George Grant Shaw “I am in here to get all I can”

George G. Shaw was born in Long Lake, New York on July 15, 1872.  At the age of 15 he started working as a guide to sportsmen in the Adirondacks. In 1894 he went to Seattle and was thus poised to head to the Klondike in the Gold Rush of 1897 with two fellow goldrushers, Clem Frazier and Alvin Cook. They arrived in Skagway and headed up the Chilkoot trail with thousands of others. They made it to Dawson and made a claim but when he arrived back home, he had little to show monetarily, but a wealth of stories for his family. He traveled across Alaska by himself and took a whaling schooner to Siberia. He married in 1920 and passed away in 1958 back in Vermont.

I purchased the book today at a Farmer’s Market and will happily sell it to anyone who is interested. $15 plus shipping.

Leon Edward Henry Hudson

Born on this day, November 10, 1874 in New York, Lee Hudson came to Skagway around 1905 which is when he appeared on the directory.
He worked as a White Pass carpenter, a janitor for the bank, and a cook. He was the Chief of Police in 1923 and the Town Marshal in 1929. His wife Anna was originally from Germany or Norway and his daughter Lucilla was born in this area, in 1909. Anna died in 1912 at the age of 32 leaving Lucilla and Lee. Lee stayed on in Skagway and died in 1934 in Skagway. He is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery.

The photo above was taken in 1923 when President Harding visited. Is that Hudson holding the little girl? His daughter Lucilla was 14 then, perhaps that is her standing on the boardwalk wearing a white bow on her head…

1905, 1915, and 1923 directories;1920 and 1929 census; Mason directory; WWI registration; Skagway death record

Mary Bernhoeffer


Mary came to Skagway in the Gold Rush and started a restaurant called the “New Home Restaurant and Lodging House” which she ran with her sister Caroline for a number of years. By the 1929 census she was still listed as a cook in the restaurant.
Born in 1853 in Germany, she was listed in the 1910 census as single but in the 1929 census as a widow.
Her son Henry (born 1887 in Germany) died tragically on July 4th 1914. He was crossing the bay from Haines when the boat sank and everyone onboard drowned.
Mary died on this day, April 9, 1941 and is buried in the Catholic Evergreen Cemetery in Juneau.

Censuses; directories; Evergreen Cemetery records.