The Strawberry King

Charles N. Anway was born May 1, 1857 in Ionia County Michigan and died December 11, 1949 in Juneau. Mostly he lived in Haines and loved to garden.

“Strawberries were the first crop that Anway grew. He got his start from Jack Dalton’s garden at Porcupine (up valley from Haines). Dalton told him that he got the berry from a man named Dixon about twenty years before. This strawberry is without a rival in size or quality and it does well almost everywhere in the valley, as the climate and soil seem well suited for the plant. During the picking season, Anway would hire as many as 20 women and girls. Pickers were paid 5 cents per box, and they could often earn five dollars a day picking as many as 150 crates. The crates sold for $4.50 each so he was grossing about $720 per day. He continued this for about 25 years, shipping berries to Skagway, then north on the train, and also shipping to Juneau when ships were available. Haines became known as the Strawberry Capital of Alaska. In the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle, Anway won a certificate of honor for his “strawberries in glass.” His obituaries called him Alaska’s the “Strawberry King of Alaska”. The community of Haines held an annual “Strawberry Festival” in his honor for many years.”

Rootsweb – Bob Henderson, Haines (Notes by R. T. Edwards).

James Johnston Hales

The Wild Animal Meat Market in Dawson in 1900, James is seen in his butcher’s apron in front of the store.

James Johnston Hales, born in 1870 in Toronto, was the eldest son of John and Ann Hales. He spent his early life in Chatham working in his father’s butcher shop. In 1897 at the age of 27 he went to the Klondike for nearly two years in search of precious gold. Some highlights of his trip – taken from the Chatham newspaper, the Evening Banner, 1899, – include:

“James Hales left Seattle, Washington for Skagway in December 1897 taking some 3000 pounds of meat that he hoped to sell. This made history as it was the first meat transported by horses and packed on men’s backs. He located two miles from the Chilicoot Pass at Lake Lindeman and opened a grocery store, meat market and post office. The shipment of meat didn’t prove very profitable. Most of the people who managed to get that far were short of money and they couldn’t afford to buy meat. Also, they hadn’t got tired of eating pork and beans.”

“On June 15, 1898 he sold his business and bought a 27 foot boat to paddle down the Yukon River where they had to shoot the famous White Horse rapids. After a treacherous and thrill packed trip he arrived in Dawson City on the 30th of June. He spent the next five months prospecting. “My companions and myself just put packs on our backs and went into the gold fields. We lay all night with our packs for pillows wherever night overtook us.” As their boat was number 13706 many prospectors had set out ahead of them. The mosquito plague, black ants, poor diets, and hard work in the Bear Mine on Elderado Creek didn’t stop him from staking several claims. On arrival in Dawson City he opened a butcher business and operated it for ten months serving a population of 20,000 people.”

“The trip from Chatham to the Yukon can now be made in two weeks,” said John Hales in 1897. Today you could make it in one day or two at the most. On his return trip to Chatham he spent a few days in Seattle, arriving home well and hearty, stating that he intended to go back next year, 1899, which he did. “The Klondike is a great place and I like the climate,” said James Johnston Hales in 1899. He brought home a number of gold nuggets which he was very proud of. An exceedingly large and beautiful one of considerable value he gave to his mother Ann Johnston Hales.

His daughter Alice was born in 1900 in Dawson. The Hales family moved to Hayward, California where J.J. also ran a butcher shop until his untimely death in a railroad accident in 1934:

“Apparently Unaware of Approach of Locomotive James Johnston Hales of Cherry Way was killed this morning when his auto was struck by an Western Pacific freight train on the road crossing on Cherry Way. Apparently unaware of the approach, Mr. Hales was thrown from his machine in the impact and died a few minutes later before an ambulance could take him to a hospital. He had a broken leg and arm, a basal fracture of the skull and internal injuries.

It was reported that two cats were supposed to have been in the car with Mr. Hales. They were also killed by the crash.

Mr. Hales’ son Waller H. Hales told investigating officers that his father drove each morning to his butcher shop. He drove for some distance from his home in second gear. That fact may account for his apparent failure to hear the train as there were no skid marks. There were no skid marks or other indications that he tried to avoid the crash according to Capt. L. A. Eike and Officer George of the state highway patrol. Besides the son, Mr Hales is survived by his wife Mrs Laura Hales. He was born in Toronto, Canada. Funeral arrangements await the arrival of a daughter from the east.”

Hayward Daily Review , August 30, 1934; family websites.

Jonas Peter Hagstrom

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.

Cost of freight 1900

In a Northwest Mounted Police Report of 1900, the cost of freight on White Pass from Skagway to Whitehorse was 4 1/2 cents per pound (a distance of 110 miles). It was observed that this was high but certainly not as high as it had been before the railroad was built. Then, by horse, it was 40 cents to $1 a pound.

Huskies on the White Pass Trail

Another entry from Jessop’s diary talked about the sled dogs in 1897 on the White Pass Trail:

“A team of huskies (esquimeau dogs) were on the trail. They differ from the domestic dog. They do not make friends or play among themselves. They have an intelligent look, wide between the eyes, prick ears, have a furry or woolly coat, are very tractable and great little pullers. I think they cost about forty dollars each. When their drivers would call out “Musho” they would make an extra effort as Musho meant Food.”

Seen above is a dog team at Ruby, Alaska in 1916.

THOMAS JAMES JESSOP 1871 1956

The other day a descendent of T.J. stopped in here to my office and gave me a copy of his ancestor’s diary.

T.J.Jessop had started from Australia in late 1897 and after several adventures wrote this about Skagway:

“I will revert to Skagway it was a very lawless city and was terrorised by a notorious gang of criminals, the chief was known as “Soapy Smith”, He was very amiable and meek in his manner and very like a parson in more ways than one, and very deceiving in every way.

Several Aussies were forcibly robbed by the gang. Members of the gang would turn up by boat from Vancouver and of course they, or some of them, would play “Two Up” and the gang took particular notice of those who had plenty of money, and on arrival at Skagway would introduce them to members of the gang. They would then propose to show them Indian Totem Poles and rain gods (which were mythical) and when a secluded spot was reached would forcibly rob them. The robbed would appeal to the Marshall (he was in charge of the soldiers) no police and he would just laugh at them at being caught as there were hoardings everywhere containing warnings.

In Vancouver and Skagway really there was no excuse at being caught. The gang even went as far as to establish information bureaus (which were bogus), but on entering these places there was always some form of gambling going on and if the entrant did not join in, they cut his gold belt off from around his waist.

I read this after I came back to Australia that a man named Reid was in Soapy’s gambling den when a dispute arose and Reid got the drop on Soapy. There were not many members of the gang present and he was bluffed, and it preyed so heavily on his mind that next day he was seen making for the jetty with a gun in his hand. Reid was an engineer and was supervising repairs or extension to the jetty. He saw Soapy coming and both fired at the same time. Reid was shot through a wrist and Soapy was shot dead. The gang then became disorganised and the townspeople rounded them up and put them in a steamer and sent them down to the “States”. (U.S.A.)”

An interesting take on the Soapy-Reid gun battle!

William Arter

William Arter was born on July 20, 1882, the oldest of eleven children in Bagthorp, Norfolk, England. In 1901 he was working on board the HMS Jupiter in Gibralter. He jumped ship in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1905. In 1914 he was living in Skagway and met Caroline Louella Sundeen (born July 25, 1894) and they went to Whitehorse and were married in May, 1914. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Railway Car-Men in 1915 and was working for White Pass doing car repair. He and Carrie had 5 children and moved to Tacoma.

By 1918 he was a railroad car inspector in Seattle when he registered for the army. He lost one brother in World War One and one brother in World War Two. Although Carrie died at a young age in 1937 in Tacoma, William lived to be 88 and died on April 6, 1970 while residing at Olympia, Washington.

Seen above is the train on Broadway looking south, a Dedman’s photo.

1915 dir; colonist newp in Victoria 1916 mentions his bro KIA in France; Railway Carmens Journal #20 online; 1900 census; 1910 census; Dawson Daily news for June 1, 1914.

Ensign Rebecca Ellery

Rebecca Ellery was born in 1858 in Muskoka and Parry Sound, Ontario. From an early age the family was listed in the Canadian Census as “Bible Christian” and later as Salvation Army. Every reference to her trip to the Klondike in 1898 refers to her as an “experienced missionary” (a euphemism for old). The previous picture that I posted of the Yukon Field Force shows her huddled in furs looking quite old, but actually she was only 40 at the time.

The other woman, Laura Aikenhead said in 1945, that the 1898 party had two detachable canoes that they carried over the Chilkoot Pass on their backs. When they put the canoes together at Lake Bennett, they enjoyed paddling up the lakes and rivers. She said it was the most northerly post the Salvation Army ever had.

Anyway, here is a much later photo of Rebecca. She may have gone back home to Ontario to be with family. Note the “S” on her collar for Salvation Army. Laura said she was a staff captain on the trip.

familysearch, censuses.

Frank Rich Burney

Frank Burney was born on April 9, 1874 in Wisconsin. In 1896 he was working as a farmer in Fresno, California. There were other Burney’s in the area so presumably he went there with family. Farming must not have been too interesting, so in May of 1897 he came north. And here is where he disappears for a couple of years.

He showed up on the Upper Bonanza with his new wife, Blanche Pattie Martin also from Wisconsin, in 1901. He was working a claim on the Upper Bonanza with partner E.J. Hill until 1904 when Hill died and Frank took his body back to Fresno.

Now, this may be a stretch, but there was a U.S. Marshall appointed in Skagway in July, 1898 by the name of Barney, no other information. He is significant because he was one of the three Marshals that arrested the Soapy gang during July 1898. In March of 1899, Charles Eckerman, the bartender at the Board of Trade Saloon (seen above in 1898), tried to shoot Barney (Eckerman was shot and killed 6 months later). It was about this time that Burney went to Dawson, so I am jumping to the concussion that Barney and Burney are one in the same.

In any event, Blanche and Frank left the Yukon and moved to California, living in Berkeley, Long Beach, Fresno and Los Angeles. Blanche died in 1956, Frank in 1957 and their daughter, born to them late in life, Virginia, died in 1941 at the age of 26.

Yukon archives; familysearch censuses; California death and census records: Seattle Post Intelligence of Sept 22, 1899.

Herman Kirmse

My friend Teri Williams dropped this short story by today, and I thought I would share it with all of you:

“During the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, held in Seattle in 1909, Mr. Herman Kirmse was awarded four first place gold medals and two second bronze medals for his dislay of gold nugget jewelry, baskets, ivory, and other Alaska made handicraft. A branch store was opened in Ketchikan.

“In October of 1912, he, his wife, Hazel Cleveland Kirmse, daughter Gladys, and the two sons Jack and Dan were spending several months in Ketchikan before going to Seattle for the winter. Late Monday afternoon October 12, 1912, he went down to the Heckman wharf to greet friends on the Steamer Humbolt, which was just docking. While he was standing on a stringer on the wharf, one foot on a piling head which was cut so it beveled outward and shaking hands with a friend on board he apparently lost his balance and fell between the steamer and the wharf, his head striking the guard rail of the Humbolt. Death, which was instantaneous, came as a shock to all southeastern Alaska.

“To quote from the Juneau Empire, “Mr. Kirmse was a strong man in the community, a liberal advocate of all things which contribute to the growth of the community, popular with his fellowmen, honored by everyone.”

“To Southeastern Alaskans the history of our late esteemed friend is interesting and the results obtained through, and by, his aid will always keep his name alive.

“After her husband’s tragic death, Mrs. Kirmse sold the Ketchikan business and carried on alone, with the original Skagway Store. But, as soon as he could see over the counters she had the devoted and able help of their elder son, Jack.

“Since 1962, when his mother passed on, Jack Kirmse has continued with ever increasing success to operate the family business in the fine tradition of his parents.

“Herman Kirmse made the original NFS collection of Northwest Coast Native Art much of which is still in the hands of the current private owner.”

Seen above is the Steamer Humboldt.