White, Elmer "Stroller" J.
Elmer J. White was President of the Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6 in 1922 and 1923.
White was born near Cambridge, Ohio about 1860. He married Josephine Keys in December 1881 in Tacoma, Washington. They had two sons, John McBurney White and Albert Hamilton White, and a daughter, Lenora White.
Before coming to Alaska, White worked as a newspaperman in Washington State and Florida. He began his career in the North in 1898 as a member of the staff of the Skagway News.
He later moved to Dawson to accept a position with the Dawson Nugget. From the “Stroller's Column” in that newspaper, he adopted the pseudonym by which he became widely known to his friends.
White subsequently moved to Whitehorse, where he purchased the Whitehorse Star, which he published and edited successfully for several years. He later came to Douglas and purchased the Douglas Island News.
He maintained the newspaper either as owner or lessor until the abandonment of mining and milling operations at Douglas. At that time, he transferred the printing plant to Juneau and renamed the publication Stroller's Weekly.
In addition to his newspaper activities, White was active in politics as a Democrat. Known for fairness in partisanship, he commanded the respect and often the support of political opponents.
He served the public as Territorial Publicity Director from 1918 to 1921. He was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1918, and his colleagues' regard was demonstrated by his elevation to the Speakership. At the request of party associates, he ran for Congress in 1922 and conducted a respected campaign.
Elmer J. “Stroller” White died in Juneau on September 28, 1930.
Daily Alaska Empire, September 29, 1930
LeFevre, Henry B.
Primary Name: LeFevre, Henry Belfield
Filed as: henry_belfield_lefevre
Also known as: Henry B. LeFevre; Henry Lefevre; Judge Henry Belfield LeFevre
Occupation / Association: Judge; Lawyer; Newspaper Editor; President, Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6 (1921)
Born: April 8, 1857, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Died:
Parents: George Lefevre; Emma Beal Lefevre
Spouse: Married April 5, 1891, Puyallup, Washington
Children: Ruth Elizabeth LeFevre
Associated places: Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Europe; Lone Rock, Oregon; Wisconsin; Kalama, Washington; Columbia River District; Heppner, Oregon; Puyallup, Washington; Dyea, Alaska; Skagway, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska
Keywords: Henry Belfield LeFevre, Henry B. LeFevre, Judge Henry LeFevre, Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6 President 1921, Skagway Alaskan editor, John W. Troy, Treadwell Mine employees
Biography
Judge Henry Belfield LeFevre served as President of the Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6 of the Pioneers of Alaska in 1921.
He was born on April 8, 1857, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the grandson of the Rev. Clement Fall Lefevre, prominent in the history of the State of Wisconsin, and the son of George Lefevre and Emma Beal Lefevre, daughter of the Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin in the 1850s.
As a child during the Franco-Prussian War, LeFevre spent five years in Europe with his mother, who had traveled there for her health. During that time, he learned to speak French and Spanish fluently. Because of this ability, many acquaintances in Alaska later believed he was French, although he was of English descent.
After the death of his father in 1871, LeFevre moved from Wisconsin to Lone Rock in eastern Oregon, where he engaged in raising stock and served in several clerical capacities. While there, he began studying law, specializing in probate work. He was also among the early students of the University of Notre Dame.
LeFevre practiced law for several years in Wisconsin and later in Kalama, Washington, and along the Columbia River district. In Heppner, Oregon, he entered the newspaper business and became editor of the Gazette, later taking over the Citizen in Puyallup, Washington.
He was married in Puyallup on April 5, 1891, and had one daughter, Ruth Elizabeth LeFevre.
LeFevre came to Alaska alone in 1895 and worked for the Treadwell Mine. He lived in Dyea and Skagway for about seventeen years, and in Skagway was associated with John W. Troy in publishing the Skagway Alaskan. His mother later joined him in Alaska and lived with him there until her death.
Sources
Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6 records
Tags: Henry Belfield LeFevre, Henry B. LeFevre, Judge Henry LeFevre, Clement Fall Lefevre, George Lefevre, Emma Beal Lefevre, Ruth Elizabeth LeFevre, Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6, Pioneers of Alaska, Skagway Alaskan editors, Treadwell Mine employees
Strong, John Franklin Alexander
Primary Name: Strong, John Franklin Alexander
Filed as: Strong, John F. A.
Also known as: John Franklin Alexander Strong; J.F.A. Strong; Governor John Strong; Major Strong
Occupation / Association: Governor of Alaska Territory; newspaper editor and publisher; charter member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo
Associated places: Salmon Creek, New Brunswick, Canada; Fredericton, New Brunswick; Spokane, Washington; Bellingham, Washington; Seattle, Washington; Tacoma, Washington; Skagway, Alaska; Dawson, Yukon Territory; Nome, Alaska; Iditarod, Alaska; Katalla, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska
Keywords: John F A Strong, Governor of Alaska Territory, Alaska Daily Empire founder, Nome Nugget newspaper, Skagway Klondike journalism, Soapy Smith opposition, Juneau Men’s Igloo charter members, Alaska territorial politics
Biography
John Franklin Alexander “Major” Strong was a newspaper publisher, territorial leader, and charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo. He served as the tenth Governor of the Territory of Alaska from 1913 to 1918.
Strong was born in Salmon Creek, New Brunswick, Canada, on October 15, 1856. He graduated from the New Brunswick Normal School in 1874 and spent the next fourteen years working as a teacher and store owner throughout the province.
On December 31, 1879, he married Elizabeth A. Aitken of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and the couple had three children. Strong later married Anna Hall of Seattle in 1896.
A newspaperman by profession, Strong worked with newspapers in Spokane, Bellingham, Seattle, and Tacoma. In 1897, he and his wife traveled north to Skagway during the Klondike gold rush. While planning to continue to the Klondike, the booming town of Skagway provided an opportunity for journalism. Strong soon became editor of a local newspaper and wrote strongly against the criminal activities of “Soapy” Smith and his gang, supporting the efforts of law-abiding citizens to restore order in the town.
In 1899, Strong headed to the Klondike and briefly tried prospecting before returning to newspaper work with the Dawson News. Later that year, he went to Nome, Alaska, where he established the Nome Nugget in 1900 and operated it successfully for many years.
Strong later founded newspapers in Iditarod and Katalla, and even operated a paper in a mining camp in Arizona before returning north once again. In November 1912, he founded the Alaska Daily Empire in Juneau.
President Woodrow Wilson nominated Strong as Governor of the Alaska Territory on April 17, 1913. He was sworn into office on May 21, 1913. His administration faced immediate financial difficulties when salmon canneries refused to pay a territorial tax on canned salmon, a major source of revenue for the young territorial government.
During Strong’s tenure, several important developments occurred in Alaska. Legislation and policies during this period included the implementation of workers’ compensation laws, the establishment of the territory’s first old-age pension system, the creation of a territorial Board of Education, and the authorization of a territorial university. Major events affecting Alaska at the time included the construction of the Alaska Railroad, beginning in 1914, and the creation of Mount McKinley National Park in 1917. Territorial voters also approved a prohibition referendum in 1917.
President Wilson declined to reappoint Strong to a second term, and his final day in office came in April 1918. According to later accounts, the decision may have been influenced by information suggesting that Strong, who had been born in Canada, had never formally completed the United States naturalization process.
John F. A. Strong died in Seattle, Washington on July 27, 1929.
Sources
Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850–1950, Vol. 2, pp. 309–310; Vol. 3, pp. 282–283, Ed Ferrell
Wikipedia: John Franklin Alexander Strong
Gruening Cabin
Built during the summer of 1947, the Ernest Gruening Cabin is located at Mile 26 Glacier Highway, northwest of downtown Juneau. Gruening leased the 4.9 acre tract of land on which the cabin stands from the U.S. Forest Service in 1946, under provisions of the Small Tract Act of 1935, and later received title to it.
The cabin is oriented with a view to the west and overlooks Favorite Channel of Lynn Canal in southeast Alaska. The northeastern edge of the property is bordered by Salt Lake, where a low waterfall empties into Eagle Harbor. The southern boundary adjoins Amalga Harbor Road.
In 1947, Ernest Gruening, Territorial Governor of Alaska from 1939 to 1953, had a one-and-one-half story cabin built at a site twenty-six miles north of downtown Juneau. Malcolm MacKay was the architect, Fred Jacobsen and Hunt Gruening built it. The cabin is the only building in Alaska, other than the Governor's Mansion, directly associated with Gruening.
During his years in Alaska, Gruening fought for statehood, for a strong military presence in Alaska, and for more equal treatment of all Alaskans. In the spring of 1953 when President Eisenhower appointed a new territorial governor, Dorothy and Ernest Gruening moved from the Governor's Mansion to the cabin.
The cabin served as Gruening's principal residence from 1953 until November 1958 when Alaskans elected him one of their first U.S. Senators and he moved to Washington, D.C.
In his 1974 eulogy of Ernest Gruening, Carey McWilliams observed, "The persona never engulfed the self with Ernest Gruening. The public citizen and the private person were one and the same . . . and few Americans of his generation had a richer or more varied experience in public affairs. He was a man of impeccable honor and integrity, indomitable spirit and extraordinary moral courage . . . and, more than any one person, was responsible for the successful drive to acquire statehood . . . for Alaska." (The Nation. Julv 20, 1974, pp. 36-37).
Ernest Gruening was born in 1887 in New York City. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1912, but never practiced medicine. Instead, he pursued a career in journalism, and was managing editor of The New York Tribune newspaper and The Nation.
In 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Gruening to be the first director of the Division of Territories and Island Possessions in the Department of the Interior.
Gruening served in this position until his appointment as governor of the Territory of Alaska in 1939.
Gruening first visited Alaska in May 1936, to deliver the commencement address at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. On his tour through southeast, southcentral, and interior Alaska, Gruening noted the lack of adequate health facilities, inadequate harbors and housing, separate school systems for white and native children, and the high shipping costs between Seattle and Alaska. His interest in helping the territory get the many necessary and basic services it lacked led to his appointment as territorial governor.
As governor, Gruening pushed statehood for Alaska. He addressed the concerns expressed by members of Congress and the Department of the Interior; spearheading a personal income tax bill to show that Alaskans were willing to pay for state government, encouraging the Territorial Legislature to create a statehood commission, and promoting economic development.
Recognizing the strategic importance of Alaska in the war against Japan— and the development and revenue military activity would bring to the territory, Gruening
campaigned exhaustively for construction of air bases in Alaska. He termed Alaska the "first line of defense" for America and organized the Alaska Territorial Guard. After World War II, Gruening fought for continued military involvement in Alaska.
He also worked to end discrimination against Alaska Natives, and to get funding to combat tuberculosis that was epidemic in Alaska.
In 1953, the new Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower replaced Gruening as territorial governor. Gruening moved from the Governor's Mansion and to his cabin. There he continued to advocate Alaska statehood and tirelessly wrote articles for national magazines and newspapers. His 606-page book. The State of Alaska, was published in 1954. The State of Alaska chronicles Alaska's history and advocates statehood for Alaska. One reviewer wrote that the book "presented a powerful argument for statehood, [and] was undoubtedly written with that purpose in view. The case it makes is all the more compelling because it is predicated not upon an
emotional plea by one whose emotions are so surely involved, but rather upon a relentless review of facts which expose with dramatic clarity the disheartening effect of Governmental neglect, confusion, and bureaucracy on the one hand and exploitation by powerful economic interests on the other" (Saturday Review. February 12, 1955, p. 17).
Alaska achieved statehood on January 3, 1959. It took the combined efforts of many Alaskans, but Gruening was one of the chief architects and a
seemingly tireless crusader.
While he was territorial governor and after, Gruening entertained many notable guests at the cabin, among them presidential aspirant Adlai Stevenson, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, novelist Edna Ferber, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, and Senator John F. Kennedy.
Although away from the cabin quite a bit promoting statehood, the Gruenings lived there from 1953 until 1958, when Alaskans elected Gruening as one of the first
United States Senators from the new State of Alaska. After they moved to Washington, D.C., the couple visited the cabin whenever they were in the state. A
fter his death in 1974, Gruening's ashes were scattered on the mountain behind the cabin, now named Mount Gruening. The family owned the cabin until 1989 when the State of Alaska purchased the property for an historic park.