Adele Lawrence Harrington

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On this day, January 26, 1896, Adele married Calvin H. Barkdull either in Skagway or Eureka, California. Later in 1896, the first child, a daughter was born to them here, said to be the first “white child” born in Skagway. In his story “The Flaxen Haired boy” in the December 1951 Alaska Sportsman Magazine, Calvin mentions his wife and daughter and tells a story about a boy who died on the Chilkoot trail but the story sounds a little made up. Calvin also made up some stories about a wife of Soapy’s coming here and exhuming Soapy’s grave, which are false, so who knows…

Calvin Barkdull had graduated from the University of California in 1894. He worked here as Chilkoot packer but left by 1902 and went to Petersburg to raise foxes, work a gold mine and a hotel. Adele divorced him and remarried a Mr. Clarence McBurney by 1900.  Here is a photo donated by Judith Bacon of Adele, her daughter Beryl and her 2nd husband Clarence McBurney from around 1905?