Victoria Alphonsia Tooley Yorba


A long name for this missionary born on September 17, 1862 in California, probably Sacramento. She and other ladies came up in 1899 to found a mission called the Peniel Mission, which still stands in Skagway. There were other Peniel Missions in California. The purpose was to save young women from a life of prostitution, but by 1899, there were few prostitutes left in Skagway, having married or left for Dawson.
Victoria showed up in the 1905 directory, but ended up in Los Angeles where she died in 1944.

Father Andrew Harley Baker


On August 15, 1913 Harley Andrew Baker was born in Skagway. He was named after his uncle Harley Baker who died in Skagway in 1898 from meningitis at 3 1/2 years old and is buried in the Gold Rush Cemetery.

Harley Andrew became the first Alaska born Catholic Priest. He died in Juneau in 1965 but is buried in the Skagway Pioneer Cemetery. The Baker family stayed in Skagway until the 1930 census. Harley’s father, Elihu worked for White Pass as a brakeman.

From a website called bakercemetery.com; a letter from Francis Baker, the first Harley’s mother; census reports.