in a bad state of intoxication, but a friend agreed to get the doctor into a buckboard when he was ready to start on the return trip. Mr. Boyd was also delegated to bring the minister as the sick woman was not expected to live. He found the preacher in the midst of a sermon, and stopped the discourse to tell him of his mission. Arrangements were made to start at the earliest hour of light in the morning, and Mr. Boyd sought a few hours of much needed sleep.
Long before it was light preparations were made for the return trip. The horse ridden into McCloud was not broken to harness; neither was the only available horse in the stable of a friend. But they were harnessed and hitched to a buckboard, and driven to the barracks. The doctor, still under the influence of liquor, was brought out and loaded into the vehicle. His dress in part consisted of carpet slippers and a little red coat and cap to match. The team was off with a bound and on a keen run, the minister following on horseback. It usually keeps a man pretty busy when he attempts to drive an unbroken team, but in this instance besides the driving there was work to do to prevent the doctor from falling out of the rig. It soon became apparent that the good man on horseback could not keep pace with the team, and he was induced to abandon his horse and get in the buckboard. He rode behind and wore out a pair of new gloves holding on. This trip was made without any stops, except to change horses, and of the four teams used three had never been in harness before. Morley was reached at 6 P. M., and the doctor and minister were at the bedside of the dying woman sixty-one hours and a half from the hour of the beginning of this strenuous trip. Driving time was thirty-six hours, delays twenty-five hours and a half. It is needless to add that the doctor was sober.This is only one of many record trips he has made. He has driven from Council City to Nome, eighly-nine miles, in seven hours and fifty-six minutes, changing horses once, and has driven over the same route in eight hours and a half with one team. "The driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi: for he driveth furiously." But he always keeps his horses in the finest condition, and never takes them beyond their capacity.
Mr. Boyd took the first surveying party of the Canadian Pacific Railroad into the Rocky Mountains. But while he had learned the lessons that nature teaches those who live close to her and felt the liberty of the frontier, which civilization restricts, the opportunities to accomplish something in the ordinary line of human ambition were lacking.
He left Canada and went to the United States, arriving in Seattle in 1888. Here he bought and sold stock, broke many wild horses; also conducted several other lands of business, and always with fair success. May 8, 1900, he sailed for Nome on the eighty-ton schooner Laurel The vessel carried a cargo of lumber and other supplies. He was the managing agent of the schooner. He arrived in Nome June 18, and after a satisfactory consummation of the business connected with the schooner he found many of the smaller opportunities during that memorable year to do something mat would yield a profit, but the opportunity that he was looking for did not come until the following year. It was in the latter part of the season of 1901 mat he began the work of constructing a long-distance telephone line, and since then he has applied himself with diligence and a singleness of purpose to the successful accomplishment of the undertaking. And he has succeeded. With more than 250 miles of wire connecting the principal camps of the peninsula and with the system in the city of Nome, he organized a company in New York in 1904, the Alaska Telephone and Telegraph Company, and is prepared to extend the line to any part of the country. While a company has been organized for the more extensive work to be done, Mr. Boyd, without assistance, took the initiative and constructed a line which is one of the best paying properties in the country.
A E. Boyd and Miss Avaloo M. Steel were married in Victoria, B. C, August 31, 1899. Mrs. Boyd is an intelligent woman, a helpful wife, and a valuable assistant to her husband. Mr. Boyd is a man of broad ideas and liberal impulses, more of a believer in ethics than religion, in charity than creeds; decidedly a believer in doing his life work according to the dictates of his own head and heart. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 229-232 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
HENRY SMITHHenry Smith was born on a ranch in Lavoca County, Texas, December 28, 1856. His early life was spent on the ranches of the "Lone Star State.' When fifteen years old he rode the range and did the work of a man. He subsequently learned the trade of a blacksmith and carriage maker. In 1888 he went to Tacoma, Wash., and engaged in the real estate business; and also conducted a blacksmith shop in the same city. His home has been in Tacoma ever since he went to the Northwest.
In 1898 Mr. Smith went to Skagway. He subsequently established a blacksmith shop at Canyon City on the trail to Dawson, and in the fall of thai
year went into Dawson with a stock of goods, which he sold and then engaged in mining. His first mining ventures were in 1886 in the Slocan
country, British Columbia. In the Klondike country he mined on El Dorado, Dominion and Canyon Creeks, meeting with varying success.When he left home in 1898 he planned to be gone two months, but did not return until after the lapse of five years. In 1901 he and Jeff McDermott came down the Yukon together to Nome. During this season he began mining operations on Dry Creek, opening Churn No. 5. He had an option on this property, but failure to secure a title compelled him to abandon it after he had done a lot of expensive preliminary work. In 1902 he mined on Oregon Creek. During the winter of 1901-02 he prospected on El Dorado Creek near Bluff. In 1904 he conducted extensive operations on Dry Creek on Nos. 6, 7 and 8 below. At one time fifty-seven men were employed by him on these claims. The result of this work was very satisfactory.
Mr. Smith is interested in the McDermott Ditch, a valuable water right and ditch property in ihe Solomon River region. Henry Smith is a square man. Scrupulous honesty has been his rule of conduct all his life. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 232-233 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
JEFFREY McDERMOTTJeff McDermott, as he is familiarly known in many mining camps of the West, was born in Ireland October 31, 1839, and went to America with his parents in 1852. The family located in Ohio on the Old Western Reserve twenty-four miles west of Cleveland. In 1855 the subject of this sketch went to Iowa and thence to Kansas, which was then a territory. He was a resident of "Bleeding Kansas through the days of the slavery excitement and lived there until the spring of 1859.
At the beginning of ihe Pike's Peak excitement, in the days when the old prairie schooners, labelled "Pike's Peak or Bust," crossed the wide expanse of plains, then a wilderness, he became a pilgrim to the "New Golconda." He had saved up $300, and after arriving at Pike's Peak he invested in a prospect hole, agreeing to pay $1,000 for the claim. When he started to work on the property he didn't have a dollar left.
In those days the work of crushing ore was done by a custom mill, and the ore was measured by the cord. He paid $100 a cord for crushing his ores and $25 for hauling it from the mine to the mill.
After this mining venture he went to Montana. This was in 1861. He was one of the first four men to set up a sluice-box on Pioneer Gulch. He mined on Bannock and on Alder Gulch until 1863. Montana was not organized as a territory, and did not receive its name until the winter of 1863-64.
In 1864 Mr. McDermott started back to his old home, but got only as far as the Missouri River. From Salt Lake to Atchison, Kansas, he traveled by stage, the trip requiring twenty-two days and the fare being $300. At Atchison he met an old Montana chum and they got six four-mule teams and started a freight line to Denver, 600 miles distant. In 1866 he was back in Montana again. During this year and the following year he was in the freighting business on the frontier, traveling between Salt Lake and Boise Basin; later he mined near Leesburg and worked on Silver Creek with Tom Kruse, who is now one of Montana's millionaires.
In 1876 he stampeded to the Black Hills, and he has since mined in Colorado, Mexico, Dawson and in the Nome country. Like all other miners, he has had his ups and downs, but says that all the money he has ever made in his life he made at mining. A proof that he has always been a pioneer, and has been on the frontier most of his life, is the fact that he never had but one opportunity of voting at a Presidential election.
His first trip to the mines of the North was to the Klondike country. In this region he mined on Bonanza Creek and had charge of 39 for the N. A. T. & T. Company. He came to Nome in 1901, and having been in the mines all his life, realized and understood the great value of water. One of the first locations that he made was a water right in the Solomon River country. He was one of the first men to talk water righto and the necessity of constructing ditches. Because of the lack of adequate capital he was not able to do anything with his water right location until the season of 1904. The McDermott Ditch, the highest line ditch in this part of the country, is ihe result of this water right location. It covers mineral ground that will not be entirely worked out for fifty years.
Mr. McDermott is a married man and the falher of three children, two boys and a girl. His family resides at Oreville, South Dakota. While he has passed a great many mile posts on his life journey, he is nevertheless still a young man, capable of doing his share as a prospector or a miner. Genial, witty, energetic and decisive in action, he estimates that he has plenty of time left to make a fortune out of the Alaska gold fields. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 233-234 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
P. THOMAS NIXONP. Thomas Nixon is one of the young men of Nome who has made a success of mining. With his associates, Paul Denhart and Chris Niebuhr, he was fortunate to strike an old channel on the Prague bench off No. 4 above Discovery, Dry Creek This old channel contained very high values in gold, and has been one of the producing properties of the Nome region since the strike was first made in the fall of 1902. It is worked in the winter seasons, the dumps being washed up in the early spring. In the spring of 1904, the dump on this claim was the largest in quantity of gravel of any winter dump in this country, and it was also one of the most valuable.
Mr. Nixon is a farmer's son, and was born near Maxville, Perry County, Ohio, November 10, 1876. His people are of Scotch ancestry, and have resided in America since Colonial days. He lived on the farm until he was eighteen years old when he resolved to seek his fortune in the West. He stopped in Dakota for awhile, afterward went to Vancouver, and the spring of 1899 found him at Skagway, Alaska. Later in the season he went to Dawson. He prospected in the Porcupine country, and in the spring of 1900 came down the Yukon in a row boat, following the ice. He stopped in St Michael a couple of months, and did not arrive in Nome until October of that year.
In the winter of 1901 he and another man pulled a sled, loaded with 500 pounds of supplies, from Nome to the Kougarok District, most of the winter season being spent in prospecting in this region. But he didn't strike anything rich until the fall of 1902, when he and his partners found a fortune in an ancient channel on the left limit of Dry Creek.
Mr. Nixon is the owner of some producing properties on Banner Creek, a tributary of the Nome River. He is a public-spirited citizen, genial, generous and upright. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 234-235 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
EDWARD R. DUNNIn the history of the United States the outposts of civilization have been planted, beginning with the Virginia and Massachusetts colonies and following the star of empire until they reached the Pacific Ocean. During all these days we had a frontier, a borderland between civilization and the wilderness. The period of this frontier is rapidly passing, and when it is entirely gone the type of men it produced will be only a memory of the Nation. It cannot be longer said that there is a frontier in the West Railroads and telegraph and telephone lines cross the plains, wind through canyons and stretch over mountains, and civilization is busy building cities where fifty years ago the buffalo roamed in countless numbers, building cities where once was the heart of an ancient forest building cities where the scorching sands of the arid desert have been fructified by irrigation and converted into orchards and gardens. Up here in Northwestern Alaska is the extreme outpost of civilization in the United States. Civilization has marched westward to the Pacific, and at a single bound has gone northward beyond the Arctic Circle. We are on the frontier, but it is not like the frontier a quarter of a century ago. We have brought with us the accessories of civilization. The frontiersmen were here before the discovery of gold, before we had steamship lines and telegraph and telephone lines and railroads, and burned hard coal in base burners and illuminated the darkness of the long winter nights with electric lights.
Ed. R. Dunn is a type of the successful man who has spent thirty years in the vanguard of the army of civilization. He has prospected and mined from Central America to the country north of the Yukon. He has crossed the desert, and has seen the time when a canteen of water would outvalue a mountain of gold. He has suffered from privations and hunger in the remote fastnesses of the wilderness, and has traveled in the Northland where the dangers of the blizzard and intense cold are always imminent. He prefers the cold of the Arctic to the heat of the desert.
Mr. Dunn was born in the city of New York October 3, 1858. His parents emigrated from Ireland to this country. Mr. Dunn's boyhood days were spent in New York, but at the age of sixteen he left home and went to Texas, where he rode the range as a cowboy. He mined in Colorado and New Mexico, and when twenty-one was a subcontractor on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in New Mexico and Arizona. But with the exception of a short period of his life spent in the construction work of railroads, he has been a prospector and miner for a quarter of a century. Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Montana, Idaho and Alaska are countries in which he has prospected and mined. In 1879-80 he operated extensively in Leadville, and made a big poke. but there have been lots of times, to use his own expressive words, when he "had no more money than a jackrabbit" He and his brother rode across the desert from Bradshaw Mountains to San Diego, Gil., a distance of about 800 miles. The greatest distance between watering places on this trip was seventy miles. In '83 Mr. Dunn made another long horseback trip, riding from Prescott, Arizona, to Portland, Oregon. He has had three narrow escapes from death on the desert, and on one occasion when thirst had driven him and his companion almost crazy, they found water by following coyote tracks into a little hollow in the scorching hills.In the spring of 1898 Mr. Dunn went to Dawson over the Chilkoot Pass, and mined on Gold Hill. The following year he came down the river to Nome, arriving June 28,. 1899. The next day after his arrival he leased No. 5 Anvil creek, and on June 30 started the first pack train across the tundra with supplies and sluice-boxes to begin .work on the Anvil property. He paid twenty-five cents a pound for transportation of this outfit to its destination, a distance of four miles. His was the fifth set of sluice-boxes set up in the Nome District, the other boxes being on 6, 7, and 8 Anvil and No. 2 Snow Gulch. He operated on Anvil Creek during the season of '99. In August of this year he left the work in charge of a foreman and went to Seattle, where he purchased thirty-five head of cattle, 108 sheep, a span of horses, lumber for a house and a quantity of general supplies. This cargo was shipped on the Laurada, and the vessel was wrecked on St. George Island Sept 20, while enroute to Nome, and while some of the cargo was removed to the island, shippers sustained nearly a total loss. A small number of Mr. Dunn's stock are reported to be alive and running wild on the island at this date.
He did not complete the journey to Nome, but returned to Seattle on the Towns-end. The following season, 1900, he came to Nome, bringing ten head of horses, four wagons and a complete equipment for mining. In 1899 and 1900 he acquired considerable properly in the Council and Nome Mining Districts, and since then has devoted most of his time to operations on Ophir Creek. He has a six-mile ditch conveying water to his bench property on Ophir Creek, and operates by means of hydraulic and ground-sluicing methods, and has enough ground in this district for many yean of work. His son, Ed. R. Dunn, jr., owns a quarter interest in the famous Snowflake Mine on the hill between Dexter and Anvil Creeks. The young man shows a natural aptitude for mining, and in 1902, in the early spring before the arrival of his father, cleaned out the ditches and made all the preliminary arrangements for sluicing the Snowflake dump. The snow was melting, and the precious water was running to waste, so he took the initiative, and did the work as well as an experienced miner. He was only sixteen years old at this time, but he has already shown an ability to handle men, originality in methods of work and an independence of character which are usually associated with persons of mature years. The young man is now attending a preparatory school in Oakland, California, and will take the course of mining engineering in the State University at Berkeley. He will begin his technical work with a pretty good practical knowledge of mining.
In the winter of 1903-04 Mr. Dunn came to Nome from Seattle via Dawson over the ice. He accomplished the trip in fifty-eight days. In the latter part of 1903 he and others bought a quartz mine in Chihuahua, Mexico. The mine is a valuable property and has proved to be a good investment. Ed. Dunn is a miner, a man of broad ideas and generous impulses. With the directness of manner and speech characteristic of the West, he has the polish of the gentleman. His is the land of character that in success or adversity remains unchanged, and impels him to make the most of life no matter what the environment is. What he has accomplished is due to work, to the execution of plans that required untiring industry. If this brief sketch has indicated a predominant trait of character, it is the disposition and ability to work.
September 23, 1885, Ed. R. Dunn and Miss Abbie Sullivan were married in Butte, Montana. The issue of this marriage has been three children, only one of whom, the eldest son, born in April, 1887, survives. Mrs. Dunn has shared the hardships and privations of her husband's work. She has accompanied him on prospecting trips, has been his helpmate in adversity, and a faithful companion through all the years of their married life. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 235-237 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
MAX R. HIRSCHBERG
Max R. Hirschberg has traveled nearly the entire length of the Yukon on a bicycle. This trip over uncertain trails and sometimes over country where there were no trails, across 2,000 miles of the snow-covered earth, is a noteworthy journey. If he had done no more than this in Alaska, this experience in the Northland would make an interesting story. But he is prominently associated with the development of the mineral resources of Seward Peninsula, being the manager of the biggest ditch enterprise in the Port Clarence country.He was born in Columbus, Ohio, March 25, 1877, and educated in the Columbus and Youngstown high schools. The family moved to New York in 1693 and Max obtained a little print shop and learned "the art preservative of all arts." He had an ambition to be an electrician and obtained employment in the Incandescent Electric Light Company of New York where he gained a practical knowledge of the electrical business.
Attracted by the Klondike strike he started for Dawson in 1897. When he arrived at Juneau the season was growing late and the Dyea Pass was blockaded. He and his party concluded that there was danger of the river freezing before they reached their destination and determined to remain in Juneau until the following spring.
In the spring of 1898 they started across the pass a short time before the disastrous snow-slide at Sheep Camp. They escaped the slide but their entire outfit of 5,500 pounds was covered by the avalanche. His first mining experience was digging for his outfit, only fifty pounds of which was recovered. They packed this remnant of the outfit to the summit where it was stolen. Disgusted and discouraged, his associates turned back, but undaunted by these misfortunes he determined to continue the journey. After several adventures he reached Dawion, but was unable to find employment in the camp. With meager means he started a road-bouse. He prospected on Dominion and Sulphur Creeks. He left Dawson for Nome March 9, traveling on a bicycle. In crossing the Tanana he fell on the ice and broke the pedal of his wheel. He made a wooden pedal and continued the journey. These pedals were not durable and he found it necessary to make a new one every fifty miles. When he arrived at Shaktolik the ice in the river was breaking. In attempting to cross the Shaktolik River he got in the water and came near drowning. He lott his watch, and his poke containing $1,500 in dust, but saved his bicycle. He was in the water for two hours. Wet and nearly exhausted he resumed his trip. At this season of the year the snow and sunshine make the light very intense, and before Mr. Hirschberg had gone far he became snow blind. During two days, suffering great agony and almost deprived of sight, he wandered over the country. He fortunately stumbled onto a tent and found assistance. He was taken to an Eskimo village and subsequently to a road-house where he remained two weeks recuperating. When he was well and strong he resumed the journey and wheeled into Solomon. At this camp he had the misfortune to break the chain of his bicycle, so he rigged up a sail and attached it to the wheel and sailed over the ice to Cape Nome. In the following winter Mr. Hirschberg rode on a wheel from Dawson to White Horse, so he has traveled the Yukon from White Horse to Unalakleet on a wheel.
He arrived in Nome May 2, 1900 and found employment as a cook on an Anvil Creek claim. During the season he found some float quartz which he traced to the head of Nome River and located the ledge. That fall he went back to the states and organized the Arctic Mining and Trading Company in Youngstown, Ohio. Returning to the Nome country in 1901 he started a store in Teller and made some money for his company out of the merchandise business, and began to acquire likely kidding mining property. During this season C. D. Lane came to the Port Clarence country and offered to buy Sunset Creek, a gold bearing stream on the opposite sicW of the bay from Teller. Mr. Lane did not consummate the negotiations, but this incident gave Mr. Hirschberg a valuable pointer. He began quietly to buy and bond mining claims on this creek, and by the fall of 1903 had the entire creek, comprising 104 claims, under bond. He also acquired a large number of tin claims at Cape Prince of Wales and in the vicinity of Ear Mountain. He returned to the states this season, and made arrangements to take up the bonds on the Sunset property and undertake the work of development. The company's capitalization was increased from $100,000 to $1,000,000, and in the spring of 1904 he returned to Seward Peninsula with a complete outfit to build a ditch from Agiapuk River, which will furnish the water for mining the Sunset property. The steamship Charles Nelson was chartered in San Francisco to transport the outfit and supplies to Teller. Eighteen miles of ditch was completed during the season of 1904, and two hydraulic elevators and several giants will begin the work of washing the gravels of Sunset Creek this spring, 1905.
While he was in the states in the winter of 1903-04, he took a course in tin assaying in Columbia College, and subsequently visited the tin mines of Cornwall. Mr. Hirschberg has great faith in the future of the tin properties of Northwestern Alaska.
He believes that with adequate capital to develop these tin mines within five years this region will supply all the tin that can be used in the United States.
Mr. Hirschberg adopted the right methods and followed the proper course to win success. He began in a modest way, and from the beginning earned a little money for his stockholders, thereby securing the confidence of the people who were associated with him. This confidence is illustrated by the company's investment of a large sum of money to develop the property, which should be among the best dividend properties of this country. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 237-239 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
HENRY OELBAUMHenry Oelbaum was born near Hamburg, Germany, in 1860. At the age of fourteen he went to America and soon found his way to Chicago, where he conducted a decorating enterprise for twelve years. During that short period Mr. Oelbaum met with more than ordinary success as an expert decorator. He undoubtedly would have remained in that city if the Klondike excitement of 1897 had not aroused in him a desire to cast his lot with the gold hunters.
On the first day of December, 1897. he left Chicago for the Klondike, intending to make the journey overland, but finding it almost impossible under existing circumstances he and his party of eight took passage in a small sailing vessel The little boat was loaded with provisions, outfits, 200 dogs, twelve horses and 120 passengers. The weather was bad and she was sixteen days out from Vancouver to Skagway, landing January, 1898. Mr. Oelbaum met with the usual hardships encountered by early prospectors of that year who undertook the journey to Dawson over the Chilkoot. His party broke up before leaving Skagway, and he and his partner, P. Freitag, determined to make the journey alone.
The first day out from Skagway Mr. Freitag broke his leg, and that necessitated Mr. Oelbaum returning to Skagway, where he left his friend to receive medical aid. Mr. Oelbaum put to work and sledged the outfits over the pass to Bennett and then returned for his partner, who by this time was able to make the journey. Mr. Oelbaum had built a boat out of boards he had sawed, large enough to carry the outfits and party of three.
At Stewart River Mr. Oelbaum prospected for gold without success, and returned to Skagway overland. In the spring of 1899, he became influenced by Missionary Hultberg, who advised him to go to Nome. He arrived on the Roanoke, and pitched his tent on the tundra on the place where the city hall now stands.Mr. Oelbaum did not work on the beach, but began looking over the country, and to him belongs the credit of gold discovery on Solomon River. He has opened up two valuable claims on Solomon River, Nos. 9 and 14, and is also interested on Little Creek, Nome District Mr. Oelbaum is a sincere, earnest man, of uncompromising honesty. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; page 239 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
Henry Bratnober is one of the sturdy and distinguished characters of the western mining world. He possesses an evenly-balanced temperament, the placidity of which is not easily ruffled, and his judgment of business opportunities is illustrated by the success he has achieved. By his force of character he has overcome obstacles, subdued difficulties and blazed a trail from the obscurity of poverty and an humble life to the eminence of affluence; and is engaged in gigantic undertakings in the field of industry and endeavor where vast capital is required as the initiatory expense of the undertaking. Mr. Bratnober is now devoting much of his time, energy and capital to the development of the mineral resources of Alaska. He is associated with two big enterprises in Seward Peninsula and has interests in other parts of this great northern territory. The Seward Peninsula enterprises with which he is associated are the Topkuk Ditch and Seward Ditch.
Mr. Bratnober was born in Castrine, Prussia, in 1849, and immigrated with his parents to America in 1854. The family located in Galena, Illinois, and a year later moved to Wisconsin. In 1864 Mr. Bratnober joined the army. He was a private in the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin, Second Corps of the Army of the Potomac In 1866 he journeyed across the plains to Montana, and began his career as a miner. He struggled along a great many years before he did any good for himself. But he possessed pluck and persistence, the two most essential qualities to success in any field of work. During the years when he failed to win the smiles of the fickle goddess he was acquiring valuable experience and a knowledge of practical mining work, which he has subsequently made useful and has turned to the account of profit.
In 1894 he visited Australia, where he remained a year and a half engaged in quartz mining. He began his Kfe work as a miner in the placer camps of Montana, but has had a varied experience, which includes every kind of mining for the precious metals. In 1897 he went to the Klondike country, and has been identified with the northern gold fields ever since. The trip in '97 was an historic journey in the annals of Alaska, as he accompanied Jack Dalton, the man who blazed the trail from Haines Mission to Dawson. The following year Mr. Bratnober took another journey across country through an untraveled and unknown region in Alaska. This trip was from Haines Mission to the head-waters of White River. In 1903 his explorations of Alaskan territory extended in another direction. In this year a journey was made from Valdez to Eagle City, on the Yukon. In 1904 he went from Skagway to Tanana, and thence to St Michael, and this season, 1905, he is taking the same trip. A part of his travels in Alaska this year will consist of little journeys from the main trail to regions in Central Alaska, where prospecting parties sent out by Mr. Bratnober are exploring the country and hunting for the yellow metal. Three of these prospecting parties are in the Tanana region, one at Delta, one at Good Pasture, and one in the vicinity of the head-waters of the Tanana.
Mr. Bratnober has a great deal of faith in the mineral resources of Alaska. He has traveled over a very large area of this frozen country. He is familiar with the geological conditions that are inseparably associated with gold. He knows mineral ground when he sees it, and he believes that the mineral resources of the Northland contain immense possibilities. He has not seen any part of Alaska that impressed him as an agricultural country, nor does he believe that the timber of Alaska will contribute in any great degree to the lumber industry of the world. The best evidence of
his faith in the mineral resources of this country is the time, energy and money he has used to explore and develop these resources.Mr. Bratnober is a man of action rathei than of words; he does more thinking man talking. He has the courage of his convictions, and the faculty of successfully executing the plans that he formulates. Most of his life has been spent on the frontier. He is a pioneer-one of the men who have blazed trails and assisted in the development of the wilderness, so as to make it not only inhabitable but attractive.
He has been associated with the world's greatest and most successful financiers, and his reputation, for quick and decisive grasp of conditions, for unswerving honesty and integrity has made his advice and opinion eagerly sought after by all those with whom he has come in contact He is loved by all men who know his worth, and is always ready to extend a helping hand to his old-time friends.
Mr. Bratnober was married in Greenville, Illinois, in early life, and with his wife resides in Piedmont, California, where they have one of the most beautiful homes in that part of the country. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 239-241 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
The man that does his life work well is he who obeys the dictates of conscience and follows judgment without shirking, even though the trail lead into unpleasant relations with spoilsmen and the class of citizens whose motives are selfish and ambitions morbid. Dr. Whitehead has shown himself to be a useful citizen of this class. He has persistently striven to secure an abatement of the anomalous conditions which were unfortunately a part of the early history of Nome. He has done his work without ostentation or blare of trumpet, and he may have made sacrifices of personal interests for the public good; but he possesses the broad comprehension of principles that enables him to know that all things for the public good must be for the benefit of the honest-minded individuals comprising the public.
Dr. Whitehead is a prominent banker, ditch owner and mining operator of Seward Peninsula. He came to Nome first in the spring of 1900 as the representative of the Bureau of the Mint. At that time he was chief assayer of the United States Mint, and his primary object in visiting the northern mining camp was to make a report upon its prospects and permanency. Incidental to the main object of this trip he established the Alaska Banking and Safe Deposit Company, and assumed the duties of manager of this institution. This corporation was composed of Washington capitalists. The business established at Nome has developed into one of the leading banking enterprises of Alaska. Dr. Whiteheads report to the United States Government, made at the close of the season of 1900, said that five years would be required to develop the Nome country; and that the work of this development would necessitate the expenditure of a great deal of money in constructing ditches so as to make water available for mining purposes. He said in this report that the Nome country did not offer the advantages to the laboring man that it offered to the capitalist The history of the country has verified the accuracy of Dr. Whitehead's forecast. Believing mat Northwestern Alaska offered better opportunities than a Government job for accumulating a fortune. Dr. White-head resigned his office in the United States Mint to devote his entire time and energies to the work to be done in the development of Seward Peninsula. After his resignation a prominent citizen of Washington asked him what he considered the most interesting event connected with his experience as a Government employe. Having in mind Andrew Jackson's famous expression in a letter to a friend who was seeking a federal position, "Few die and none resign, the doctor said that he believed his most interesting experience was his resignation.
His first conspicuous identification with the development of Northwestern Alaska was in connection with the Topkuk Ditch Company. This company owns an extensive and a valuable ditch property in the Topkuk region of the peninsula. Associated with Dr. Whitehead in this enterprise are O. W. Ashby and Henry Bratnober. Dr. Whitehead is also largely interested in the Seward Ditch Company. This is one of the most important ditch projects of the country. It has been amply financed, and the ditch will be constructed during the season of 1905. His mining interests are conelative of these ditch enterprises.
Dr. Whitehead is a native of Lynchburg, Virginia. He was born October 5, 1863. He belongs to an old Colonial family, his father's people having come from England in the early part of the sixteenth century and his mother's ancestors emigrating from the same country in 1728. He was educated in the Virginia public schools, and at the age of seventeen went to Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was graduated from the mining and engineering department of this institution in 1885 with the degree of B. M. He subsequently attended the Columbian University at Washington, D. C, receiving from this school the degree of Ph. D.
After he was graduated from the Lehigh School he went to Boise City, Idaho, to accept the position of assayer at the United States Assay Office at that place. In 1888, when he was only twenty-five years old, he was appointed to the responsible position of chief assayer in the Bureau of the Mint at Washington, D. C. One of his prominent sponsors was John J. Noah, a man of influence, who urged Secretary Windom to appoint his young friend to the position. Possessing references and testimonials such as Dr. Whitehead held, there could be no question of his ability and fitness for the trust, but it was urged by the Secretary of the Treasury that he was too young a man for so responsible an office. In reply to this argument, the doctor's loyal friend, Mr. Noah, said "Give him time, Mr. Secretary, and he will overcome that objection." He held this office until 1901, resigning to take up the work he is doing in Northwestern Alaska.
In 1895 Dr. Whitehead was sent to Europe to make a report on the subject of European mints, and to secure data to be used in building a new Government mint in Philadelphia. He visited the mints of England, France and Germany. As a result of this trip, the new Philadelphia Mint embraces the best practice as observed during Dr. Whitehead's inspection of the mints of foreign countries. In this connection, and as a news item not generally known, it may be interesting to know that it costs more to market gold in Europe than in Nome.
Among Dr. Whitehead's duties as chief assayer was the supervising, assaying and testing of all coins issued by the mints of the United States Government The first coins made were used for this purpose. The requirements of this work not only necessitated a comprehensive knowledge of metallurgy, but proficiency in chemistry. In both of these branches Dr. Whitehead has a thorough technical knowledge and a wide practical experience. The wisdom that he gained in order to become master of his profession has been valuable to him in his experience as a practical miner. He is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, of the American Chemical Society and the Society of Chemical Industry of England. During his career at the mint he made a specialty of electro-metallurgy, and has contributed liberaly to the literature of chemistry and metallurgy. While Dr. Whitehead was chief assayer of the mint he trained a number of young men for positions in mint and assay offices of the United States, and many of these young men are now holding responsible Government positions. He visited Seattle in 1898 and established the Seattle Assay Office.
Dr. Whitehead was married October 1, 1889. Mrs. Whitehead was formerly Miss Bena Ayres, daughter of Colonel E. W. Ayrest a well-known newspaper correspondent of Washington. Dr. Whitehead is a student and a thinker; a man of accurate observation, broad comprehension and generous impulses. He has a theoretical and practical knowledge of minerals and mining that few men have acquired. As manager of the Alaska Banking and Safe Deposit Company in Nome he has aided many miners in the work of developing their properties. Recognizing ethics as a most valuable religion he has the honesty of purpose, the courage of conviction and the strong individuality that are character qualities of every successful and useful man. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 241-243 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
Twenty-two years ago two boys left a hog ranch in Missouri, where they had been born and reared, and started to Alaska in search of a fortune. These two boys were O. W. and Thomas H. Ashby. They reached Juneau May 11, 1884, and were consequently among the early pioneers of Alaska. O. W. Ashby has been identified with Alaska, and also with various enterprises in the district, for a period of twenty-one years. In 1886 he and his brother went into the Yukon River country and mined the bars of Stewart River. They poled 240 miles up the Stewart River in the fall and floated back to the Yukon and poled out to Juneau, landing there in October of the same year. In the fall of 1887 Thomas Ashby went into the Forty-Mile country, O. W. Ashby remaining in Juneau.
These early trips in this northern wilderness were prospecting expeditions. Mr. Ashby and his party mined on many bars of the Yukon and its tributaries, and made as high as twenty-four dollars a day to the man in the richest diggings which they struck. The country at this time was new and absolutely unknown except to the natives and the few adventurous prospectors who were the pioneers of the northern gold fields. At Stewart River (Alaska as it was then known) in 1886 mail was received but once a year. There are but few people now living who have seen as much of Alaska as Mr. Ashby. He was a young man when he first came into the country, and many of the older Yukon pioneers who were his associates have "mushed" over the great divide and into that country whence no man returns. He was at the Treadwell Mine at the beginning of operations on that wonderful ledge, when only five stamps were used in crushing the ore. Now there are 840 stamps making the largest and best equipped plant in the United States.
Twelve years after Mr. Ashby first went to Alaska he visited Circle City. He was one of the earliest stampeders to Dawson, arriving in that camp in 1897. During the summer of 1897-'98 he mined on 31 Eldorado, 2 below Bonanza, and other creeks. In his mining operations in the Klondike region he was associated with his old friend and partner, Billy Leake. In the fall of 1898 he went "outside" and purchased a fine residence at Tacoma, Wash., where his family now resides.
The Nome strike and the excellent prospects of the country, which were developed in 1899, induced Mr. Ashby to go to Nome in 1900. He shipped in 1,000,000 feet of lumber on the Skookum, a nondescript vessel which was neither ship nor barge. It had a great carrying capacity and was loaded with a miscellaneous cargo of lumber and live stock. It was towed to Nome and anchored in the roadstead. After its cargo had been discharged the big storm in September washed the craft ashore and made a complete wreck of it.
Mr. Ashby disposed of his lumber. In the meantime he acquired mining interests on the peninsula, and later he associated himself with Henry Bratnober and Dr. White-head, becoming vice-president and general manager of the Topkuk Ditch Company, which is one of the largest ditch concerns in Northwestern Alaska. This ditch was completed in the fall of 1903. It was operated in the season of 1904, and the returns from the rich gravels of Daniels Creek were fully up to the expectations of Mr. Ashby and his associates, who had expended a small fortune in bringing water from the Kutche-blok River, twenty-two miles distant, for the purpose of mining this rich gravel deposit.
Mr. Ashby is a native of Missouri and was born in 1862. While he has been a pioneer ever since he reached man's estate, he is not the type of pioneer in appearance which we read about in story boob. He is essentially a self-made man and still in the prime of life, possessing both mental and physical vigor. In character he possesses many attributes that we may associate with the pioneer, such as firmness, honesty, directness of method and a detestation of anything that is unjust and not amenable to the laws of equity. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 243-244 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
Eugene Ailes is the assayer for the Alaska Banking and Safe Deposit Company of Nome. He has held this position since the establishment of the bank in 1900. Mr. Ailes is a native of Sidney, Ohio, and was born May 8, 1877. His father was a Virginian whose ancestry reaches back to William Penn. The name is French-Hugenot, and the family from which the subject of this sketch is descended has resided in what is now United States territory since the early part of 1700.
After graduating from the high school in his native town Eugene E. Ailes attended the Columbian University, Washington, D. C, taking a scientific course. In the spring of 1899 he was employed in the Treasury Department of the United States under the supervision of the Director of the Mint and as an assayer in the assay office. In the summer of 1899 he was sent to the Seattle Mint as assayer, and came to Nome in the spring of 1900 as assayer for the Alaska Banking and Safe Deposit Company, a position which he has held ever since. Mr. Ailes is a stockholder and a director in the bank corporation, and is also a director in the Seward Ditch Company.
Mr. Ailes' father was a sergeant in the 118th Ohio Regiment during the Civil War. His brother, Milton E. Ailes, was assistant secretary of the United States Treasury for a period of three years, and is now vice-president of the Riggs National Bank of Washington, D. C.
Eugene E. Ailes is a young man of native ability and integrity. Possessing a thorough education in the line of work he is pursuing, and having a natural aptitude for chemistry and metallurgy, his proficiency in his profession is attested by the responsible Government positions he has filled and the position which he now occupies. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 244-245 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
One of the best known and most highly esteemed young men of Nome is the subject of this sketch, who holds the position of cashier in the Alaska Banking and Safe Deposit Company. He was born April 20, 1874, at Mount Sterling, Iowa, a little town situated one mile from the northern line of Missouri and locally known as "Dog Town." His early education was obtained in the common schools of his native town. At a later period he attended the Columbian University at Washington, D. C. His father was a lumber merchant who went to South Dakota in 1686, thence to Florida and back to Iowa, finally locating permanently in Washington, D. C.
Mr. Thatcher's first employment was in the Post Office Depart-ment of the United States Government From 1894 to 1897 he was in the Railway Postal Service and was then transferred to the Post Office Department at Washington, D. C, serving three years. He was then transferred to the War Department and sent to Alaska. He came to Nome in 1900, on the staff of General Randall, and being favorably impressed with the prospects of the camp, resigned his position with the Government and accepted a position as manager for Clafflin Brothers, a Nome mercantile firm. The year following, in June 1901, he was offered a position by the Alaska Banking and Safe Deposit Company which he accepted and a few months later was made assistant cashier. During the umma of 1904 he succeeded to the position of cashier of the bank. He is also a stockholder and director in the bank, and is the owner of some promising mining property.
Mr. Thatcher is the son of a veteran of the Civil War, who was a captain in the Forty-fifth Iowa, a native of Virginia who went to Iowa in 1839, and a member of an old American family. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 245-246 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
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