Tressing, Carrie
Carol "Carrie" B. Benson was a Charter Member of Juneau Igloo Women's Auxilary No. 6.
She was born to Mary and Byron E. Benson in June of 1890 in North Dakota. Byron came to Juneau in January 1898 to work as a miner. The family followed sometime after 1900 and they lived in Skagway.
Carrie married Simon M. Tressing who was a Warrant Officer in the U.S. Army. Their daughter Kathleen M. was born 1913 in California. Carrie was living with parents in Juneau in 1920.
Simon retired and they were living in New Hanover, New Jersey in 1940. Carol died on July 10, 1940 in Queens, New York.
1900 U.S. Federal Census Dickinson, North Dakota, 1910 U.S. Federal Census Skagway,
1920/1930 U.S. Federal Census Brooklyn New York Ft Hamilton
Berggren, Elvird
Primary Name: Berggren, Elvird
Filed as: berggren_elvird
Also known as:
Occupation / Association: President, Juneau Men's Igloo; Pioneers of Alaska
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Associated places: Juneau, Alaska
Keywords: Elvird Berggren, Berggren Elvird, Juneau Men's Igloo President, Pioneers of Alaska, Igloo 6, Juneau Alaska, 1969
Biography
Elvird Berggren served as President of the Juneau Men's Igloo in 1969. The Juneau Men's Igloo is the local lodge of the Pioneers of Alaska, an organization founded in 1894 to preserve Alaska's history and recognize the contributions of early residents to the development of the territory and state.
Sources
Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men's Igloo records
Tags: Elvird Berggren, Berggren Elvird, Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men's Igloo, Igloo 6, Juneau Alaska
Briggs, William
Primary Name: Briggs, William
Filed as: briggs_william
Also known as: William Briggs
Occupation / Association: President, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo (1950)
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Associated places: Juneau, Alaska
Keywords: William Briggs, Briggs William, Juneau Men's Igloo presidents
Biography
William Briggs served as President of the Juneau Men’s Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska in 1950.
Sources
Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men’s Igloo records.
Tags: William Briggs, Briggs William, Juneau Men's Igloo, Pioneers of Alaska
Zenger, Al
Zenger family portrait, Juneau, Alaska. Sebastian, Carrie, and Alfred Zenger Sr. and family, 1941.
Primary Name: Zenger, Al
Filed as: Zenger, Al
Also known as: Alfred Zenger Sr.; Al Zenger Sr.
Occupation / Association: President, Juneau Men's Igloo; cigar manufacturer; accountant; Alaska Juneau Gold Mine employee; U.S. Navy Reserve veteran
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Douglas, Alaska; Seattle, Washington; Sutton, Alaska; Tenakee, Alaska; Sitka, Alaska; Point Louisa, Alaska; Cook Inlet, Alaska; Dyea, Alaska
Keywords: Zenger family, Alfred Zenger Sr., Sebastian B. Zenger, Juneau pioneers, early Juneau families, Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men's Igloo, cigar manufacturing in Alaska, Alaska Juneau Gold Mine, U.S. Navy Reserve, Dyea Trail, Klondike era settlers, Alaska territorial history
Biography
Alfred “Al” Zenger Sr. was an early Juneau resident, businessman, veteran, and community leader who served as President of the Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo in 1948. He was the son of Sebastian B. Zenger, a Bavarian immigrant whose family became part of the fabric of early Juneau civic and commercial life.
Sebastian B. Zenger was born on March 18, 1862, in Kallmuenz, Bavaria. He immigrated to the United States when he was nineteen years old. He first came to Alaska in 1896, going to the Cook Inlet district. When the stampede to the Klondike began in 1897, he went to Dyea, where he packed for wages on the Dyea Trail in 1897 and 1898. He left Seattle in 1897 by steamship for Juneau in search of work. In October 1898, Sebastian moved his wife, Carrie, and children, Bertha, Alfred Sr., Theresa, and Hilda, to Juneau, where he was employed as a carpenter.
Through family friends, a romance blossomed between Sebastian’s eldest daughter, Bertha, and Joseph Trudgeon, a young merchant and co-owner of a dairy farm in Douglas. Joseph was born in 1879 in Quebec, England, to Joseph Trudgeon and Josepiah Ruth Haydon. Bertha and Joseph were married in Douglas in 1906.
In Juneau, the Zenger family resided for nearly a decade, from about 1910, on the second floor of a two-story wooden-frame building at the southwest corner of Third and Main Streets. The first floor was occupied by the manufacture of cigars. That structure later had a colorful history, serving at different times as a dance hall and later as a church space. It housed the Resurrection Lutheran Church from the 1930s to the mid-1950s, when a new church building was constructed at Glacier Avenue and 10th Street. In the 1960s, the building was razed to widen Main Street.
Sebastian and his son Alfred manufactured a variety of cigars in Juneau. The basswood molds used in that work were reportedly burned as firewood sometime in 1932, though by the 1990s, such molds had become desirable antique items. Tobacco for the manufacture of handmade cigars arrived in hogsheads by steamboat. Ships usually made monthly, and later biweekly, runs through Southeast Alaska before returning to Seattle. These vessels were the lifelines of the communities for every need. Livestock arrived alive and were slaughtered on the dock as needed, and butter was shipped in kegs packed in salt brine because ships of that era lacked refrigeration.
In the early summer of 1910, Sebastian sent his son Alfred to check on a mining venture in which he had invested at Sutton in the Matanuska Valley. Alfred departed Juneau aboard the steamer Star of Seattle. While on the Gulf of Alaska, a storm raged so severely that he saw the same point of land for three consecutive days. Upon arrival at Portage on the Kenai Peninsula, he hiked over the portage to the head of Cook Inlet, where Anchorage now stands. At that time, there was only one cabin on the beach. Throughout their lives, Sebastian and Alfred became involved in various ventures in hopes of striking it rich, grubstaking, or putting up venture capital for assorted enterprises.
About 1914, a romance flourished between Theresa Zenger and Hubert C. Huehn, a linotype operator for the Daily Dispatch. Hubert was the son of John Esch Huehn and Amelia Lundy, born in 1890 in Morden, Manitoba, Canada. Theresa and Hubert were married in Douglas in 1914 and later moved to California.
In 1916, Sebastian’s youngest daughter, Hilda, married Eugene Allen Rowe, the son of Richard Valentine Rowe and Maria Z. Miller. Eugene was born in 1894 in Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin. In 1919, that couple moved to Seattle.
During World War I, Alfred enlisted in the Navy Reserve in Seattle in 1917 and attended the first U.S. Navy class in radio-telephone at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Upon graduation, he was assigned to the Naval Training Center in Seattle to teach radio-telephone operations. He was released from active duty in 1918 and discharged from the Naval Reserve in 1921.
While on active duty with the Navy in Seattle, Alfred met Silva Ann Redman through relatives. She was born in 1898 in Seattle, King County, Washington, the ninth of ten children of John David and Emilia Redman. The couple married in Seattle in 1919. Shortly after the wedding, they left for Juneau, honeymooning at Tenakee and Sitka.
According to the 1920 census, no Zengers were residing in Juneau, suggesting a division in the family between those who wished to remain stateside in Seattle and those who desired to remain in Juneau. In early 1920, Sebastian again took up residence in Juneau at 121 West Fourth Street at the corner of Calhoun Avenue. Alfred and Silva resided in a small apartment upstairs. During the early 1920s, Sebastian opened and operated a curio shop on South Franklin Street, continuing until his death in 1932. After spending the summer of 1932 at the family’s cabin near Point Louisa, approximately sixteen miles from Juneau, the family again took up residence in the grandfather’s home on Calhoun Avenue.
As the territorial government expanded, the demand for office space in Juneau increased. The City of Juneau gave land for an office building on the site of the city hall and the old Arctic Brotherhood Building. The new structure was to face Main Street between Third and Fourth Streets. Alfred and Silva were not pleased by the prospect of a four- or five-story office building being erected next to their home. During excavation, blasting by the contractor’s powder man damaged the Zenger residence, the Cooper Building, and automobiles across Main Street. Damages were repaired, and the house remained in the Zenger family possession until 1965.
Alfred and Silva remained in Juneau, where their children were born: Alfred Jr. in 1920, Harold in 1922, Ned in 1925, and Chester in 1927. Alfred Sr. worked at various times as a cigar maker in Seattle and Juneau. He also found employment at the Alaska Juneau Gold Mine as a flume keeper. After taking correspondence courses to become an accountant, he worked for the Sanitary Grocery on Front Street, Connors Motor on South Franklin Street, and Empire Printing Company on Main and Second Streets. In 1950, he traveled to Germany to visit his family. Upon his return to Juneau, he obtained temporary employment with the Veterans Administration and later with the Department of Alaska American Legion. He held these positions at the time of his death in Juneau in 1954. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in the American Legion Plot.
After Alfred Sr.’s death, Silva married Robert H. Hanson in 1962 in Fall City, Washington, where they resided. She died in Kirkland, Washington, in 1992.
Later family notes record that Alfred Jr. resided in Florida, Ned lived in Idaho, Chester died in 1999, and Harold died in May 2001.
Through his work, family ties, military service, and leadership in the Pioneers of Alaska, Alfred Zenger Sr. is part of the larger story of early Juneau families who helped shape the city's commercial, social, and fraternal life.
Sources
- Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men’s Igloo records
- Zenger family historical narrative
- Juneau historical records
Booth, Frank
Primary Name: Booth, Frank
Filed as: booth_frank
Also known as: Frank Booth
Occupation / Association: Salesman; Charter Member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo No. 6
Born: 1891, California
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Associated places: California; Treadwell, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska
Keywords: Frank Booth, Booth Frank, Juneau Men's Igloo members
Biography
Frank Booth was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska.
Booth was born in California in 1891. In the 1920 U.S. Federal Census, he was listed as a salesman living in Treadwell, Alaska.
Sources
1920 U.S. Federal Population Census.
Tags: Frank Booth, Booth Frank, Juneau Men's Igloo, Treadwell residents
Brie, Henry
Primary Name: Brie, Henry
Filed as: brie_henry
Also known as: Henry Brie
Occupation / Association: Merchant; Saloon owner; Charter Member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo No. 6
Born: November 1868, Germany
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Associated places: Germany; Porcupine City (near Haines), Alaska; Douglas, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska
Keywords: Henry Brie, Brie Henry, Douglas saloon owners, Porcupine City merchants
Biography
Henry Brie was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska.
Brie was born in November 1868 in Germany. He immigrated to the United States in 1890 and came to Alaska in April 1898.
By 1900, he was a merchant and saloon owner in Porcupine City near Haines, Alaska.
From approximately 1903 to 1914, he owned and operated a saloon in Douglas, Alaska.
Sources
1900 U.S. Federal Population Census; 1910 U.S. Federal Population Census.
Tags: Henry Brie, Brie Henry, Juneau Men's Igloo, Douglas saloon owners, Porcupine City residents
Cleveland, Philo J.
Primary Name: Cleveland, Philo J.
Filed as: cleveland_philo_j
Also known as: Philo J. Cleveland
Occupation / Association: Carpenter; Charter Member, Juneau Men's Igloo
Born: January 1880, Ohio
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Associated places: Ohio; Skagway, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska; Seattle, Washington
Keywords: Philo J Cleveland, Cleveland Philo J, Juneau Men's Igloo carpenter
Biography
Philo J. Cleveland was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo.
Cleveland was born in Ohio in January 1880. His family came to Alaska in 1896 and was living in Skagway at the time of the 1900 United States Census, where he was working as a carpenter.
He came to Juneau around 1912 and lived there until about 1917, then moved to Seattle, Washington.
Sources
1900 U.S. Federal Census
Tags: Philo J Cleveland, Cleveland Philo J, Juneau Men's Igloo, Alaska carpenters, Juneau Alaska pioneers
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
Frisk, Frederick M.
Primary Name: Fisk, Fred
Filed as: Fisk, Fred
Also known as: Fred Fisk
Occupation / Association: Restaurant worker; charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men's Igloo
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Pennsylvania
Keywords: Fred Fisk, Fisk family, Juneau pioneers, Pioneers of Alaska charter members, Juneau Men's Igloo, early Juneau residents, Alaska restaurant workers, Alaska territorial period
Biography
Fred Fisk was an early resident of Juneau and a charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men's Igloo, one of the fraternal organizations established to preserve the history and fellowship of Alaska’s early settlers.
Fisk was born in August 1878 in Pennsylvania. Like many young men of his generation, he was drawn north during the closing years of the nineteenth century when Alaska and the Yukon were experiencing rapid growth connected with mining and frontier development.
He arrived in Alaska in 1897, during the same period that thousands of prospectors and workers were traveling north in response to the Klondike gold rush. While many newcomers attempted prospecting, others found work supporting the rapidly expanding communities that served miners and travelers.
Fisk worked in the restaurant business, an occupation that played an important role in frontier towns such as Juneau, where miners, dock workers, merchants, and travelers depended on boarding houses, cafes, and restaurants for daily meals. Establishments providing food and lodging were essential to sustaining the population of early Southeast Alaska communities.
His participation as a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo reflects his presence in the community during the Pioneers of Alaska organization's formative years. The fraternal order was created to promote fellowship among Alaska’s early settlers and to preserve the stories and history of those who helped build the territory’s early towns.
Although only limited biographical details about Fisk survive in historical records, his membership among the charter pioneers places him among the early residents who contributed to the development and civic life of Juneau during Alaska’s territorial period.
Sources
- 1900 U.S. Federal Population Census
- Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men's Igloo records
Hiepe, Adolf
Primary Name: Hiepe, Adolf
Filed as: hiepe_adolf
Also known as: Adolf Hiepe
Occupation / Association: Fisherman; Charter Member, Juneau Men's Igloo
Born: October 1863, Germany
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Associated places: Germany; Juneau, Alaska
Keywords: Adolf Hiepe, Hiepe Adolf, Juneau Men's Igloo charter member, Juneau fishermen
Biography
Adolf Hiepe was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo.
Hiepe was born in Germany in October 1863. He immigrated to the United States in 1879.
In the 1910 U.S. Federal Census for Juneau, Alaska, he is listed as working as a fisherman.
Sources
1910 U.S. Federal Population Census
Tags: Adolf Hiepe, Hiepe Adolf, Juneau Men's Igloo, Juneau Alaska residents, German immigrants Alaska