Tag: teacher

Posted on

Vernette Allis Longuet – First Teacher in Skagway 1898

AllisVernette002

Vernette Allis was born on July 6, 1867 in Elyria, Ohio. Her father, Spencer Franklin Allis was a farmer. He and his wife Elizabeth Kales,  had two sons and two daughters. She moved out west to Washinton and on June 28, 1892 she married Maxine L. Longuet in Seattle, King County, Washington.  They had a son, Louis Leonard Longuet born 1 Sep 1893 in Seattle, Washington who registered for the draft in both WW1 and WW2 and died January 12, 1958 in Portland, Oregon.

In 1898 the little family came to Skagway and Vernette was the first teacher in a little cabin against the hill according to a photo in the Edith Feero collection of photos in Washington. Her Husband, Max, entered the Yukon in May 1898, and presumably she stayed here in Skagway with little Louis to teach. They returned to Oregon after the gold rush and Mr. Longuet died in 1950 and Vernette died on June 1, 1955 in Marion, Oregon.  Above is a picture of her as a baby in 1867, hope to find a later pic sometime.

She wrote a book called “My trip to Alaska in ’98” which I have not seen, but would be very interesting.

 

 

Puget Sound Regional Archives; Edith Feero photo collection Washington Digital Library; Family Search for 1875 NY census; Rootsweb contribution by Kathy Gies;

Posted on

Marion D. K. Weimer

Mr. Weimer was born in August 1853 in Ohio. He married Ella J. Tribby in 1879 in Trenton, Iowa and had a son named Howard L.

M.D. K. as he preferred to be called, and Ella were both teachers. In 1897 with so many other goldrushers, M.D.K. came to Alaska and settled in Eagle where he was the editor of the Eagle Reporter in 1898. He returned to Ohio by 1900 and then the family moved to Nebraska and then on to Los Angeles. Their son worked as a linotype printer in Alhambra and married there.

In 1903 he wrote a book called “The True Story of the Alaska Gold Fields” which can be found online for sale.  He died on February 2, 1931 in Los Angeles.

In May 2009 ice and floodwaters swept away more than 100 years of history with the destruction of Eagle Village. The small log cabins that had once populated the long-established community known as Ninak’ay to the Han people lay strewn along the banks of the Yukon River. The homes, which had been handed down from one generation to the next, were demolished. But now, three years later, a new village stands three miles away on higher ground, safe from floods. Seen above was one of the destroyed cabins from the gold rush.

familysearch; Yukon the Last Frontier by Melody Webb p. 137; 1900-1940 censuses; Rootsweb database of Iowa cemeteries; Alaska Gold Rush History of Alaska Newspapers; Fairbanks Daily News.

Posted on

Orpha Loraine Stockard


Orpha Stockard was born in 1897 in Bois D’Arc, Missouri. She was somehow related to Virginia Alice Cottey who founded in 1884, the Cottey College for women in Nevada, Missouri. The College is currently owned and supported by the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic women’s organization. Orpha followed in the footsteps of Virginia and became a teacher and taught here in Skagway in 1920 through at least 1929.
Orpha later acquired her doctorate and was president of Cottey College and wrote several books on education.
Seen above in 1940, she looks very prim. Orpha died on July 7, 1985 in Nevada, Missouri.

1920 and 1929 census; Social Security death index; cotter college site; wikipedia

Posted on

Lois Butt


Miss Lois Butt was a teacher in Skagway in 1915. I found reference to her in Nampa Idaho around the same time where they said she was a “tall red-headed old maid who was very stern”.
The picture above is a group of Skagway ladies in 1915 who were involved in the temperence movement. My guess is that Miss Butt is one of them. In my opinion they all look kinda frightening!
“Good morning Miss Butt!”

1915 Directory

Posted on

Ellen Kendell Rogers MacMillan

On this day, February 18, 1991 Mrs. MacMillan, a schoolteacher in Skagway in the early part of the 20th century, died in Washington. She was born in 1902 in Skagway, the daughter of Minor Ellsworth Rogers, a White Pass carpenter who came to Skagway in 1897 and stayed until his death in 1958. Ellen’s husband was John Roderick MacMillan. They both died in Redmond Washington.
Ellen is not to be confused with Elma Kyle McMillen who was also a long time schoolteacher in Skagway from 1960-1981. Elma passed away in Whitehorse in 2002.