Primary Name: Boyd, W. C.

Filed as: boyd_w_c

Also known as: W. C. Boyd

Occupation / Association: Prospector; Manager, Alaska Snettisham Gold Mining Company; Douglas Cemetery Committee Clerk

Born: ca. 1837

Died: 1917, Sitka Pioneer Home, Sitka, Alaska

Parents:

Spouse:

Children:

Associated places: Douglas, Alaska; Snettisham, Alaska; Sitka, Alaska; California

Keywords: W C Boyd, Boyd W C, Douglas Alaska pioneers, Alaska Snettisham Gold Mining Company

Biography

W. C. Boyd came to Douglas around 1885 and was referred to as the "grand old man of Douglas." He was very active in Douglas civic affairs.

Boyd was a prospector and served as manager of the Alaska Snettisham Gold Mining Company.

In 1899, mining engineer W. A. Sanders agreed to give the people of Douglas “the dry knoll this side of Lawson Creek” for use as a cemetery if the townspeople would not object to his mining patent. Sanders also agreed to build a road to the grounds, stating that his word was sufficient rather than putting the agreement in writing.

Immediately after the meeting, a Cemetery Committee consisting of P. H. Fox, M. J. O'Connor, Reverend Peplogle, and W. C. Boyd took possession of the knoll and ran a line from Third Street in Douglas to the area.

In November 1900, Boyd was appointed clerk of the Douglas Cemetery Committee and was responsible for maintaining all cemetery records. He was also placed in charge of the road gang and later appointed a grave digger because earlier diggers had not been “observing the plan of the streets and alleys as marked out.”

In 1910, Boyd moved to California for health reasons but later returned to Alaska, where he lived at the Pioneer Home in Sitka. He died there in 1917 at nearly eighty years of age.

Sources

Douglas historical records

W C Boyd Boyd W C

Tags: W C Boyd, Boyd W C, Douglas Alaska pioneers, Douglas Cemetery Committee, Alaska Snettisham Gold Mining Company

Primary Name: Dalton, Jack

Filed as: dalton_jack

Also known as: Jack Dalton, Jack Miller

Occupation / Association: Freighter, Explorer, Entrepreneur, Klondike Transportation Pioneer

Born: June 25, 1856, Michigan (most probable)

Died: December 16, 1944, San Francisco, California

Parents: Unknown

Spouse: Anna Krippeahne Dalton; earlier unnamed spouse

Children: Jack Dalton Jr., Margaret Dalton, James W. Dalton, Josephine Dalton

Associated places: Juneau Alaska, Haines Alaska, Pyramid Harbor Alaska, Porcupine Mining District Alaska, Cordova Alaska, Yakutat Alaska, Chickaloon Alaska, Klondike Yukon

Keywords: Jack Dalton, Dalton Trail, Klondike freighting, Dalton Trail Company, Porcupine Mining District, Copper River Northwestern Railway

Biography

Jack Dalton's life of nearly ninety years spanned an era of extraordinary change in Alaska and the Yukon. As Alaska's premier freighter during the Gold Rush era, he witnessed the transition from pack animals and human labor to the mechanized age of railroads and aircraft.

Accounts of Dalton's early life are inconsistent. His birthplace has been listed as Oklahoma, Kansas, or the Cherokee Strip, but his California death certificate records that he was most likely born in Michigan on June 25, 1856.

Dalton had only a limited formal education but became largely self-educated through reading and writing. He possessed a wide range of practical frontier skills and developed a reputation as a formidable and capable man with a quick temper. He was known as a skilled horseman, hunter, cook, and boatman.

As a young man, he traveled widely across the American West, at one time using the name Jack Miller. By the early 1880s, he had moved to Burns, Oregon, where he operated a logging business. A violent altercation there resulted in the fatal shooting of a cook during a struggle, prompting Dalton to leave the area.

Dalton eventually traveled to San Francisco and joined a sealing ship bound for the Arctic coast. The crew was arrested for illegal sealing and jailed in Sitka. After gaining his freedom in the mid-1880s, Dalton remained in Alaska and quickly developed a reputation as a skilled wilderness guide and negotiator with Indigenous communities. He learned Chinook Jargon, the regional trade language of the Pacific Northwest.

In 1886, Dalton joined the Schwatka–New York Times expedition attempting to climb Mount St. Elias. The expedition reached approximately 5,700 feet before being forced to retreat due to illness. Dalton remained in the Yakutat region afterward, prospecting and exploring coastal areas around Disenchantment Bay.

In 1890, Dalton participated in the Frank Leslie Newspaper Expedition led by E. Hazard Wells with explorer E. J. Glave. The expedition crossed Chilkat Pass and explored interior river systems, including the Alsek River. Dalton and Glave became the first known non-Native explorers to descend the lower Alsek River by canoe.

During the early 1890s, Dalton pioneered the use of pack horses for transportation between the Alaska coast and the Yukon interior. He developed what became known as the Dalton Trail, running from Pyramid Harbor near present-day Haines across the coastal mountains toward the Yukon River.

The trail was completed before the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 and quickly became a major transportation route. At its peak, trains of more than 250 horses carried freight and livestock to the goldfields. Dalton received permission from the U.S. government to collect tolls along portions of the trail while allowing Chilkat people to travel freely.

Dalton was closely associated with Juneau attorney John F. Malony, who frequently partnered with him in business ventures. Together, they operated the Dalton Trail Company, the Dalton Trading and Transportation Company, and the Dalton Pony Express Company.

Dalton also played a role in the development of the Porcupine mining district near Haines after gold was discovered there in 1898 by prospectors he had grubstaked. Dalton and partners established the Porcupine Trading Company to support mining operations.

Later, Dalton assisted with survey efforts for the construction of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway. His reconnaissance helped demonstrate that a rail route up the Copper River was feasible, eventually leading to the construction of a railroad to the Kennecott copper mines.

Dalton continued to work as a freighter and transportation contractor into the early twentieth century. In 1913, he undertook a difficult contract hauling 900 tons of coal from the Chickaloon mine to Cook Inlet for testing by the U.S. Navy. The expedition required constructing over forty miles of winter road and hauling coal by horse-drawn sleds.

Dalton later moved operations to Cordova, where he ran sawmills and transportation companies. In 1915, many of his Cordova holdings were purchased by interests associated with the Kennecott Copper Corporation.

Dalton married twice and had four children, including James W. Dalton, an engineer whose name was later given to the Dalton Highway on Alaska's North Slope.

After leaving Alaska, Dalton lived in the Seattle and San Francisco areas and even prospected for diamonds in British Guiana in the early 1920s.

Jack Dalton died in San Francisco on December 16, 1944, at the age of eighty-nine.

In 1942, the United States Army reopened portions of the historic Dalton Trail while constructing the Alaska-Canada Highway.

Sources

Berton, Pierre. Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush 1896-1899. Coutts, R. C. Yukon Places and Names. Blakemore, F. B. Grit and Gold. Cracraft & Cole. A History of Coal Mining in the Sutton-Chickaloon Area. DeArmond, R. N. “Miners and Cattle Used Dalton's Trail.” DeLaguna, Frederica. Under Mt. St. Elias. Glave, E. J. “Our Alaska Expedition,” Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Hakkinen, Elizabeth. Haines, the First Century. Russell, Israel C. An Expedition to Mt. St. Elias. Wier, Gary. “The Man Behind the Dalton Trail.” Alaska State Library Malony Files.

Alaska Mining Hall of Fame

Jack Dalton Dalton Trail Dalton Jack Jack Miller Dalton Trail Company Alaska freighter Klondike freighter

Tags: Jack Dalton, Dalton Trail, Alaska freighters, Klondike Gold Rush transportation, Haines Alaska history, Porcupine mining district, Copper River Northwestern Railway, Alaska pioneers, Alaska Mining Hall of Fame

https://poajuneau.nationbuilder.com/garside_charleshttps://poajuneau.nationbuilder.com/degroff_edEuro-American presence in southeast Alaska began in·the latter part of the 18th century when explorers visited the area in search of highly prized furs, particularly the sea otter, for trade purposes. The survey for Alaskan resources included the search for precious minerals and the hope of discovering the famed Northwest Passage (State of Alaska 1982).

Countries involved in exploring the northwest coast of North America included Spain, England, Russia, France and Japan. Russian explorers are recorded as the first to encounter Native groups in southeastern Alaska. The first published account of exploration in Gastineau Channel was written by Captain George Vancouver, describing his journeys in 1793 and 1794. Seventy years later, the name Gastineau Channel was included on the 1867 Humphrey manuscript furnished to Western Telegraph Company (Werner 1925).

John Muir, a well-known naturalist, visited Lynn Canal in 1879. Upon his return to Sitka after interacting with Chilkat Tlingits, Muir noted that gold might be found in the area lying between Windham Bay and Sullivan Island in northern Lynn Canal.

Chief Kowee of the Auk Tlingit brought ore samples to George Pilz, a mining engineer residing in Sitka in 1880. These samples confirmed Muir's statements of potential gold reserves in southeast Alaska ( DeArmond 1967).

The Valentine Building, built in two phases in 1904 and completed in 1913, is significant for its Frontier Alaskan architectural character, its recognized importance as Juneau's most prestigious office building
during the first half of this century, its association with Emery Valentine and other prominent pioneer Alaskans and significant historic events.

Emery Valentine arrived in Alaska in 1886, possessed of a strong degree of entrepreneurial ambition. At the age of 10, he had already crossed the midwest plains with his pioneering parents.

He followed the Rocky Mountain gold fields as prospector and miner, and lost a leg lost in an early Colorado Territory mining accident.

Still following the gold trails, Valentine arrived in the raw gold camp of Juneau only six years after that significant 1880 Gold Creek discovery by Joe Juneau and Richard T. Harris. He learned goldsmithing—which led him into the gold jewelry trade.

John Olds, one of the first sourdough prospectors following Juneau and Harris, recalled that,"We landed our canoe on November, 1880, at the foot of where Seward Street new is. . ."  This site, just at the-tide mark, was registered, in 1881 as a mining claim, the Boston Lode.

In 1896, yhe year after Valentine's Alaskan arrival, Ernest Ingersoll's best-selling book, Gold Fields of the Klondyke, proclaimed "Juneau, a town of 3,000 is rightly called the metropolis of Alaska Territory. Whether she will retain this prestige remains to be seen. If so, one of two things must occur.  She must plane down
the side of her mountains or erect skyscraping buildings with elevators to accommodate her populace, for nearly every foot of available ground is already occupied. . ."

Emery Valentine was foremost among the developers who found a better way.

When he arrived in Juneau, Front Street was the high tide beach of Gastineau Channel. Emery Valentine, accordingly, was among those who set progress by filling in ground along this derelict beachline. This enabled Valentine to build the first segment of his first building.

"Walking up the stairs to the second floor of the Valentine Building . . . is a trip back into what was the most prestigious business building of Juneau in the early 1900's, built by one of Juneau's colorful pioneer characters ..."  according to Toni Croft & Phyllis Bradner's Touring Juneau; Back Streets, Bawdy-houses, Bars & Bodacious Biographies.

In 1913, the Valentine Building block was advantageously enlarged to in­clude the prime corner lot at Seward and Front Streets. The 1904 structure not only doubled in size, but its impact was vastly enhanced by the most prominent corner location of two streets—rather than only one.

Emery Valentine had come to Alaska in 1886 to satisfy a lifelong desire to develop North America's "Last Frontier." Valentine founded Juneau's finest jewelry store which occupied the city's test retail site at the corner of Seward and Front with exposure on both streets.

Valentine became highly active in Alaskan politics and civic activities. He was Chairman of a city council-type organization called the Juneau Board of Safety, and underwriter and private financier for the first Juneau Fire Department. Valentine served six successful terms as Mayor after Juneau was incorporated in 1900.

Emery Valentine proved his deep commitment to development of Southeastern Alaska. As one of the largest property owners in southeastern Alaska, he helped found the Alaska Steamship Line, the foremost freight and passenger ocean line with service to Seattle. He founded the Peoples Wharf Company Docks at Skagway and Juneau, which so affected shipping charges in these ports, that coal and lumber prices dropped to almost half of the exorbitant rates paid before 1900.

Valentine wanted to erect "a quality structure that would give Juneau a truer air of urbanity."

The Valentine Building was the first in Alaska where office space was intentionally separated from retail space. The building's reputation for quality offices, gained over the years, and its ideal central downtown location, as well as architectural quality, provided elite tenancy for the first half of the century.

Architecturally, the Valentine building is an outstanding example of frontier Commercial architecture that recalls a pioneer Alaskan tradition of quality craftswork; the design responding and interpreting the contemporary archi­tectural developments of the late 19th century West Coast.

Despite intentions to the contrary, the building is a vernacular one; yet impressive in its execution of style. The isolation of Juneau at that time, plus the popularity of pattern books as architectural design aids, provided the fine ornamentation of the building which was available from Seattle millworks).

Stylistically, Valentine Building provides documentation of an historic design evolution.

It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

National Register of Historic Places Nomination form

Roden, Henry

Association: Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men's Igloo

Role: President, Juneau Men's Igloo; Grand Igloo President

Year: 1943

Biography

Henry Roden served as President of the Juneau Men's Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska and later as Grand Igloo President in 1943.

He was born on August 8, 1874, in Basel, Switzerland. Roden came north during the Klondike gold rush, reaching Dawson in 1898, where he joined the stampeders and worked as a prospector, miner, and wood cutter supplying riverboats.

In 1902, he began studying law independently. Over the next four years, he memorized two law books and successfully passed the Alaska Bar examination in 1906. As he later recalled, “Alaska, the land of opportunity, here I come. I learned later it was a do-it-yourself deal.”

Roden established a law practice in Fairbanks and later served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Fairbanks and Iditarod, and as City Attorney of Iditarod. He became widely known throughout Alaska and was affectionately called “our Heine.”

In 1913, he was elected to the First Alaska Territorial Legislature as a senator and was reelected three additional times.

He married Margaret Kaapcke in Tacoma, Washington, on January 22, 1917. The couple later lived in Juneau, where Roden practiced law and also became involved in the fishing industry. He served as manager of the Republic Fisheries Company, which operated floating fish traps in Chatham Strait, and owned the gas fishing vessel Jugoslav. He was also president of Pelican Cold Storage Company and a co-founder of the city of Pelican, Alaska.

In 1940, Roden was elected Attorney General of Alaska and served in that position for four years. In 1944, he was a candidate for the United States Congress as a territorial delegate.

In 1949, he was called back from retirement to serve as the territory's Treasurer and was elected to another term. He later served on the Board of Directors of the Pioneers' Home in Sitka until Alaska achieved statehood.

Roden and his wife moved to Seattle in 1958 due to Margaret’s declining health. She died there in 1961. Even in his late eighties, Roden remained active in the legal profession while living at the Savoy Hotel in Seattle, where he continued to advise former Alaskans without charging them fees.

Henry Roden died in Seattle on June 5, 1966.

Sources

• Ed Ferrell, Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850–1950, Vol. 3, pp. 244–246

Primary Name: Alheidt, Henry

Filed as: alheidt_henry

Also known as: Henry Alheidt

Occupation / Association: Prospector; Miner; Charter Member, Juneau Men’s Igloo

Born: June 1863, Germany

Died:

Parents:

Spouse:

Children:

Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Cordova, Alaska; Kennecott Mining District, Alaska

Property / Address:

Keywords: Henry Alheidt, H. Alheidt, Alheidt Henry, Juneau Men’s Igloo charter member, Cordova prospectors, Kennecott Mining District prospectors

Biography

Henry Alheidt was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska.

Alheidt was born in Germany in June 1863. He immigrated to the United States in 1881 and later came to Juneau, Alaska, in 1900.

Like many early residents of the region, Alheidt worked as a prospector in several developing mining districts. In the 1910 United States Federal Census, he was listed as prospecting in the Cordova area. By the time of the 1920 census, he was working in the Kennecott Mining District, one of Alaska’s most significant copper mining regions.

Sources

1900 U.S. Federal Population Census; 1910 U.S. Federal Population Census; 1920 U.S. Federal Population Census

Tags: Henry Alheidt, Alheidt family, Juneau Men’s Igloo charter member, Juneau pioneers, Cordova Alaska prospectors, Kennecott Mining District miners

Henry Alheidt H Alheidt Alheidt Henry Heinrich Alheidt

Primary Name: Bach, Leonard Leonhardt George

Filed as: bach_leonard_leonhardt_george

Also known as: George Bach; Leonard L. G. Bach

Occupation / Association: Prospector; Geologist; Charter Member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo No. 6

Born: September 5, 1859, Nürnberg (Nuernburg), Bavaria, Germany

Died: May 14, 1946, Juneau, Alaska

Parents: Peter Bach; Julia Miller Bach

Spouse: Sofia Hannila-Bach (m. 1896; div. 1903)

Children: Edward Bach; Vivian Bach

Associated places: Nürnberg, Bavaria, Germany; Douglas, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska; Comet (Kensington), Alaska; Taku Harbor, Alaska; Fort Durham

Keywords: George Bach, Leonard Leonhardt George Bach, Bach family, Taku Harbor homesteaders, Juneau prospectors, Douglas pioneers

Biography

Leonard Leonhardt George Bach was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska.

Bach was born in Nürnberg, Bavaria, Germany, on September 5, 1859, the son of Peter Bach and Julia Miller Bach.

He arrived in the Juneau–Douglas area in the 1880s, where his brother, Frank Bach, became a prominent businessman and civic leader in Douglas.

George worked as a geologist and prospector, exploring widely throughout Southeast Alaska. His activities included work at the Comet Mine, Taku Harbor, the Sumdum Mine, and other mineral prospects both north and south of Juneau.

While at Comet (now the Kensington mining district), he met Sofia Hannila-Bach, whose parents operated the company store and boarding house in the settlement.

The couple married in 1896 and had two children: Edward Bach and Vivian Bach. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1903.

During the 1920s, Bach settled on a homestead at Taku Harbor on the site of historic Fort Durham, which had been a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post from 1840 to 1843.

He died from senility at St. Ann’s Hospital in Juneau on May 14, 1946, at 7:00 p.m. at the age of 87. He was buried in the Douglas City Cemetery. His funeral arrangements were handled by Charles W. Carter.

Sources

Alaska Gold Rush Pioneers of the Juneau–Douglas Area 1880–1921, p. 26.

Tags: George Bach, Leonard Bach, Bach family, Juneau pioneers, Douglas pioneers, Taku Harbor homesteaders, Fort Durham, Comet Mine, Sumdum Mine

George Bach Leonard Leonhardt George Bach Leonard Bach Bach George

Primary Name: Brown, Frank A.

Filed as: brown_frank_a

Also known as: Frank A. Brown

Occupation / Association: Barber; Miner; Charter Member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo No. 6; Civil War veteran

Born: December 1855, Vermont

Died: September 1, 1921, Soldiers Home, Orting, Washington

Parents:

Spouse:

Children:

Associated places: Vermont; Juneau, Alaska; Tenakee, Alaska; Orting, Washington; Chicken Ridge, Alaska

Keywords: Frank A Brown, Brown Frank A, Juneau barbers, Boston Group Mine

Biography

Frank A. Brown was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska.

Brown was born in December 1855 in Vermont. During the Civil War, he served as a drummer boy at 15 and was later recognized as a veteran.

He came to Alaska in August 1893. By trade, he was a barber, and for much of his time in Alaska, he owned and operated his own barbershop.

Brown was also involved in mining and was one of the original locators of the Boston Group Mine just beyond Chicken Ridge. He maintained an interest in these claims for several years.

During his years in Alaska, he lived in several communities, including Juneau and Tenakee, and he was last recorded living in Juneau in 1920.

Frank A. Brown died September 1, 1921, at the Soldiers Home in Orting, Washington.

Sources

1900 U.S. Federal Population Census; Daily Alaska Empire, September 6, 1921.

Tags: Frank A Brown, Brown Frank A, Juneau pioneers, Civil War veterans, Juneau barbers

Frank A Brown Brown Frank A

Primary Name: Carver, John Nelson "Doc"

Filed as: carver_john_nelson_doc

Also known as: John Nelson Carver; Doc Carver; John "Doc" Carver

Occupation / Association: Charter Member, Juneau Men’s Igloo; prospector; teamster; Civil War veteran

Born: 1848, near Janesville, Wisconsin

Died: February 3, 1936, Juneau, Alaska

Parents:

Spouse:

Children:

Associated places: Janesville, Wisconsin; Juneau, Alaska

Keywords: John Nelson Doc Carver, John Carver Civil War veteran Juneau, Doc Carver Juneau pioneer

Biography

John Nelson “Doc” Carver was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo.

Carver was born near Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1848. At the age of sixteen, he enlisted as a private in Company L of the Third Regiment of Wisconsin Cavalry during the Civil War. He served on the battlefront and mustered out of service on October 23, 1865.

Carver came to Juneau around the turn of the twentieth century and spent several years prospecting. For a time, he was employed in the printing shop of George Simpkins and also worked as a teamster for Juneau transfer companies.

As Juneau’s only Civil War veteran, “Doc” was always given a place of honor in the Memorial Day processions. The nickname “Doc” had been given to him many years earlier after Dr. Carver, the famous buffalo hunter.

He died in Juneau on February 3, 1936, at the age of eighty-eight.

Sources

Daily Alaska Empire, February 3, 1936

Tags: John Nelson Carver, Doc Carver, Carver John Nelson, Juneau Men’s Igloo, Civil War veterans in Alaska

John Nelson Carver Doc Carver John Carver J N Carver

Primary Name: Davis, Cedric P. Montgomery

Filed as: davis_cedric_p_montgomery

Also known as: Cedric P. Montgomery Davis

Occupation / Association: Charter Member, Juneau Men’s Igloo; mariner; miner; U.S. Navy Quartermaster

Born: 1894, Juneau, Alaska

Died: 1977, Juneau, Alaska

Parents:

Spouse: Never married

Children:

Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Crestof Island, Alaska; Taku River, Alaska; Nome, Alaska; Seattle, Washington; Mexico

Keywords: Cedric P Montgomery Davis, Cedric Davis Juneau, Davis family Juneau, Pinewood Park subdivision, Juneau Men’s Igloo charter member

Biography

Cedric P. Montgomery Davis was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo.

Davis was born in Juneau in 1894. His experience with boats, engines, and navigation, in partnership with his brother Trevor, led him to enlist in the U.S. Navy during World War I. He served as a Quartermaster aboard a sub-chaser, was later reassigned to the battleship Oregon, and subsequently transferred to a freighter operating in the Atlantic, which allowed him to visit his mother’s sister in England.

In the early 1920s, Cedric operated a boat for the Hearst-Chichagof Mining Company and owned a mine on Crestof Island. He enjoyed prospecting there and along the Taku River.

At the onset of World War II, Cedric worked for the U.S. Army in Nome, operating the diesel electrical plant. When not working aboard boats, he stayed at the old Davis family home on Sixth Street with his sister Cordelia and her family.

After his sister and her husband moved to Seattle, Cedric made one of the smaller Sixth Street Davis houses his home. In the 1950s, he joined his brother, Trevor, in developing the Pinewood Park subdivision on land owned by the Davis family. He also helped construct cabins for Carol and her daughters on land obtained by Carol under the U.S. Small Tract Act.

When the vessel Cordelia D was traded for the trim Sylvita, Cedric traveled with Carol and Trevor aboard the new boat to the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962.

In later years, he enjoyed spending winters in Mexico and visiting Seattle.

Friends remembered Cedric as a kind and generous man who liked to see everyone happy, especially children, to whom he frequently gave money for ice cream. He never married.

Cedric died at Bartlett Memorial Hospital in 1977 at the age of 83 and was buried next to his parents at Evergreen Cemetery in Juneau.

Sources

Gastineau Channel Memories 1880–1959, p. 119

Tags: Cedric P Montgomery Davis, Cedric Davis, Davis family Juneau, Juneau Men’s Igloo, Pinewood Park subdivision

Cedric P Montgomery Davis Cedric Davis Davis Cedric Montgomery