Category: White Pass & Yukon Route

Posted on

Charles Leroy Cartwright

Charles was born in Indiana in 1854 and came to Skagway around 1902. He married Elizabeth Abigail Deshamp and they had 5 boys born between 1903 and 1910: Claty, John, Frederick, Chester and Clarence. Claty died soon after he was born, but the other boys and Abby lived with Charles in a cabin near the railroad tracks at mile 6.5 between Denver and Rocky Point. The view from there is seen above. Must have been lonely for Abby and the boys because she left Charles after the 1920 census. She then remarried in Everett Washington in 1924.

Charles worked as the White Pass athletic club janitor and died on this day, June 20, 1931 in Skagway and is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery.

Censuses, Skagway death record, Washington records online.

Posted on

Thomas Joseph Doren

Mr. Doren was born in 1860 in Ireland. He came to Skagway in 1897 and worked as a painter. His wife Ida worked as a cook for White Pass. Their daughter Lillian worked as a laundress and later married Perry Hern here in Skagway in 1916. He is seen working on the building which is used as the Trail Center for the Chilkoot Trail today. Now it is painted a pretty blue.

Thomas died on this day, June 17, 1903 in Skagway of a pelvic abscess. He is buried in the Gold Rush cemetery.

censuses; Skagway Death Record.

Posted on

John Helmar Johnson

John Johnson was born in Sweden in 1869 and worked for White Pass as a laborer for many years. He died on this day June 8 1947 and is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery. He has a stone marker which is the marker for finding the upper Elks Cemetery. If you stand at the Johnson grave and face the hillside then walk forwards you will find yourself on a small trail that leads to a hidden cemetery up the hillside. Many years ago I took this trail and when I found the graves up there I wondered who they were, and doing research found the stories about those people, which led me here, telling stories of forgotten souls who lived and died here in this little town.

Posted on

Roy Edwin Gault


Happy Birthday to Roy Gault born on May 28, in Vernon, Waukesha, Wisconsin. The Gault family moved to Skagway in the early 1900’s. The father of the clan, William worked for the railroad and died in 1905 of heart failure at 58 years old. His sons, Leland and Roy also worked for the railroad. Their sons and daughters also stayed on until their deaths here in Skagway some until the 1960’s.

Roy was the engineer on the White Pass accident in 1940 of Engine 70. Above is J.D. True’s picture of Roy and Jess Wallace by Engine 70 on her side near Mile 82. The accident was caused by an open stub switch. The engineer was Ray Gault, Conductor was Chris Larson, Fireman was Jess Wallace, and Brakeman was Mickey Mulvihill.

Censuses; World War 1 registration; J.D. True.

Posted on

John Smart


John Smart was born about 1885 in the Carcross area. He was the son of Dawson Charlie, also known as Tagish Charlie or Káa goox. On this day, May 26, 1903 John was run over by the train at Carcross. He is probably buried in the Carcross cemetery with his father who fell off of the Carcross bridge in 1908. Pictured above is Charlie at the far right with family.

Daily Alaskan May 27 1903; Yukon Archives 1087 #8

Posted on

George Augustus Brackett


George Brackett was the Mayor of Minneapolis and was a Civil War vet. In the Civil War he provided the army of the Potomac w/beef, and later fought with General Sibley on the plains in 1863. He was involved in the building of the Northern Pacific Railway. He looked like Lincoln and was described by Minter in his book, The White Pass. He is perhaps the person described by the saying, “let George do it”.
He came to Skagway in September of 1897 and started to build a road up the White Pass or Trail of ’98. He charged people to use his road, but after the railroad started to be built he lost control of the road. The White Pass & Yukon Route eventually paid him for the use of the road but not after many confrontations and frustrations.
Brackett was born in 1836 in Calais, Maine and died on this day, May 17, 1921 in Minneapolis.

theusgenweb.org/wa/whatcom/wgsobits/deathsbra_bri.htm; Minter; many books

Posted on

Patrick John Flynn


Pat Flynn was born in 1861 in County Tipperarry Ireland and immigrated to the United States in 1876. He married Ellen Flaherty, an Irish immigrant from Galway, in Tacoma, Washington, where their daughter, Helen Grace (“Nellie”) was born in 1893. Their son John William (“Willie”) was born in Ellensburg in 1896. Another son, Owen Patrick, was born in Skagway in 1904. Patrick worked for the White Pass and Yukon Railroad and his sons followed him into the profession. Owen later became an accountant and served as city clerk for the City of Skagway. Willie spent his entire career with the railroad.
Patrick worked for White Pass as a car inspector and carpenter until his death on this day, May 13, 1935 in Skagway. Ellen his wife had died 9 days earlier also here in Skagway. They are buried in the Pioneer Cemetery.

Skagway Death Records, censuses; Juneau Parks and Recreation website; Flynn Crest

Posted on

John Williams


John Williams was probably not his real name, since he was born in 1870 in Russia and came to Skagway shortly after the Gold Rush. He managed the St James Hotel for decades.
The St James Hotel is famous for a meeting which occurred between Michael J. Heney and the scouts sent from British investors to determine if the building of the railroad was possible. Despite the story that they came to agreement based on Heney’s influence, there had actually been years of scouting, measuring and evaluations on the project by the British. In the book “The White Pass” Minter spends chapters – at least 1/4 of the very large book describing those years of efforts.
No, the investors saw in Heney someone who had the determination and on-hands experience to carry the project of building the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad to completion.
Back to John Williams, he lived in Skagway until he died on this day, May 9, 1938 and is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery. Pictured above is the St James Hotel that sits adjacent to and just behind the Skagway Hardware Store on 4th Avenue.

Posted on

Cornelius Curtain


Mr. Curtain worked for Michael Heney on the Railroad. According to the Skagway Death Record he was born and died on this day April 27. He died at Lake Bennett at 8:30 in the morning in 1900 from pneumonia. He was a member of the Woodmen of the World and so, he was embalmed and probably sent home, perhaps to Olympia which was his home of record.
Some of the Skagway Death Records show the same date of birth and death, I was told by someone who worked there years ago, that the birth dates were sometimes put in as the same day as the death date because they did not have a birthday. They knew that the age at death was, in this case, 33, and so put the birth day as the same. (Eyes rolling at this point).
In any event we know he died exactly 110 years ago at this hour and day!

Skagway Death Record; photo of Lake Bennett and rail lines

Posted on

Margaret Elizabeth King


Happy Birthday to Margaret Elizabeth King, born on this day, April 13, 1902 in Skagway. Her mother, May Farrington King and her father, William B. King both worked in the head office of White Pass. William was the chief auditor in 1902. William was also in the Arctic Brotherhood in 1900, City Council in 1903-4, Mayor in 1905, and the President of the Elks. The family stayed in Skagway until 1921.

Pictured above is the White Pass Administration Building that Mr. King worked in. Today it is the administration building for the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.

San Diego Historical site; censuses.