Murry, Thomas
Thomas Murry lived in Hoonah and was married to a daughter of Lucy Shotter and George Ray Shotter, Senior.
Kane, L.
L. Kane lived in Hoonah and married the daughter of Lucy Shotter and George Ray Shotter, Senior.
Shotter, Frank
Frank Shotter of Hoonah was born to Lucy Shotter and George Ray Shotter, Senior. His siblings include George Ray Shotter, Junior on April 5, 1882 in Chermainus, British Columbia, Canada, Frank Shotter, Mrs. L. Kane (sp) and Mrs. Thomas Murry of Hoonah, Mrs. J.O. Ross of Seattle, and Margaret Shotter-Evans of California.
Shotter, Lucy
Lucy Shotter was a Tlinigit from Wrangell.
She married George Ray Shotter, Senior. Their children include George Ray Shotter, Junior on April 5, 1882 in Chermainus, British Columbia Canada, Frank Shotter, Mrs. L. Kane (sp) and Mrs. Thomas Murry of Hoonah, Mrs. J.O. Ross of Seattle, and Margaret Shotter-Evans of California.
Shotter, Frances W.
Frances W. Shotter was married to George Ray Shotter, Jr. They had no living children when he died.
Shotter, George Ray Jr.
George Ray Shotter, Junior was born April 5, 1882 in Chermainus, British Columbia Canada to George Ray Shotter, Senior of Canada and Lucy Shotter of Wrangell. Siblings include Frank Shotter, Mrs. L. Kane (sp) and Mrs. Thomas Murry of Hoonah, Mrs. J.O. Ross of Seattle, and Margaret Shotter-Evans of California.
He was of mixed race, 5'9", 145 pounds, dark complexion and dark hair.
He married Frances W. Shotter from Hoonah. They had no living children at the time of his death.
Shotter worked as a fox rancher.
He died of pneumonia on January 4, 1931 at age 48 in St. Ann's Hospital after a 20 day stay with Dr. W.W. Council attending. Shotter was buried in the Douglas Indian Cemetery, with Chas W. Carter undertaker.
Harris, Kitty
Kitty Harris, a Tlingit from Hoonah, married Richard Harris around 1880.
In March 1881, they purchased Lots 1 and 2 on Telephone Hill Historic Neighborhood from George Pilz and his wife. They sold Lot 1 and built a house on Lot 2 at 219 Second Street.
To their union four children were born. William J. Harris, Jr., was born on May 14, 1882; he died 2 days later.
A second son was born to them on March 29, 1884, also named William J. Harris, Jr.
On November 10, 1885, Richard Tighe Harris, Jr. was born.
Two-and-a half years later, on March 22, 1888, Mary Kelchine Harris was born.
Kitty Harris and the three children were baptized on Sunday, July 15, 1888, by Reverend Eugene S. Willard in the Presbyterian Church in Harrisburgh, Alaska.
Mary Kelchine Harris died on February 24, 1889, at the age of 11 months.
Kitty Harris died in February 1893, at 26 years of age.
Bayless House
The Edward Bayless House is located at 211 Dixon Street in the Telephone Hill Historic Neighborhood.
Ownership documentation of Lots 1 and 2 reveals that George Pilz and his wife sold the property to Juneau co-founder Richard T. Harris in March 1881.
Pilz grubstaked Joe Juneau and Richard Harris during their search for southeast Alaska gold. When Juneau's two founders discovered gold and reported to Pilz, he joined the others in staking local claims.
Although 1901 tax records show "lots and a building" and site improvements valued at $1,000, the Edward Bayless House located at on Lot 2 at 211 Dixon Street is reportedly visible in an 1885 photograph.
In a October 13, 1904 letter Richard wrote his brother that their father, "wants to sell the back lot so he can put up a new house and have money in case anything should happen to him." The boys own the place and he asks his brother to send permission for their father to sell the land. The permission was given but Harris did not sell the property as it will increase in value because the town is growing fast as was revealed in a November 20, 1904 letter.
The Harris family lived in a house on an adjacent lot at 219 Second Street, although Kitty Harris died in 1893 and Richard Harris died in 1907. William John Harris, Junior inherited the property on his father's death.
The original residence was replaced around 1910; the second structure stood until the late 1950s. Harris married Kitty, a Tlingit from Hoonah, in the 1880s. They raised four children in the Telephone Hill home. William Harris, the oldest surviving child, inherited the house after his father's death in 1907 (Walle, 1981). William was nationally published political cartoonist who was involved in early Alaska Native Rights efforts.
Harris maintained property ownership until 1912, when Claire Bayless and Edward Bayless purchased Lot 1 and built the Edward Bayless House. In 1913, tax records indicate a building was situated on the Bayless lot, and a 1916 entry lists a law library on the premises valued at $175.
Bayless, a registered Republican, engaged in a law partnership with Louis P. Shackleford. The Baylesses retained property ownership until 1921, selling to Thomas J. McCaul, owner of a cigar store on Front Street. McCaul continued ownership until 1933.
In 1941, Senna Paul Powers bought Lots 1 and 2 and the house.
The Bayless House, a rectangular, 30'x44.5', 1½-story Craftsman Shingle structure, has retained its architectural integrity. The post-and-beam frame is covered with cedar shakes and rests on a poured concrete foundation. The gabled roof is composition shingle-covered, and a chimney sits on the ridgeline. Extended eaves with fascia boards are visible.
The west facade features two gabled dormers. The original, double-hung sash windows with upper multi-lites are symmetrically arranged on all facades. Some original, wood storm windows are evident.
A small entry vestibule, oriented west, is centrally located on the main facade. Vintage doors appear here and at the basement entrance on the north facade. Small, multi-lite windows are located on the front entry, and smaller units appear on the basement level. The main floor is divided into two apartments; the upper floor contains one unit.
Telephone Hill Historic Site and Structures Survey, 1984, found that this well-built, unpretentious residence is important architecturally. A fine example of the Craftsman-Shingle style popular on the West Coast during the early 20th century, it has retained its architectural integrity. This distinctive design is evident in the building's original craftsman-like use of local and natural materials.
The most striking characteristic of this natural style is the dark-stained shake shingles covering the entire residence. The prolific use of shingles makes decorative trimming unnecessary. Other stylistic features include a moderately pitched, rectangular roof with gabled dormers. The eave overhangs were kept short for maximum display of the shingled walls. The original double-hung sash windows are grouped in twos and threes.
The house has undergone minimal structural alterations. It was found to be a contributing member of the Telephone Hill Historic Neighborhood.
Mayflower School
The Mayflower School aka the Douglas Island Community Center is a two-and-one-half story, wood frame structure is at the corner of St. Anns and Savikko Road on the northwest corner. The building sits on a banked slope overlooking Gastineau channel, and Juneau can be seen to the northwest.
The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs built Mayflower School in 1933-1934 to serve as a model for Native schools in Alaska. The Bureau wanted the school to provide vocational education for Native children and to serve as a community center for the Douglas Tllngits.
The Daily Alaska Empire (10/13/35) informed its readers that the operation of Mayflower School was a "radical departure from the old."
The handsome building represents a significant tie with the past for many in the Douglas Native community and is the only Native school building in the Juneau-Douglas area still standing. It is the only Colonial Revival Bureau of Indian Affairs school in Alaska.
Education of Alaska Natives began when the Russian-Amerlcan Company and Russian Orthodox Church opened schools in Alaska at their major posts to provide education and vocational training for Creole and Native children. After the transfer of Alaska to the United States in 1867, the church continued to support several schools around Alaska.
The U S Government did not undertake responsibility for educating all Alaska Native children although it required the Alaska Commercial Company to operate schools for the Aleut children on the Pribilof Islands as a condition of the company’s 20-year exclusive lease to hunt fur seals on the Islands. Shortly after the transfer, the residents of Sitka supported a public school for all children interested in attending, but it closed in 1870 when the city's economy declined.
The Presbyterian Home Mission Society was the first American missionary group to open schools in Alaska for the Native children. In 1877, their first school opened at Fort Wrangell, and by 1884 the Presbyterians had schools at Sitka, Haines, Hoonah, Fort Tongass and Howkan.
Finally, in 1885 Congress provided for the establishment and support of public schools in Alaska "for Native and non-native children and appropriated $25,000 for this purpose. After Alaska became a territory, the Territorial Legislature established a Department of Education in 1917. Most of the schools supported by the Territory were in the larger non-Native communities. Control of education for Alaska Natives was transferred from the Secretary of the Interior to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The community of Douglas started as a mining camp in 1881 and grew due to the success of the adjacent lode gold Treadwell Mines. Many Natives moved to Douglas and worked at the mines.
The Friends Society of Kansas sent Elwood W. Weisner and Francis W. Baugham to Douglas to establish a school and home for Natives in the summer of 1887. The home accommodated 14 boarding students and the same number of day students. Because it was the only school on Douglas Island, it was attended by both Native and non-Natlve children. It operated until 1902, when the missionaries moved to Kake, another Southeast Alaska community.
The federal government built a school in Douglas for Native children in 1890 at a cost of $900. In 1902, a second school was constructed on the beach near the Native village that served until it burned in 1926. In their annual reports to the Bureau of Education, teachers repeatedly complained about the poor condition of the school.
The fire of October 11, 1926 burned the entire Douglas Indian village that included 42 homes, the school, stores and churches, as well as a number of homes outside of the Native village. After the fire, the teacher, Rose Davis, requested permission to rent quarters for herself and the school.
From 1926 to 1934 Native children in Douglas attended school in a variety of locations. One informant recalls classes being held in the upstairs of an old theater. In 1933-1934 the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs constructed a number of school buildings throughout Alaska from a Public Works Administration grant of $175,000 supplement ed by $30,000 in Territorial funds. By September 1934, new schools stood at Teller, Buckland, Little Diomede Island, Hydaburg, and Douglas. The Douglas School cost $9,500.
The name Douglas Indian Community Center was replaced with Mayflower School. This name was derived from Mayflower Island, a tiny island located in Gastlneau Channel off Douglas Island. The school built by local citizens under the direction of the Southwestern District of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Alaska region, was a handsome white-bodied, green-shuttered, Colonial Revival building. Mayflower School operated as a school for Douglas Native children only for six years.
In 1940, it merged with the Juneau Government School. Native children from Douglas and Juneau were divided by grades between the two schools. In 1948, the school system for Native children merged with the local public school system. The Bureau of Indian Affairs turned over the school to the City of Douglas to be used for school purposes. Douglas and Juneau public schools consolidated in 1955, Juneau and Douglas city governments consolidated in 1970, and Mayflower School was added to the real estate holdings of the new political incorporation.
Rose Davis taught Native children in Douglas for 20 years, and was the principal teacher at Mayflower School from 1934 to 1942. The Dally Alaska Empire reported on June 2, 1934 that starting July 1st Mrs. Davis would advance to all-year service because the Bureau of Indian Affairs envisioned Mayflower School as a "real community center in connection with the wonderful facilities of the new school building."
The newspaper quoted Charles W. Hawkesworth, Chief of the Bureau, in its October 13, 1935 issue on the new approach to education that Mayflower School would pursue. It would have a more home like setting, and emphasize "a practical type of education." Children would learn vocational skills such as taxidermy, boat and furniture building, coffin making, weaving, and rug making. In the classroom, the children had tables and chairs suited to their size instead of benches and desks.
Mrs. Davis opened the library to the community in the evenings. The recreation room had a basketball hoop, and was also open after school hours. The Native community was encouraged to use the showers, laundry facilities, and kitchen in the school. The Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood regularly held meetings at the school, and the organizational meeting of the Douglas Indian Association took place in the recreation room.