Edwin L. Pillman

Mr. Pillman was born in January 1862 in Canada. He and his wife Elizabeth and daughter Ethel lived in Skagway from 1898 until about 1901 and ran a grocery store and was also an undertaker.  When he moved to Atlin he also had a grocery store and a hearse which he would use to transport both fruits, vegetables and corpses. Some people objected to that though.

We photographed this little sign on a building there which says he had the first steam peanut roaster in Skagway in 1898. Who knew?!!! Wouldn’t one of these really add to the ambiance of Skagway in the summer?

 

Edgar Richard Peoples Jr.


Ed and Estella Peoples moved to Skagway in 1898 from Illwaco, Washington. Ed was a furniture maker and undertaker. On this sad day, March 11, 1901 their two year old son died of tuberculosis in Skagway. Little Edgar was cremated and his remains taken to Portland, Oregon.
The People’s Mortuary was found on the southwest corner of 8th and Broadway from about 1898 to 1901.
Mr. Peoples was the Mayor of Skagway and on city council in 1900-01. After the death of little Edgar, he resigned and moved to Eagle with his wife Estella and Frank Woodruff. They then moved to Rampart, and then on to Fairbanks by 1926. Edgar and Estella both died in Seattle in the 1930’s.

Skagway Death Records; Washington death records; Oregon death records.