Rev. John Pringle

There are some wonderful posts today under Pringle’s earlier post by descendants. Many thanks! I am so happy to be able to host comments and stories of the heroes of the Gold Rush and certainly the Rev. Pringle was one.

Rev. C. W. Ruth

cwruth3

Apparently there were two Reverends named C.W. Ruth. One was Charles W. Ruth and the other was Christian Wismer Ruth.  In the October 3, 1905 edition of the Skagway newspaper (viewable at the NPS library here in town). That article mentions Rev. C.W. Ruth, an evangelist who was preaching at the Peniel Mission. I earlier posted  a picture of a group of evangelists in the Peniel Mission in Skagway and I guessed that one of the men might be the Rev. C. W. Ruth. Christian was born September 1st, 1865, in Hilltown township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  Both his father and mother were devoted and consistent Christians. C. W. Ruth was one of the ten founding fathers of the Church of the Nazarene.  Ruth grew up in Indianapolis, and from an early age was an evangelist for the Holiness Christian Church.  In 1902 Ruth merged the Spokane, Washington holiness churches of the People’s Mission into the Church of the Nazarene.  He was considered a conservative, who also thought unity was the most important issue facing the Church of the Nazarene during the turn of the century. I believe that it was Christian who visited Skagway because he said,  “I traveled more than one hundred and fifty thousand miles filling my engagements, and have labored in thirty-three states and Canada,  among twenty-five different denominations”. Many thanks to Deborah Ruth, a descendent for additional information on C.W. as posted on her blog!


	

Peniel picture

I saw this great photo on Ebay that sold recently. Other than the date of 1905 there was little information about it, but I recognized the woman in the center as being Victorine Yorba. Looking through my records I believe that the two men are C.W. Ruth and E.L. Wilson who were revivalist preachers at the Peniel in 1905. One could also be the Rev. H. M. Tourney who led revival meetings in the Peniel in 1906.  Miss Josie Barnett was also there working in 1905 and I do not know her date of birth so either woman on the ends could be her. Although the ebay seller thought this was at the Presbyterian church, I don’t think so. The interior does not match the Presbyterian Church, but could be the Peniel Mission. The signs on the walls do not match the somewhat staid Presbyterian dogma, but are more indicative of a revivalist clergy. “If God Be for us who can be against us” and “The son of man is come to Seek and Save that Which Was Lost” I can’t quite read the other ones. Also, note there is no altar but rather just a stage as if for preaching and note the extremely large Bible on the right.

Oct 3, 1905 local paper in park library;

Laplanders

Here is an unusual photo of the Laplanders who brought reindeer from the northern part of Sweden and Finland to Alaska in 1898. The entire endeavor (Sheldon Jackson’s idea) proved to be a failure with most of the reindeer dying, but it must have been a grand adventure for the Lapps! 

Rev. John Wesley Glenk

The Reverend Glenk was born on June 2, 1874 in Fort Hunter, New York. He received his Ph. B. at New York University in 1897, his M.A. in 1899, his B.D. at Drew Theological Seminary in 1900 the same year he entered the Puget Sound Conference. He was a professor at Puget Sound University in 1901-1903. During this time he married Phydelia Rebecca Treat on this day, July 11, 1901.

They then went to Alaska in 1903 and by 1905 he was preaching at the Methodist Church here in Skagway. His daughter Esther was born in 1906 presumably here in Skagway, but for sure in Alaska. She joined her sister, Charlotte who was born in 1905 in Bellingham. The Glenks moved back to Bellingham and by 1921 John was working for the State Department of Highways as a statistician. Later they moved to Vancouver Washington where they died in 1956 and 1958.

Seen above is the St. Saviours Episcopal Church in 1906. Perhaps they are pictured in the group.

Alumni Record of Drew Theological Seminary; Washington records; local newspaper.

“Mother of the Klondike Missionaries”


Emilie Fortin was born on January 4, 1872 in Saint-Joseph-d’Alma, Quebec. When she was fifteen, her family emigrated to Cohoes, New York where she met Nolasque Tremblay whom she married on December 11, 1893. In 1894 she claimed to be the first white woman to have crossed the Chilkoot Pass, but was actually the fourth after Bell Healy, “Dutch Kate” Wilson, and Bridget Mannion who we met yesterday.
The couple spent the winter in Miller Creek in a little log cabin. That year, Émilie decided to invite the miners to share their Christmas dinner. On the menu was stuffed rabbit, roast caribou, boiled brown beans, King Oscar sardines, dried potatoes, butter and sourdough bread and prune pudding. Her reputation quickly spread throughout the Yukon. In the spring, Émilie and her husband made a garden on the roof of their cabin and harvested an abundance of radishes and lettuce. After a trip south, they came back by the Chilkoot pass in the middle of the Gold Rush. In 1906, they travelled in Europe for four months. Until 1913, Mr. and Mrs. Tremblay walked from one mining claim to another in the Klondike. Later, they settled in Dawson. She opened a women’s clothes store that is now an historic building.

Émilie Tremblay was a very courageous woman who distinguished herself by her social involvement and her devotion to others. She was the founder of the Ladies of the Golden North, President of the Yukon Women Pioneers and a life member of the Daughters of the Empire. The numerous medals that she received and some of her souvenirs were placed in the Saguenay Museum in Quebec. She was godmother to 25 children in addition to raising the daughter of her sister who was a widow with 9 children to feed. Émilie kept open house for travellers, missionaries and widows. Msgr Bunoz called Émilie the “mother of the Klondike missionnairies”. During the war, Émilie knitted 263 pairs of socks for soldiers, in addition to the ones she gave as gifts.
Her husband Jack died in 1935 so she visited her family and friends in Quebec and the United States.
She spent the last years of her life in a retirement home in Victoria, B.C.
Émilie Tremblay died on April 22, 1949, at the age of 77. In 1985, to commemorate her exceptional devotion to others, the authorities named the first francophone school in the Yukon École Émilie-Tremblay.
She is seen above.

Yukon Government website celebrating women in the Yukon; franco.ca; Gates; Acadian roots.com

Bernard Behrends

Happy Birthday to Bernard M. Behrends born on this day, February 6, 1862 in Bavaria, Germany and emigrated to the U.S. with his parents in 1878. He came to Alaska in 1887 and worked for James Brady who would later be governor of Alaska. He married Margaret Virginia Pakle in 1889 in Sitka. She was a teacher and missionary at the Sheldon Jackson school. Sheldon Jackson performed the marriage ceremony. They moved to Juneau and opened the store in 1892 and his daughter Beatrice was also born in 1892 in Juneau. He then opened a bank about 1914. He and Margaret died within months of each other in 1936 in Juneau. Seen above is his store in Juneau. His store appeared in the 1902 and 1905 directories here in Skagway, but someone else managed it. Behrends Avenue in northwest Juneau is named for them. Seen above is the interior of the store.

Kinyradio placenames; 1902 and 1905 directories; Evergreen cemetery records.

Hallelujah Conductor


Calvin Eugene Shelly was a conductor on the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad. He had come to Skagway from Chicago but was born in 1864 in Akron, Ohio. He came here with his wife Mary and their two sons Allen and Robert.
He attended the Peniel Mission and was “beautifully saved at the mission. He received the name of “Hallelujah Conductor” for he was always praising the Lord….One night during testimonies, he said this –“I have been a year paying for a dead horse, and now I am clear before God and Man.” He meant that he had been a year paying and making restitution for things he had done in the past.” – as Mable Ulery put it.
Their home was on 7th between Broadway and Spring which is just an open lot now. When we moved here in 1998 I remember there was a controversy because someone bulldozed the house one day and hauled it off. It was that action which prompted the city to make it necessary to get permission to bulldoze historic buildings and not just do it in the night. True, it was just a dilapidated house nearly 90 years old, but it was part of the fabric of historic Skagway.

Speaking of historic, seen above is Lep in his conductor’s togs.

Calvin passed away on December 28, 1945 in Burlington, Washington.

Peniel Ladies


This picture apparently hangs in the Peniel housing in Skagway. It is a photo of Victorine Yorba Tooley on the left seated and Mabel Ulery (Mrs. Holmes Cox) on the right, seated.
Behind them standing is probably John Jefferson Paulsell (born 1864). He was a college teacher who taught private grade school. He had been a criminal lawyer in Stockton, and in Skagway nursed men during the meningitis outbreak. He was a missionary who helped Ulery form the Peniel Mission in 1898. He would be 35 in 1899, but Mabel Ulery said of him: “His appearance was that of an older man, because of his gray hair, which was due to the terrible grief and shock he had suffered in his past life…”
The woman standing could be Miss Kline, Miss Josie Barnett, Gusta Carnahan who was Victorine’s sister or Roberta Yorba, Victorine’s daughter.