Clara was born January 1, or July 4, 1860 in Ann Arbor Michigan. Her father, Clement Thompson was mayor of Battle Creek. She led a fairly normal life, marrying and having two sons in Michigan.
Then in 1898 she went a little crazy! She came to Skagway and then to the Yukon. Supposedly she married John Cameron in Dawson in 1898, he an RCMP.
She left Yukon Sept 24, 1904 to go to Rexford Hotel, Boston MA. Her husband was J.A. Cameron as she was listed as Mrs. J.A.
Although I’m still working on this case, she apparently ended up back in Skagway on July 21, 1908 where she died of a pelvic abcess. She was 48 years old. Her sons back in Michigan decided not to bring here back to Michigan but to bury her here in Skagway. Perhaps there was a little anger there for abandoning them when they were boys….. But who knows? And what happened to her Mountie Cameron?
Her grave is in the Gold Rush Cemetery.
Martin G. Itjen
Martin Itjen died on this day December 3, 1942 in Skagway. Born in 1870 in Germany, Martin was a showman who promoted Skagway in many ways. He arrived in Skagway in 1898 as a stampeder. He later worked as a White Pass laborer, he owned a transfer business, was an entertainer, owned the Bay View House hotel, and was even an undertaker.
In 1935, as a great publicity stunt, Martin took his “street car” to Hollywood to promote Skagway tourism. He called on big screen starlet, Mae West, to “come up and visit him sometime.” His image of standing in front of his bus with Mae West is the most famous image.
He is buried in the gold rush cemetery next to a large gold-painted boulder which is chained down.
A fellow bloggist has lots more info on Martin’s family:
http://wiekingderviking.blogspot.com/
John McCubbin – White Pass explosion
John McCubbin died on December 2, 1898 in a premature explosion on the White Pass between camp 9 and 10. He is buried in the Gold Rush cemetery and that is all that we know about him.
In doing research about that name, we can tell that he was of Scottish heritage and that there were McCubbins in New Zealand, Ontario Canada, Yukon Canada, Scotland and in the U.S.
A good example of how difficult it is to trace someone with a somewhat common name and without any other information. So if you have any more clues please let us know – here is a link to help you on your search:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp
Lillian Theresa Carlson
Lillian was the daughter of Angus Carlson. She died on October 6, 1897 and in doing so became the first white child to die in Skagway. She was born August 19, 1894 in Everett Washington and moved here with her family in 1897. She was only three years old and although we do not know the cause of death, spinal meningitis was very common at that time, as well as other diseases.
Her sad little grave is in the Gold Rush cemetery.
Korach family
On August 23, 1907 the infant son of Emil and Lillian Hain Korach died and was buried in the Skagway Gold Rush cemetery. He must have been a twin because his brother, Edward, moved to Los Angeles and died in 1967 at the age of 60 according to the California death index.
A website called drygoodsandwetgoods.com talks about their family. Emil was born in Hungary and ran the Bloom and Korach store in Skagway around 1905. The website says that they moved to Akron Ohio where they passed away. A rootsweb posting also said they were Jewish, but oddly, the headboard in Skagway has a cross on it. Perhaps some well-meaning Skagwegian decided to Christianize the Korach baby in a subsequent remaking of the headboard.
–
A bloody picnic
On this day, August 13, 1905, James Hanson, otherwise known as Kebeth or “White Eagle” Kaagwaantaan, an Aleut from Sitka died in prison at MacNeil Island, Washington.
He was convicted for the murders of a young couple, Bert and Florence Horton as they picnicked at a spot along the bay near Skagway, while on their honeymoon. That was on October 24, 1899.
Kebeth was perhaps a bit unbalanced as he accused the Horton’s of a previous death, and decided to kill them out of retribution. He shot both and slit Florence’s throat.
Bert and Flo were married a few months earlier in Lane Oregon, she was 19 years old and he was 25.
Kebeth made his friends keep quiet about the murders but eventually one of them talked and Kebeth was convicted, but his sentence was commuted due to his mental state.
The Hortons are buried in the Gold Rush Cemetery.
-from the Skagway Death Records and Thornton’s Ethnographic Study, 2004, p 189.
–