Dalton, Jack
Primary Name: Dalton, Jack
Filed as: dalton_jack
Also known as: Jack Dalton, Jack Miller
Occupation / Association: Freighter, Explorer, Entrepreneur, Klondike Transportation Pioneer
Born: June 25, 1856, Michigan (most probable)
Died: December 16, 1944, San Francisco, California
Parents: Unknown
Spouse: Anna Krippeahne Dalton; earlier unnamed spouse
Children: Jack Dalton Jr., Margaret Dalton, James W. Dalton, Josephine Dalton
Associated places: Juneau Alaska, Haines Alaska, Pyramid Harbor Alaska, Porcupine Mining District Alaska, Cordova Alaska, Yakutat Alaska, Chickaloon Alaska, Klondike Yukon
Keywords: Jack Dalton, Dalton Trail, Klondike freighting, Dalton Trail Company, Porcupine Mining District, Copper River Northwestern Railway
Biography
Jack Dalton's life of nearly ninety years spanned an era of extraordinary change in Alaska and the Yukon. As Alaska's premier freighter during the Gold Rush era, he witnessed the transition from pack animals and human labor to the mechanized age of railroads and aircraft.
Accounts of Dalton's early life are inconsistent. His birthplace has been listed as Oklahoma, Kansas, or the Cherokee Strip, but his California death certificate records that he was most likely born in Michigan on June 25, 1856.
Dalton had only a limited formal education but became largely self-educated through reading and writing. He possessed a wide range of practical frontier skills and developed a reputation as a formidable and capable man with a quick temper. He was known as a skilled horseman, hunter, cook, and boatman.
As a young man, he traveled widely across the American West, at one time using the name Jack Miller. By the early 1880s, he had moved to Burns, Oregon, where he operated a logging business. A violent altercation there resulted in the fatal shooting of a cook during a struggle, prompting Dalton to leave the area.
Dalton eventually traveled to San Francisco and joined a sealing ship bound for the Arctic coast. The crew was arrested for illegal sealing and jailed in Sitka. After gaining his freedom in the mid-1880s, Dalton remained in Alaska and quickly developed a reputation as a skilled wilderness guide and negotiator with Indigenous communities. He learned Chinook Jargon, the regional trade language of the Pacific Northwest.
In 1886, Dalton joined the Schwatka–New York Times expedition attempting to climb Mount St. Elias. The expedition reached approximately 5,700 feet before being forced to retreat due to illness. Dalton remained in the Yakutat region afterward, prospecting and exploring coastal areas around Disenchantment Bay.
In 1890, Dalton participated in the Frank Leslie Newspaper Expedition led by E. Hazard Wells with explorer E. J. Glave. The expedition crossed Chilkat Pass and explored interior river systems, including the Alsek River. Dalton and Glave became the first known non-Native explorers to descend the lower Alsek River by canoe.
During the early 1890s, Dalton pioneered the use of pack horses for transportation between the Alaska coast and the Yukon interior. He developed what became known as the Dalton Trail, running from Pyramid Harbor near present-day Haines across the coastal mountains toward the Yukon River.
The trail was completed before the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 and quickly became a major transportation route. At its peak, trains of more than 250 horses carried freight and livestock to the goldfields. Dalton received permission from the U.S. government to collect tolls along portions of the trail while allowing Chilkat people to travel freely.
Dalton was closely associated with Juneau attorney John F. Malony, who frequently partnered with him in business ventures. Together, they operated the Dalton Trail Company, the Dalton Trading and Transportation Company, and the Dalton Pony Express Company.
Dalton also played a role in the development of the Porcupine mining district near Haines after gold was discovered there in 1898 by prospectors he had grubstaked. Dalton and partners established the Porcupine Trading Company to support mining operations.
Later, Dalton assisted with survey efforts for the construction of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway. His reconnaissance helped demonstrate that a rail route up the Copper River was feasible, eventually leading to the construction of a railroad to the Kennecott copper mines.
Dalton continued to work as a freighter and transportation contractor into the early twentieth century. In 1913, he undertook a difficult contract hauling 900 tons of coal from the Chickaloon mine to Cook Inlet for testing by the U.S. Navy. The expedition required constructing over forty miles of winter road and hauling coal by horse-drawn sleds.
Dalton later moved operations to Cordova, where he ran sawmills and transportation companies. In 1915, many of his Cordova holdings were purchased by interests associated with the Kennecott Copper Corporation.
Dalton married twice and had four children, including James W. Dalton, an engineer whose name was later given to the Dalton Highway on Alaska's North Slope.
After leaving Alaska, Dalton lived in the Seattle and San Francisco areas and even prospected for diamonds in British Guiana in the early 1920s.
Jack Dalton died in San Francisco on December 16, 1944, at the age of eighty-nine.
In 1942, the United States Army reopened portions of the historic Dalton Trail while constructing the Alaska-Canada Highway.
Sources
Berton, Pierre. Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush 1896-1899. Coutts, R. C. Yukon Places and Names. Blakemore, F. B. Grit and Gold. Cracraft & Cole. A History of Coal Mining in the Sutton-Chickaloon Area. DeArmond, R. N. “Miners and Cattle Used Dalton's Trail.” DeLaguna, Frederica. Under Mt. St. Elias. Glave, E. J. “Our Alaska Expedition,” Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Hakkinen, Elizabeth. Haines, the First Century. Russell, Israel C. An Expedition to Mt. St. Elias. Wier, Gary. “The Man Behind the Dalton Trail.” Alaska State Library Malony Files.
Tags: Jack Dalton, Dalton Trail, Alaska freighters, Klondike Gold Rush transportation, Haines Alaska history, Porcupine mining district, Copper River Northwestern Railway, Alaska pioneers, Alaska Mining Hall of Fame
Pilz, George
Primary Name: Pilz, George
Filed as: Pilz, George
Also known as: George Pilz
Occupation / Association: Mining engineer; prospector; Alaska mining promoter
Associated places: Saxony, Germany; Freiberg, Germany; Sitka, Alaska; Silver Bay, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska; Chilkoot Pass, Alaska; Dawson, Yukon; Katalla, Alaska; Chitina, Alaska; Forty-Mile region, Alaska; Eagle, Alaska; San Francisco, California; Michigan copper range
Keywords: George Pilz, Alaska mining engineer, Freiberg Mining Academy graduates, Silver Bay lode gold Alaska, Juneau gold discovery promoters, Joe Juneau prospecting party, Richard T Harris prospecting party, Auk Chief Kowee samples, Chilkoot Pass exploration, early Alaska mining development
Biography
George Pilz, one of the first professional mining engineers to work in Alaska, became a leading figure among the miners who entered the territory during the first decades following the United States purchase of Alaska.
Pilz was born in Saxony and educated at the renowned Mining Academy at Freiberg. After working on coal exploration in Germany, he left the country in 1867 to avoid conscription during the Franco-Prussian War.
Initially, Pilz investigated mining prospects in Canada and the United States for a German-owned company. He later left that position to work for the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company at Hancock in Michigan’s copper range. In 1869, he departed Michigan to erect a copper smelter in California.
During the following decade, Pilz worked throughout California, Arizona, and Nevada prospecting, developing mines, and erecting mills and smelters. His reputation for blunt and often cantankerous competence assured him steady employment, though it also kept him moving frequently from project to project.
In 1878, Pilz met Nicholas Haley in San Francisco. Haley, who had previously been stationed with the United States Army in Sitka, possessed rich gold-quartz specimens taken from the Stewart and other lodes near Silver Bay south of Sitka. Pilz initially suspected the samples originated from California’s Grass Valley district, but discussions with army officers and soldiers convinced him that the specimens truly came from Alaska.
Pilz secured financial backing and, in February 1879, traveled to Alaska to construct a mine and mill at Silver Bay. Gold processed by his five-stamp mill became the first lode gold produced in Alaska. The mine closed early in 1880 when the deposit proved too low-grade to sustain operations, though later events would vindicate Pilz’s belief that the region held significant mineral potential.
Seeking additional discoveries throughout Southeast Alaska, Pilz enlisted the assistance of several Tlingit communities, who supplied mineral samples from different areas. Pilz then dispatched experienced prospectors to investigate these reports, including Alaska Mining Hall of Fame inductees Joe Juneau and Richard T. Harris.
One of Pilz’s prospecting parties helped open Chilkoot Pass, which later became the principal gateway to the Klondike gold fields. The route was opened after Navy Captain Lester Beardslee negotiated with the Chilkat Tlingit to allow freighting through the pass.
Among the most promising samples received by Pilz were brought by Alaska Mining Hall of Fame inductee Auk Chief Kowee, who lived on Admiralty Island near the site of the modern city of Juneau. These specimens likely originated from the Gastineau Channel area.
Acting on Pilz’s direction, Harris and Juneau made their discovery in early October 1880 in Silver Bow Basin above present-day Juneau. Their earlier trip had taken them to Gold Creek, where they found promising placer gold and quartz fragments containing gold.
A grubstake agreement arranged by Pilz allowed Harris and Juneau to stake placer claims for themselves while granting Pilz a majority interest in the lode claims on a three-to-one basis.
After confirming the discovery in Silver Bow Basin, Harris and Juneau returned to Sitka, where Pilz joined them. Satisfied that the claims had been properly staked, Pilz approved the work and helped promote the new mining district. News of the discovery sparked a rush to the area in December 1880.
Controversy later arose involving N. A. Fuller, a Sitka merchant who had been connected with Pilz’s operations. Pilz maintained that Fuller acted only on his behalf, but the matter eventually resulted in a lawsuit in Sitka in 1886 in which Fuller obtained judgment against Richard T. Harris.
At the time, Pilz might have aided Harris, but was imprisoned in San Francisco, awaiting trial on a fraud charge he always denied. Despite later disputes between the two men, contemporary correspondence shows Pilz regarded Harris as one of his closest associates during the early Juneau mining period.
Miners from Juneau even sent gold dust to San Francisco to help Pilz post bail. The episode reflected the complicated and often contentious nature of Pilz’s career.
Pilz also likely erected the first prefabricated building in Alaska, constructing a pre-built house in Sitka. On February 7, 1881, he chaired a miners’ meeting that adopted revised mining district rules for the Harris district. He was also involved in organizing and platting the early town that became Juneau, then known as Rockwell or Harrisburg.
In later years, Pilz continued working in mining ventures across North America. He was reported in Dawson in 1906, at Katalla in 1907, working on coal projects, and in Chitina in 1911. He later spent many years in the Forty-Mile region.
George Pilz died in Eagle, Alaska, on September 15, 1926, remembered as a brilliant but often combative pioneer mining engineer who played a key role in the discovery and early development of the Juneau gold district.
Sources
White, Josie
Alice Josephine “Josie” Keys White was a Charter Member of Juneau Igloo No. 6.
She was born July 7, 1872, in Goldendale, Washington. Her parents were Calvin S. Keys and Jane Freelove Peck Keys.
She married Elmer J. “Stroller” White on December 30, 1891, in Tacoma, Washington. They had two sons, John McBurney White and Albert Hamilton White, and one daughter, Lenora White.
She came to Alaska with her husband, a well-known pioneer Alaska journalist.
The Whites arrived in Skagway when the town was still a tent city of gold-rush stampeders. Mr. White took a job with the Skagway News, a weekly newspaper, and the family remained in Skagway until the autumn of 1899.
They then traveled over the newly completed White Pass Railroad to Lake Bennett. Although they did not have the $500 required to cross the Canadian border, a barge owner told the Canadian officials that Mr. White was working as a cook on the barge. They boarded the barge in October, late in the season, and floated down the Yukon River toward Dawson. They came within fifteen miles of Dawson before the river froze.
“We went to Dawson for the mad excitement of it,” Mrs. White later recalled. “We didn’t know what we would do, but Mr. White got a job with the Dawson Nugget right away.”
The family remained in Dawson until 1905, when they moved to Whitehorse. Mr. White purchased the Whitehorse Star, and the family remained there until 1916. Their son, Albert H. White, was born in Whitehorse on August 7, 1907.
In 1916, they moved to Douglas, Alaska, where Mr. White purchased the Douglas Island News. “Douglas was the big town then,” she recalled. “The Treadwell Mine was going full swing.”
The Whites completed construction of a new newspaper plant in time for the Treadwell mine cave-in of 1917. The new plant included a cast-off press from the Juneau Empire. The press was moved back to Juneau from Douglas in 1920 when Stroller’s Weekly was established.
“I didn’t work much on the paper,” Mrs. White said. “I had two children to bring up and a little grouse-shooting to do. But when Stroller was sick, I would take over.”
Mrs. White was employed as assistant curator of the Territorial Museum in 1925 by the Rev. A. P. Kashevaroff, who had established the museum in 1920.
Her husband died in 1930. “I was the one who always talked about getting out of Alaska,” she later said.
She retired in 1950 and moved to Los Angeles, California, to live with her daughter. She died there on May 26, 1956.
Sources
1920 U.S. Federal Census, Juneau
Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850-1950, Ed Ferrell, Vol. 2, pp. 344-345; Vol. 1, p. 337
Washington Marriage License
California Death Index
Ramsey, Jane
Ramsey, Jane Middleton
Association: Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Igloo No. 6
Role: Charter Member
Biography
Jane Middleton Ramsey was a charter member of Juneau Igloo No. 6 of the Pioneers of Alaska.
She was born in May 1873 in Scotland.
Jane married James Ramsey on February 15, 1901, in Dundee, Scotland. James had immigrated to the United States in 1897 and prospected around Dawson in the Yukon Territory. After making a profitable strike, he moved to Treadwell, Alaska, where he accumulated enough money to return to Scotland to marry.
The couple returned to Alaska in 1901 and settled at Treadwell. News of a rich gold discovery at Cleary Creek near Fairbanks prompted another move, and the family relocated to the Fairbanks mining district. Their daughter, May Cleary Ramsey, was born there in 1907.
Jane later returned to Treadwell, where their son David Middleton Ramsey was born in 1908. Their third child, James Ramsey Jr., was born in September 1910.
Jane Middleton Ramsey died in Douglas, Alaska, in 1937.
Sources
- 1910 and 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Douglas, Alaska
- Douglas Island Weekly News, October 7, 1908; September 28, 1910
- Gastineau Channel Memories, Vol. 3, pp. 270–271
Kirk, Kathleen
Primary Name: Kirk, Kathleen Pinkerton
Filed as: kirk_kathleen_pinkerton
Also known as: Kathleen Kirk; Kathleen Pinkerton
Occupation / Association: Charter Member, Juneau Igloo Women’s Auxiliary No. 6; Past Noble Grand, Perseverance Rebekah Lodge No. 2A
Born: 1874, Pennsylvania
Died: July 26, 1955, Seattle, Washington
Parents:
Spouse: William B. Kirk (m. 1908, Nome, Alaska)
Children:
Associated places: Pennsylvania; New York City, New York; San Francisco, California; Dawson, Yukon Territory; Nome, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska; Seattle, Washington
Keywords: Kathleen Pinkerton Kirk, Kathleen Kirk, Kathleen Pinkerton, William B Kirk, Juneau Igloo Women’s Auxiliary No. 6, Perseverance Rebekah Lodge No. 2A, Butler Mauro Drug Company, Juneau Alaska pioneers
Biography
Kathleen Pinkerton Kirk was a charter member of the Juneau Igloo Women’s Auxiliary No. 6.
She was born in 1874 in Pennsylvania and spent most of her childhood and early adulthood in New York City. For a period, she lived in San Francisco before traveling to Dawson in the Yukon Territory during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898.
From Dawson, she went to Nome, Alaska, where she married William B. Kirk in 1908. The Kirks moved to Juneau in 1915, where they purchased an interest in the Butler Mauro Drug Company.
Kathleen Kirk was active in fraternal organizations and served as Past Noble Grand of the Perseverance Rebekah Lodge No. 2A.
The Kirks left Juneau around 1937 and moved to Seattle, Washington. Kathleen Pinkerton Kirk died in Seattle on July 26, 1955.
Sources
1910 U.S. Federal Census, Nome; 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Juneau; 1930 U.S. Federal Census, Juneau; Alaska Daily Empire; fraternal lodge records
Tags: Kathleen Pinkerton Kirk, Kathleen Kirk, Kathleen Pinkerton, William B Kirk, Juneau Igloo Women’s Auxiliary No. 6, Perseverance Rebekah Lodge No. 2A, Butler Mauro Drug Company, Juneau Alaska pioneers
Radonich, Edna Sprague
Primary Name: Radonich, Edna Marion Sprague Haley
Filed as: Radonich, Edna Marion Sprague Haley
Also known as: Edna Marion Sprague; Edna Haley; Edna Radonich
Occupation / Association: Teacher; matron, federal jail on Courthouse Hill; Charter member and first president, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Igloo Women’s Auxiliary No. 6
Associated places: Lyle, Minnesota; Perham, Minnesota; Juneau, Alaska; Dawson City, Yukon Territory; Douglas, Alaska
Keywords: Edna Marion Sprague Haley Radonich, Juneau Igloo Womens Auxiliary first president, Alaska Grill Juneau history, Carnation Tom Radonich, Pine Creek mining claims, Chilkoot Trail families, Courthouse Hill federal jail matron
Biography
Edna Marion Sprague Haley Radonich was a charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Igloo Women’s Auxiliary No. 6. She was elected the organization’s first president and also served additional terms in 1921, 1922, 1925, and 1927.
Edna Sprague was born in Lyle, Minnesota, in 1875 to Will and Mary Sprague. She was raised on a farm near Perham, Minnesota. In 1895, she moved to Juneau, Alaska, to teach school and to join her aunt and uncle, Matt and Alice Loughlin.
She married Ed Haley in Juneau on July 7, 1896. During the 1899 mining season, Edna accompanied her husband to his Pine Creek mining claims. Later that year, she returned to Juneau pregnant with their daughter, Dorothy. Travel to and from the mining camps was by steamer and on foot over the Chilkoot Trail. Edna and Ed Haley had two children, Dorothy and Donald.
After the birth of her children, Edna became a homemaker primarily, though in later years she worked as a matron at the federal jail on Courthouse Hill in Juneau.
Her second husband was Thomas G. “Carnation Tom” Radonich. Born September 19, 1869, in Dalmatia, Croatia, he came to the United States as a young man and arrived in Juneau around 1891. He was an early Klondike gold rush stampeder and operated a restaurant in Dawson City during the height of the gold rush. There, he became known as “Carnation Tom” because he arranged for regular shipments of fresh carnations and was rarely seen without one in his lapel.
After returning to Juneau in the early 1900s, Radonich operated several businesses along the Gastineau Channel, including restaurants, a meat market, and gaming houses in both Juneau and Douglas. The best known of these enterprises was the Alaska Grill, located on Front Street in the C.W. Young Building, which for many years was the largest restaurant in Alaska.
Edna maintained a large rooftop garden on the C.W. Young Building, adjacent to her home above the Alaska Grill. In later life she cultivated an extensive terraced garden on the hillside above her final home on Basin Road in Juneau.
Edna Marion Sprague Haley Radonich died on May 17, 1951. She is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in the Pioneers of Alaska Section.
Ashby, Thomas Henly
Primary Name: Ashby, Thomas Henly
Filed as: ashby_thomas_henly
Also known as: Thomas H. Ashby
Occupation / Association: Prospector; Miner; Merchant; Charter Member, Juneau Men’s Igloo; Topkuk Ditch Company partner
Born: 1865, Missouri
Died: 1951, Tacoma, Washington
Parents:
Spouse: Mary Andreafsky
Children: Charles Ashby; Inez Ashby
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Treadwell, Alaska; Glacier Bay, Alaska; Stewart River, Yukon; Forty Mile, Alaska; Dawson, Yukon Territory; Nome, Alaska; Tacoma, Washington
Property / Address: Ashby and Leek Building (later Missouri Saloon / Louvre Theater), Front Street, Juneau, Alaska
Keywords: Thomas Henly Ashby, Thomas H Ashby, Ashby brothers, Missouri Saloon Juneau, Louvre Theater Juneau, Topkuk Ditch Company, Dawson stampede 1897, early Juneau prospectors
Biography
Thomas Henly Ashby was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska.
Ashby was born in Missouri in 1865. In 1884, he and his brother Oscar left their pig farm in Missouri at the urging of Richard T. Harris. They arrived in Juneau on May 11 and worked in various enterprises, including employment at the Treadwell Mine.
One of Thomas’s first prospecting trips was with Joe Juneau to Glacier Bay. In 1886, he and his brother traveled north, built a pole boat, and mined in the Stewart River area. They returned to Juneau in October of that year.
In 1887, Thomas returned to the Forty Mile area to prospect. Back in Juneau in 1891, the Ashby brothers and William Leek built a two-story building on Front Street at the site of the present Imperial Bar. The establishment began as a saloon known as Ashby and Leek, and later the Missouri. It was later known as the Louvre Theater and Saloon.
Thomas was among the early stampeders to Dawson in 1897 during the Klondike Gold Rush, where he mined on Eldorado, Below Bonanza, and other creeks.
He met and married Mary Andreafsky at Holy Cross. In 1899, Mary joined her husband in Dawson and crossed the Chilkoot Pass, carrying their three-month-old baby, Charles, on her back while a friend carried their two-year-old, Inez.
The family later moved to Nome, where Thomas and his brother became partners in the well-known Topkuk Ditch Company. Mary died in 1913. Thomas continued prospecting afterward and staked claims in many locations north and south of Juneau.
He died in Tacoma, Washington, in 1951 from complications following surgery.
Sources
Gastineau Channel Memories 1880–1959, pp. 260–261.
Tags: Thomas Henly Ashby, Thomas H Ashby, Ashby brothers, Oscar Ashby, Juneau pioneers, Missouri Saloon Juneau, Louvre Theater Juneau, Topkuk Ditch Company, Klondike stampeders, Juneau Men’s Igloo charter member
Bullard, Benjamin
Primary Name: Bray, George
Filed as: bray_george
Also known as: George Bray
Occupation / Association: Charter Member, Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6; waiter
Born: June 1862, New York
Died: November 4, 1933, Juneau, Alaska
Parents: Unknown
Spouse: Unknown
Children: Unknown
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Fairbanks, Alaska
Keywords: George Bray, Bray George, Juneau Men's Igloo charter member, waiter Juneau Alaska, Fairbanks Federal Jail prisoner 1910 census
Property / Address:
Telephone Hill Historic Site and Structures Survey
Biography
George Bray was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6 of the Pioneers of Alaska.
Bray was born in June 1862 in New York. He first came to the Territory of Alaska in 1898 during the period of rapid migration that followed the Klondike gold rush.
According to the 1910 United States Federal Census, Bray was listed as a prisoner in the Fairbanks Federal Jail. At that time, his occupation was recorded as a waiter.
Bray died at St. Ann’s Hospital in Juneau on November 4, 1933. His death resulted from injuries he received approximately a week earlier when he fell down a stairway near the Arctic Rooms in Juneau.
Sources
1910 U.S. Federal Population Census; Daily Alaska Empire, November 6, 1933
Tags: George Bray, Bray family, Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6, Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau pioneers, Fairbanks Alaska, St Ann's Hospital Juneau
Caro, Jules B.
Primary Name: Caro, Jules B.
Filed as: caro_jules_b
Also known as: Jules B. Caro
Occupation / Association: Businessman; Wholesale Broker; Cannery Owner; Charter Member, Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6
Born: 1871, San Francisco, California
Died: April 24, 1933, Seattle, Washington
Parents:
Spouse:
Children:
Associated places: San Francisco California; Juneau Alaska; Dawson Yukon; Auk Bay Alaska; Seattle Washington
Keywords: Jules B Caro, J B Caro, Auk Bay Cannery owner, Alaska wholesale brokerage
Biography
Jules B. Caro was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6.
Caro was born in 1871 in San Francisco, California. He went to Alaska early in 1898, first arriving in Juneau and later traveling to Dawson during the Klondike Gold Rush. He represented the Joseph Myers Tobacco Company and Kreielsheimer Bros. during this period.
Around 1900, he entered into business with Charles E. Hooker, formerly of Kelly, Clark & Company. From that time forward, Caro became head of the firm's wholesale brokerage business, which he developed into one of the largest establishments of its kind in the Territory of Alaska.
Caro also had interests in the Alaska cannery industry. He purchased the Auk Bay Cannery from the John Carlson Company and operated it as part of his expanding business ventures.
Jules B. Caro died in Seattle, Washington, on April 24, 1933.
Sources
Alaska Weekly, March 3, 1933; Ferrell, Ed. Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850–1950, Volume 1, p. 55 (May 1, 2009)
Tags: Jules B Caro, Juneau Men's Igloo No 6, Auk Bay Cannery, Alaska business pioneers, Alaska wholesale trade, Juneau Alaska history
Chase, William H.
Primary Name: Chase, William H.
Filed as: chase_william_h
Also known as: William H. Chase
Occupation / Association: Charter Member, Juneau Men’s Igloo; Grand President, Pioneers of Alaska (1938); Mayor of Cordova, Alaska; author
Born: January 19, 1874, Warsaw, New York
Died: October 1, 1965, Seattle, Washington
Parents:
Spouse:
Children:
Associated places: Warsaw, New York; Skagway, Alaska; Dyea, Alaska; Dawson, Yukon Territory; Fairbanks, Alaska; Valdez, Alaska; Katalla, Alaska; Cordova, Alaska; Seattle, Washington
Keywords: William H Chase, Chase William H, Pioneers of Alaska Grand President 1938, Cordova mayor William Chase
Biography
William H. Chase was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo and served as Grand President of the Pioneers of Alaska in 1938.
Chase was born in Warsaw, New York, on January 19, 1874, and completed high school there. He later attended Bellevue Hospital in New York City as a medical student with an emphasis on natural history.
He came north during the gold rush years and lived in Skagway, Dyea, and Dawson between 1897 and 1903. He later resided in Fairbanks from 1903 to 1904 and in Valdez from 1905 to 1906.
Chase moved to Katalla in 1907 and eventually settled in Cordova, Alaska, where he became a prominent civic leader and served twenty-four terms as Mayor.
He was also an author. His works include The Sourdough Pot (1943) and Capt. Billie Moore and Pioneers of Alaska (1951).
William H. Chase died in Seattle, Washington, on October 1, 1965.
Sources
Who's Who in Alaskan Politics: Biographical Dictionary of Alaskan Political Personalities, 1884–1974, Evangeline Atwood and Robert N. DeArmond, p. 16.
Tags: William H Chase, Chase William H, Pioneers of Alaska Grand Presidents, Cordova mayors, Alaska pioneers