Primary Name: McKenna, James

Filed as: McKenna, James

Also known as: James McKenna

Occupation / Association: Wharfinger; undertaker; merchant; real estate dealer; Charter Member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men's Igloo

Born: December 16, 1876, Fargo, North Dakota (also reported Miles City, Montana)

Died: December 20, 1918, Portland, Oregon

Associated places: Fargo, North Dakota; Miles City, Montana; Juneau, Alaska; Douglas, Alaska; Bennett City, British Columbia; Hunker Creek, Yukon Territory; Portland, Oregon

Keywords: James McKenna Juneau Alaska, Douglas Alaska undertakers, Juneau Ferry and Navigation Company wharfinger, Hunker Creek Yukon miners, Pioneers of Alaska Men's Igloo 6 charter member

Biography

James McKenna was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6 of the Pioneers of Alaska.

He was born on December 16, 1876, most likely in Fargo, North Dakota, though some records report Miles City, Montana, as his birthplace.

McKenna attended public school in Juneau from 1886 to 1889. He and his brother, Emmett McKenna, later attended seminary in Victoria, British Columbia, from 1889 to 1896.

In March 1897, he and his father departed on the steamship Rustler bound for the Yukon gold fields during the Klondike gold rush. His father died in Bennett City in June 1899 while the family was traveling out from Dawson. McKenna returned to the gold fields where he held a mining claim on Hunker Creek. He eventually returned to Juneau in September 1901.

The Douglas Island News of November 15, 1911, reported that McKenna would retire as wharfinger and general manager of the Juneau Ferry and Navigation Company wharf in Douglas. At that time, he was also listed among the undertakers in Douglas.

He later moved to Juneau, where he entered the mercantile and real estate business.

James McKenna died in Portland, Oregon, on December 20, 1918, while traveling with his family to Alabama.

Sources

Ancestry.com; Daily Alaska Empire, December 21, 1918; Survey and Inventory of Douglas Historic Cemeteries

Primary Name: Day, Hugh
Filed as: day_hugh
Also known as: Hugh Day
Occupation / Association: Miner; mail carrier; Charter Member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo No. 6
Born: c. 1863, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada
Died: December 31, 1916, Douglas, Alaska
Parents:
Spouse:
Children:
Associated places: St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada; Killisnoo, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska; Taku route; Klondike; Douglas, Alaska; Tenakee Springs, Alaska
Keywords: Hugh Day, Day Hugh, Juneau Men’s Igloo charter member, Klondike gold rush miners, Taku mail route Alaska

Biography

Hugh Day was a charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men’s Igloo No. 6.

Day was a native of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada. He came to Alaska when he was about twenty-one years of age and first settled in Killisnoo.

He later carried mail from Juneau to the interior via the Taku route. During the Klondike Gold Rush, he joined the large rush northward and located a rich claim, but lost it through speculation.

A day later returned to Douglas. His property was destroyed in the great Douglas fire of 1911, but he rebuilt and continued his life in the community. A few years before his death, he moved to Tenakee Springs.

In December 1916, he entered the hospital for treatment of a head injury, which he had originally received in a street fight when he was seventeen years old. The injury had caused him considerable trouble in later years. While in the hospital, he went into convulsions and died.

Hugh Day died in Douglas, Alaska, on December 31, 1916, at the age of fifty-three.

Sources

Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850–1950, Vol. 5, pp. 77–78, Ed Ferrell (May 1, 2009)

Hugh Day Day Hugh H Day

Primary Name: Northrup, Willard

Filed as: Northrup, Willard

Also known as: Willard Northrop

Occupation / Association: Prospector; steam engineer; charter member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo

Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Wrangell, Alaska; Cassiar District, British Columbia; Sitka, Alaska; Sitka Hot Springs, Alaska; Taku River, Alaska; Windham Bay, Alaska; Berners Bay, Alaska; Glacier Bay, Alaska; Lituya Bay, Alaska; Yakutat, Alaska; Yukon Territory; Dawson, Yukon

Keywords: Willard Northrup, Willard Northrop, Juneau pioneers, Pioneers of Alaska charter members, early Alaska prospectors, Cassiar mining district, Wrangell Alaska miners, Sitka Hot Springs miners, Taku River exploration, Windham Bay prospectors, Berners Bay mining history, Glacier Bay prospecting, Lituya Bay beach placers, Yakutat beach placers, Klondike Gold Rush miners, Dawson Yukon miners, Alaska territorial prospectors

Biography

Willard Northrup was an early Alaska prospector and a charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo. Born in 1850 in New York State, he came north during the early mining era of Alaska and British Columbia.

Northrup first traveled to Wrangell in 1877 and from there went into the Cassiar mining district. In the fall of 1879, he moved to Sitka, where he spent the winter at Sitka Hot Springs along with seventeen other Cassiar miners.

In the U.S. Navy census of April 1880, Northrup was listed as an American citizen, age thirty. During the summer of that year, he was prospecting throughout Southeastern Alaska and may have been the man sent by George Pilz to explore the Taku River region.

By 1881, Northrup was in Juneau, though he did not stake claims in the immediate area. Instead, he used Juneau as a base while prospecting throughout the region, including Windham Bay, Berners Bay, and the Glacier Bay country.

Beginning in 1887, he was among the first miners to work the beach placers along the Gulf of Alaska coast between Lituya Bay and Yakutat.

In 1892, Northrup traveled to the Yukon, and by 1895, he was briefly back in Juneau while en route to the Interior again. He was reported to have been among the earliest miners to reach Dawson following the Klondike gold discovery and apparently did well there.

In addition to prospecting, Northrup also worked as a steam engineer during his years in the North.

Sources

Pioneers of Alaska Men’s Igloo No. 6 Biographical Sketch.