Cole, Clarence Cash
Primary Name: Cole, Clarence "Cash"
Filed as: cole_clarence_cash
Also known as: Clarence Cole, Cash Cole
Occupation / Association: Businessman; President, Cole Transfer Company; Local Agent, American Express Company; President, Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6 (1938); Territorial Legislator
Born: February 12, 1891, Henderson Bay, Washington
Died: November 8, 1959, Bellingham, Washington
Parents:
Spouse: Ruby C. Worth (m. March 7, 1915; later divorced); Ruth Marcella Marsh Gudbranson (m. January 20, 1945)
Children: James Cash Cole; Thomas Phillip Cole; Jerry Worth Cole
Associated places: Henderson Bay Washington; Treadwell Alaska; Juneau Alaska; Bellingham Washington
Keywords: Clarence Cash Cole, Cash Cole Juneau, Cole Transfer Company, Alaska Territorial Legislature Speaker
Biography
Clarence "Cash" Cole served as President of the Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6 in 1938.
Cole was born at Henderson Bay, Washington, on February 12, 1891. When he was four years old, his family moved to Treadwell, Alaska. He was educated in the Juneau public schools and later attended the University of Minnesota.
After leaving college, Cole entered the business field in Juneau, where he became involved in draying, docking, and contracting. He later served as president and general manager of the Cole Transfer Company and was also the local agent for the American Express Company.
He married Ruby C. Worth in Juneau on March 7, 1915. They had three sons: James Cash Cole, born June 25, 1916; Thomas Phillip Cole, born June 23, 1917; and Jerry Worth Cole, born March 22, 1926. The couple divorced prior to 1940.
Cole later remarried on January 20, 1945, to Ruth Marcella Marsh Gudbranson.
Active in territorial politics, Cole was elected to the Fifth Alaska Territorial Legislature House of Representatives in 1921 and was reelected to the Sixth House, where he was chosen as Speaker. He later served as Territorial Auditor from 1929 to 1932.
Cole was a Republican and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Clarence "Cash" Cole died on November 8, 1959, in Bellingham, Washington.
Sources
Ferrell, Ed. Biographies of Alaska Yukon Pioneers 1850–1950, Vol. 3, p. 66
Tags: Clarence Cash Cole, Cash Cole, Juneau Men's Igloo No 6, Alaska Territorial Legislature, Cole Transfer Company, Juneau Alaska history
Cosgrove, Charles H.
Primary Name: Cosgrove, Charles H.
Filed as: cosgrove_charles_h
Also known as: Charles H. Cosgrove
Occupation / Association: Attorney; City Attorney; City Clerk; Magistrate; Charter Member, Juneau Men's Igloo
Born: ca. 1871, Lowell, Massachusetts
Died: May 15, 1923, Ketchikan, Alaska
Parents:
Spouse: Margaret Whalen (m. 1904, Seattle, Washington)
Children: Three sons; one daughter
Associated places: Lowell, Massachusetts; Worcester, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; Nome, Alaska; Ketchikan, Alaska
Keywords: Charles H Cosgrove, Cosgrove Charles H, Ketchikan attorney, Juneau Men's Igloo
Biography
Charles H. Cosgrove was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo.
Cosgrove was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, about 1871. He attended the public schools of that city and, after graduation, entered Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, completing his collegiate course in 1893. That same year, he entered Boston University Law School and graduated in 1897.
He practiced law in Massachusetts for a short time before moving west, drawn by the pioneer spirit. After a brief residence in Seattle, he joined the stampede to Nome in 1899, where he remained for one season. He then came to Southeastern Alaska, settling in Ketchikan in 1901.
In 1904, Cosgrove married Miss Margaret Whalen of Seattle. They had three sons and one daughter.
During his years in Ketchikan, he served several terms as City Attorney, City Clerk, and Magistrate.
Cosgrove was a Catholic, a Democrat, a member of the Elks, and a member of the Arctic Club of Seattle.
Charles H. Cosgrove died in Ketchikan on May 15, 1923.
Sources
Ketchikan Alaska Chronicle, May 15–17, 1923; Alaska Daily Empire, Juneau, May 16–17, 1923
Tags: Charles H Cosgrove, Cosgrove Charles H, Juneau Men's Igloo, Ketchikan Alaska pioneers, Alaska attorneys
George, Wallis S.
Primary Name: George, Wallis Searle
Filed as: george_wallis_searle
Also known as: Wallis George, Wallis S. George
Occupation / Association: Businessman; bookkeeper; fish buyer; director, First National Bank; Charter Member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo No. 6
Born: September 15, 1891, Park City, Utah
Died:
Parents: Martin George; Caroline George
Spouse: Maybelle Burkland (m. 1913); Alleine Council (m. 1945)
Children: Wallis Searle George Jr. (deceased); Maybelle Louise George; stepdaughter Carol Ann Council
Associated places: Park City, Utah; Juneau, Alaska; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; San Francisco, California; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; New York City, New York
Keywords: Wallis Searle George, Wallis S George, Wallis George Juneau businessman, Juneau Cold Storage Company expansion, Baranof Hotel promoter
Biography
Wallis Searle George was a charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men’s Igloo No. 6, and an influential businessman in Juneau.
George was born on September 15, 1891 at Park City, Utah, the son of Martin and Caroline George. He was educated in the public and high schools of Juneau. One of his former high school teachers described him as “a dreamy-eyed youngster with a quick answer to questions asked him.”
As a young man, he pursued studies in commercial administration at the Portland, Oregon Business College.
In 1911, he began his business career in Juneau as a bookkeeper for the B. M. Behrends store and bank in Juneau. After about a year, he entered the furniture business, which he operated until selling it in 1918. For a short time afterward, he returned to the Behrends Bank, which was short of help, in part due to conditions created by World War I. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Juneau Cold Storage Company as a bookkeeper.
This position proved to be a turning point in his career. George soon recognized the commercial possibilities of cold storage in connection with the fishing industry. At the time, the original plant of the Juneau Cold Storage Company had a capacity of less than 200,000 pounds. With associates and new capital, the company began an expansion program that increased the plant’s capacity to 4 million pounds. By 1945, plans were underway to expand the capacity to nine million pounds.
George became an important buyer of fish and other products for firms in San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, and other large population centers of the United States. He also represented the Coca-Cola Company as one of only two agents in southeastern Alaska and served as a distributor of Olympia and Budweiser beverages.
He was one of the promoters of the Baranof Hotel in Juneau and served as its treasurer and secretary. George also served as a director of the First National Bank and held financial interests in several other enterprises and organizations.
Fraternally, he was affiliated with the Elks and the Masons. He was also a member of the Washington Athletic Club and the Arctic Club in Seattle.
George married Maybelle Burkland in 1913. They had two children, Wallis Searle George Jr., who died young, and Maybelle Louise George. In 1945, he married Mrs. Alleine Council, who had a daughter, Carol Ann Council.
Sources
Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850–1950, Vol. 3, pp. 113–114, Ed Ferrell (May 1, 2009)
Raymond, Harry J.
Primary Name: Raymond, Harry J.
Filed as: Raymond, Harry J.
Also known as: Harry J. Raymond
Occupation / Association: Merchant; businessman; Charter Member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men's Igloo; civic leader
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Sum Dum, Alaska; San Francisco, California; Baranof, Alaska; Bell Island Hot Springs, Alaska; Ketchikan, Alaska; New York
Keywords: Harry J Raymond Juneau Alaska, H J Raymond Company Juneau, Sum Dum Mining Company storekeeper, Baranof Hot Springs merchant, Bell Island Hot Springs resort, Juneau Elks Lodge member, Juneau City Council member, Alaska pioneer merchants
Biography
Harry J. Raymond was a charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men's Igloo. He was born in New York State in 1871 and spent his early life there. Raymond trained as a pharmacist but did not pursue that profession after moving west.
In 1895, he went to San Francisco, California, where he met and became associated with Mr. McBride. Through that connection, he came to Sum Dum, Alaska, in 1897 as a storekeeper for the Sum Dum Mining Company.
Raymond returned to San Francisco in 1898, where he married. He then brought his wife back to Sum Dum.
In 1901, he moved to Juneau, Alaska, where he would make his long-time home. There, he represented Alaska for one of the largest wholesale hardware firms on the Pacific Coast. In 1912, he organized the H. J. Raymond Company, which operated in Juneau until 1917. He was later associated with the Alaskan Hotel.
In 1923, Raymond went to Bell Island Hot Springs near Ketchikan, where he opened a health resort. After selling the property in 1925, he returned to Southeast Alaska and moved to Baranof, where he opened a general merchandise business and operated the hot springs there.
While living in Baranof, he took an active role in civic and business affairs. He served several terms on the City Council and was also active for many years in the Elks Lodge.
Harry J. Raymond died in Juneau on Wednesday, December 26, 1928, from blood poisoning resulting from a minor injury received about two weeks earlier. He was fifty-seven years old and was survived by his wife.
Sources
Daily Alaska Empire, December 26, 1928.
Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850-1950, Volume 1, pp. 260–261, Ed Ferrell, May 1, 2009.
Spickett, John T.
Primary Name: Spickett, John T.
Filed as: Spickett, John T.
Also known as: John T. Spickett
Occupation / Association: Theatrical producer and performer; hotel proprietor; theater operator; postmaster of Juneau; charter member and president, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo; Grand President, Pioneers of Alaska Grand Igloo
Associated places: Bristol, England; Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Sacramento, California; Juneau, Alaska
Keywords: John T Spickett, Juneau Men’s Igloo charter member, Pioneers of Alaska Grand President, Franklin Hotel Juneau, Orpheum Theater Juneau, early Juneau theater history, Juneau postmaster 1908, Elks Lodge 420 Juneau
Biography
John T. Spickett was a charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men’s Igloo, and served as its president in 1924, 1925, 1926, and 1930. He also served two years as Grand President of the Grand Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska.
Spickett was born in Bristol, England on January 4, 1858. He came to the United States with his parents in 1870, and when he was six years old, the family moved to Detroit, Michigan.
In his youth, Spickett was drawn to the theatrical profession and became both a performer and manager-producer. He made two trips to England as a member of Haverly’s Minstrels. In 1891, he operated an amusement concession at the Chicago World’s Fair.
In 1896, Spickett organized a touring company that performed at the Juneau Opera House. After leaving Alaska, he toured California for two years.
While in California, he married Josephine Charlotte Clark in Sacramento. The couple returned to Juneau in 1898 to make their home.
Spickett’s first major business venture in Juneau was the purchase of the Franklin Hotel in 1899, also known as the Occidental Annex at Front and Main Streets, which he operated until 1905. He later opened a liquor and cigar stand across the street.
A staunch Republican, Spickett was appointed postmaster of Juneau in 1908 and served until 1912. During that period, he and his wife also operated a newsstand and music store in connection with the post office. After leaving the position, he sold the newsstand to James Barragar and entered the moving picture business.
Spickett opened the Orpheum Theater at Main Street and Willoughby Avenue, which at the time was considered the finest theater in Alaska. After securing films and establishing his show house, he also served as an agent for the Canadian National Railways for several years.
Later, he operated additional theaters, including the Dream and the Palace, eventually selling the Palace to Lawrence Kubley. After a long and successful theatrical career, he retired from active business life.
In politics, Spickett remained active as a Republican and served as Chairman of the Republican Territorial Committee.
Spickett was also deeply involved in fraternal organizations. He was the first member initiated into Juneau Lodge No. 420, B.P.O. Elks, where he served as an early secretary and helped sustain the lodge in its formative years. For many years, he organized the Elks’ minstrel shows, and the last of those productions was dedicated to him.
John T. Spickett died in Juneau, Alaska, on July 31, 1932.
Sources
Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850–1950, Volume 2, pp. 302–304, Ed Ferrell
Stephens, John Thomas
Primary Name: Stephens, John
Filed as: Stephens, John
Also known as: John “Tom” Stephens; Tom Stephens
Occupation / Association: Carpenter; prospector; Charter Member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men's Igloo
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Nome, Alaska; Sitka, Alaska; New York
Keywords: John Tom Stephens, Tom Stephens Juneau Alaska, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men's Igloo charter members, Juneau carpenters, Alaska gold rush prospectors, Nome Alaska prospectors, Sitka Pioneers Home residents, Evergreen Cemetery Juneau
Biography
John “Tom” Stephens was a carpenter, prospector, and a charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men's Igloo.
Stephens first came to Juneau in 1885 from his home in upper New York State. Although trained as a carpenter, he spent much of his time in Alaska prospecting during the territory’s gold rush era.
He first traveled to Alaska’s interior during the gold rush of 1897. Three years later, he went to Nome, where he remained for about four years, prospecting and working at his trade.
From 1904 until 1920, Stephens made his home in Juneau. In 1920, the Juneau Elks Lodge proposed sending him to the Elks Home in the states, but he declined the offer, choosing instead to remain in Alaska.
Stephens spent his final years at the Pioneers Home in Sitka, where he died on April 11, 1927. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Juneau.
Sources
Daily Alaska Empire, April 13, 1927.
Tanner, Josias Martin
Primary Name: Tanner, Josias Martin
Filed as: Tanner, Josias Martin
Also known as: Josias Tanner; “Senator Si” Tanner
Occupation / Association: Charter Member, Juneau Men's Igloo; Alaska Territorial Senator; Mayor of Skagway; Deputy United States Marshal; merchant; miner
Associated places: Oakland County, Michigan; Central City, Colorado; Juneau, Alaska; Skagway, Alaska; Tacoma, Washington
Keywords: Josias Martin Tanner, Senator Si Tanner, Juneau Men's Igloo charter members, Skagway Alaska mayor, Soapy Smith era Skagway, Alaska Territorial Legislature, Skagway Vigilantes, Arctic Brotherhood members, Alaska-Yukon pioneers
Biography
Josias Martin Tanner was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska and one of the prominent early civic leaders of Skagway during Alaska’s gold rush era.
Tanner was born in Oakland County, Michigan, on February 22, 1850. His grandfather served in the Revolutionary War, having enlisted at the age of fifteen. A brother of Tanner’s grandfather, William Tanner, was reportedly a member of President George Washington's bodyguard when the British and Loyalists attempted to capture the first President.
Known throughout Alaska as “Senator Si,” Tanner served two terms in Alaska’s territorial lawmaking assembly.
As a young man, Tanner began his career in mining. At the age of twenty, he left Michigan and went to Central City, Colorado, one of the famous mining camps of Gilpin County. There he worked in the gold mines and mills of Colorado for four years.
In 1871, he married Juliette Valentine, the sister of Emery Valentine, who later served as mayor of Juneau. Three children were born to the couple: two daughters, who later lived in Tacoma, Washington, and a son, Fred Tanner, who eventually joined his father in business in Skagway.
The family later moved to Tacoma, where Tanner worked in the contracting business. In 1896, he accepted a position in Emery Valentine’s general store in Juneau.
During the Klondike Gold Rush, he moved to Skagway in July 1897 during the Dawson stampede and remained there for the rest of his life. In Skagway, he played an important role in maintaining order during the turbulent gold rush years.
Tanner helped organize and command the Skagway Vigilantes, a citizens’ group formed to preserve law and order during the period when the notorious outlaw Soapy Smith and his gang dominated the town. Organized lawlessness in Skagway culminated in Smith’s death on July 8, 1898.
Because of his leadership and composure during the effort to drive Smith’s gang from the city, Tanner was appointed Deputy United States Marshal by Marshal J. M. Shoup and served in that position for two years.
Tanner remained active in Skagway's civic affairs for many years. He served for five years on the Skagway City Council, was elected mayor three times, and also served for five years as municipal magistrate.
He was also active in fraternal organizations, including the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Arctic Brotherhood.
In addition to his political and civic career, Tanner operated a hardware store in Skagway and held business interests in the Home Power Company of Skagway.
Sources
Ferrell, Ed. Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850–1950, Volume 2, pp. 321–322 (2009).
Alaska Digital Archives, James Joseph Connors Photograph Collection, PCA 457.
Governor's Mansion
The Governor's Mansion was designed by James Knox Taylor. He was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, then serving as the first Supervisory Architect for the U.S. Treasury Department.
Taylor utilized design premises which had succeeded in Eighteenth Century English and American Colonial country houses.
These houses were designed to produce the most usable space for the cost, with facilities to perform the formal institutional functions required, and spaces amenable to formal and informal living under the same roof.
The examples he appeared to have followed had succeeded in performing these functions. The modifications he designed into this building succeeded admirably. An additional virtue of his design is that it permitted the basic building to be constructed and pressed into full service, with additional finishing construction, furnishing and decorating accomplished over a long period of time, as funds and authorization were provided.
An Act of June 6, 1900, provided that the temporary seat of government for the District of Alaska would be established in Juneau "when suitable grounds and buildings are available." From the passing of this 1900 Act by Congress until the Mansion was completed and occupied in 1913, a series of events—dramatic when considered as a totality moved forward the concept of more self-government for the Territory.
Continued Congressional attention to Alaska resulted in an Act for the Protection of Game, June 7, 1902; an Act Creating Road Districts and Providing for Road Overseers, April 27, 1904; the long-sought Delegate in Congress Act, May 8, 1906. The site of the building had been reserved in 1911 by Executive Order of the President, Number 1331. The Second Organic Act, August 24, 1912 provided that the capital of the Territory ". . .shall be at Juneau."
The Governor's Mansion, already under construction when the Act became law, thus became the first public building constructed for the new permanent capital of the Territory. The Alaska Governor's Mansion was first occupied by the Territorial Governor, Walter E. Clark, and his family, on January 1, 1913.
The Act also created a legislature of twenty-four members—two Senators and four Representatives from each of the four judicial division—to convene "at the capitol at the city of Juneau, Alaska on the first Monday in March in the year nineteen hundred thirteen, and on the first Monday in March every two years there after." The first legislature convened in space rented in the local Elks Club hall.
Juneau was a busy community. It had been founded as a mining camp, and had flourished as a result of the mines on both sides of Gastineau Channel and the marine commerce spawned by traffic between the lower states and the greater Alaska to the north and west.
A. H. Humpheries, an official of one of the mines recalls what Juneau was like in the era when the Governor's Mansion was under construction and the Territorial Government was about to begin full operation in the town, "Juneau in 1912 was alive and booming.
I had gone there from "The Westward" as we called it, out around Cordova and Valdez, after two memorable years in the Kennecott copper and Valdez trail country. ...men were shaved and groomed. Businessmen were in city clothes. A great treat to us was to see women and children on the streets and in the stores. ...the streets were thronged with pedestrians on the sidewalks. Horsedrawn vehicles threaded the centers.
I had spent five years in New York City. It never appeared to me so civilized as Juneau did that first day in 1910. The stores were busy, and displayed good merchandise.
Both the raised sidewalks and the streets in the main part of the city were of planking. They were very clean with streams from fire-hose nozzles. There was an efficient sewer system, ample electricity, and a telephone exchange with "hello girls" who would trace a party for you anywhere they could be reached. ...
The morning following our arrival, after breakfasting..., we sought out the source of the town's activity—the office of the Alaska Gastineau Mining Co., in the Valentine Building . . . and walked out with jobs. My friend was to work with Herman Tripp at Sum Dum Mine. ...Ed Russell published the "Dispatch." . . . "The Juneau Empire"... later, founded by John F. Strong and John W. Troy, . . .They had been associated in Nome with the "Nugget," and much later became governors of the Territory. ...
There was a staff-house with "private mess" down by Gold Creek at the foot of the tram and a big bunkhouse and a mess hall up the hill near the mine.... The mine was in the development and construction stages. Everybody in the organization was new and came from some other place.... ...the Alaska Gastineau mine was being developed for 6.000 tons of ore daily output.
The Alaska Juneau Mine, with an even more modern reduction plant, was planned for 10,000 tons a day, while across the channel the thirty-year-old Treadwell Mine properties were producing enough ore to keep some 2.000 stamps continuously pounding it to pulp 363 days a year. All this activity made the Juneau-Douglas operations for a short time at least, rank as the hard-rock miners' capital of the world....
I was thirty in 1913.... The very recollection of . . . that period fills me with pleasure. We can never recover the feeling we had toward each other in that distant simple age. The nearest I can think of to parallel it, would be a cruise ship that had been long enough at sea for everybody to get acquainted. We had a feeling of being of the world, but separated by time and distance. We were constantly refreshed by the arrival of new people from "below." ... at that period I had never met an adult Caucasian born in Alaska....
In 1912, the only automobile in town was Bart Thane's official Model T. It was chauffeur operated. The streets seemed full of horse-drawn vehicles, buggies, delivery wagons, big Studebaker ranch wagons, a lot of them designed so runners could be substituted for wheels when snow descended on the town. The freighters used "common sense" bob sleds in winter. There was no snow removal at that time. We just tromped it down and wore it out.
There was no radio, and no television in that distant age. But there was plenty of diversion in the big social hall for those off shift. We formed the Ptarmigan Club, and invited the whole town to a house warming dance when the place was opened for business....
It was almost the last stand in Alaska and in the West of the now forgotten art of driving workhorses. . . a string of five or six four-horse or six-horse teams, hitched to heavy Studebaker wagons, loaded high and safety-lashed, teamsters sitting on top or even standing precariously for a better view fore and aft with a handful of lines, would pull out of Willoughby Avenue at a fast walk along Front Street and then, with infinite care make the sharp turn up Seward—hoofs pounding, chains rattling, harness creaking, wheels rumbling, every axle speaking its piece—the leaders prancing proudly with necks arched under their reached manes. One team after another, that was the scene twice a day for several years. . . .
Jay Hayes, Alaska Road Commission superintendent . . . had to keep roads up without money.... By 1915 a few more autos appeared on the streets, plus a few delivery trucks. . . . Cash Cole bought a little red Model T. Doc Loussac, the druggist, had a black one shipped up....
Juneau was a busy seaport with big cargo and passenger ships docking nearly everyday and sometime three or four...."