Primary Name: Andrews, Clarence Leroy
Filed as: andrews_clarence_leroy
Also known as: Clarence L. Andrews
Occupation / Association: Author; Alaska historian; U.S. Customs Service; U.S. Bureau of Education; charter member, Juneau Men's Igloo
Born: 1862, Ashtabula, Ohio
Died: —
Parents: —
Spouse: —
Children: Three children (names unknown)
Associated places: Ashtabula, Ohio; Brownsville, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Skagway, Alaska; Eagle, Alaska; Kivalina, Alaska; Point Barrow, Alaska; Wainwright, Alaska; Nome, Alaska; Deering, Alaska
Keywords: Clarence Leroy Andrews, Clarence L Andrews, Alaska historian, Story of Alaska author, Eskimo and His Reindeer in Alaska, Juneau Men's Igloo charter member
Tags: Clarence Leroy Andrews, Clarence L Andrews, Alaska historians, Juneau pioneers, Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, Alaska Bureau of Education
Biography
Clarence Leroy Andrews was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska.
Andrews was born on a farm in Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1862. When he was two years old, his parents left Ohio for the Pacific Coast, traveling via Panama. During the voyage, his father died and was buried at sea, but his mother continued with him to Brownsville, Oregon, where her father’s sister lived.
In 1883, Andrews went to work at the Seattle Post Office, which at the time required only three employees. He later homesteaded in Oregon, where he was elected Clerk of Morrow County. At another time, he spent seven years in the office of the King County auditor in Seattle.
When the Duke of Abruzzi made the first ascent of Mount St. Elias in 1897, Andrews was a member of the expedition and later became the last living survivor of the party. This experience began an enduring interest in Alaska that continued throughout his life.
As the years passed, he became nationally known for his knowledge of the Territory's history and resources. Judge James Wickersham wrote that Andrews’s Story of Alaska was the most complete and accurate work of its kind published. His personal library of Alaskan material became known as the second largest in existence.
While in Alaska, he served in the Customs Service at Skagway as deputy collector in charge. During this time, a tragic flood swept through the town where his wife and three children were living in Oregon, and they were drowned. This was the second major tragedy of his life, as his first wife had died in childbirth.
In 1904, Andrews joined the Customs Service in Eagle. He later returned to Seattle as a special agent for the Department of the Interior to assemble exhibits for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
He later worked with the Alaska Bureau of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, but returned to Alaska in 1923 with the United States Bureau of Education, serving at Kivalina, Point Barrow, and Wainwright.
In 1926, he was sent to Nome as superintendent in charge of reindeer work on the Seward Peninsula, and in 1928, he was assigned to Deering as teacher and local supervisor. Andrews returned to the United States in 1929 and worked to promote Eskimo ownership of reindeer, publishing a quarterly pamphlet titled The Eskimo.
Andrews was the author of The Story of Sitka, The Eskimo and His Reindeer in Alaska, and Wrangell and the Gold of the Cassiar. He also wrote numerous articles for Travel, Nature, Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, and National Geographic.
He was a charter member of the Alaska Yukon Pioneers Cabin No. 1 in Seattle and a member of the Pioneers of Washington.
Sources
Alaska Weekly, April 20, 1948; Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850-1950, Vol. 2, pp. 10-11, Ed Ferrell (May 1, 2009)