Governor John Strong was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo.

Strong was born in Salmon Creek, New Brunswick, Canada on October 15, 1856. He graduated from the New Brunswick Normal School in 1874. After graduation he spent the next fourteen years working as a store owner and teacher throughout the province.

On December 31, 1879 he married Elizabeth A. Aitkens of Fredericton, New Brunswick. The marriage produced three children.

Major Strong was a newspaper man by profession. He had been identified with newspapers in Spokane, Bellingham, Seattle, and Tacoma for many years.

In 1896 he married Miss Anna Hall of Seattle, and the next year, 1897, the couple went north to Skagway, the gateway to the Klondike goldfields.

His objective point was the Klondike, but Skagway was booming in those days and he was soon engaged in writing editorials for an embryo newspaper that had been started there.

“Soapy” Smith and his gang reigned supreme at that time, and the law-abiding citizens were beginning to make a noise like they intended to do something to remedy the evils then rampant. What was needed was editorial support on the part of a newspaper. With Major Strong at the helm, that need was adequately supplied.

An emissary of “Soapy” called on the Major and made a proposition. He said that if the Major would “lay off” he
was authorized to say that a hundred dollar bill would be found on the Major’s editorial desk each and every morning. But nothing doing. The editorial attack on the Smith gang only increased in vigor. The result is well known to all old-timers.

In 1899, Major and Mrs. Strong headed for the Klondike. The Major tried prospecting for a while but had no luck. He was soon in newspaper work again, on the Dawson News.

In 1899, he went to Nome, where in the early spring of 1900, he established the Nome Nugget which he ran
successfully for many years.

Leaving Nome, the Major established a newspaper in Iditarod; then went to Katalla and started a newspaper there, and later came outside and established a paper in a mining camp in Arizona.

The call of the North soon found him back in Alaska, where he founded the Alaska Daily Empire in November 1912. He sold this newspaper when he was appointed governor under the Wilson administration.

President Woodrow Wilson nominated Strong to become Governor of Alaska Territory on April 17, 1913. The nomination was in keeping with a 1912 Democratic plank calling for territorial governors to be area residents. The new governor was sworn into office on May 21, 1913.

Soon after becoming governor, Strong was faced with a financial crisis. The territory's salmon canneries, claiming the recently enacted tax on canned salmon was illegal, refused to pay. The tax was a major source of income for the territory and the lack of funds thus created severely limited Strong's ability to implement development projects. This issue continued until after the governor left office.

Significant legislation signed into law by Governor Strong included the granting of United States citizenship to members of the indigenous population that gave up tribal life, implementation of workers' compensation, and the United States' first old age pension, authorization of a territorial university, and creation of a Board of Education.

Additionally, in 1917, the voters in the territory approved a prohibition referendum. Other changes affecting the territory were the authorization for construction of the Alaska Railroad in October 1914, loosening of federal controls on road building and coal mining, and creation of Mount McKinley National Park in 1917.

President Wilson declined to reappoint Strong to a second term as governor and his final day in office came in April 1918. According to U.S. Senator, and Alaskan history expert, Ernest Gruening this was because the President has been given information indicating the Canadian-born Strong had never been naturalized as a United States Citizen.

J.F.A. Strong died in Seattle, Washington, July 27, 1929.

Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850-1950, Volume 2 p 309-310, by Ed Ferrell (May 1, 2009
Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850-1950, Volume 3 p 282-283, by Ed Ferrell (May 1, 2009

John Franklin Alexander Strong (October 15, 1856 – July 27, 1929) was a British North America-born journalist who was the second governor of Alaska Territory from 1913 to 1918.

John Franklin Alexander Strong was born in Salmon Creek,^{[citation needed]} a small farming community in Queens County, New Brunswick, British North America on October 15, 1856, the son of Adam Robert and Janet (Nicholl) Strong. He graduated from the New Brunswick Normal School in 1874. After graduation he spent the next fourteen years working as a store owner and teacher throughout the province. On December 31, 1879, he married Elizabeth A. Aitkens of Fredericton, New Brunswick. The marriage produced three children: Jane, Elizabeth, and Robert. He committed bigamy^[1] in 1896 when he wed Anna Hall of Tacoma, Washington.^[2]

Josias Tanner was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo.

Tanner was born in Oakland County, Michigan on February 22, 1850. His grandfather served in the Revolutionary War, having enlisted when fifteen years old. A brother of Senator Tanner’s grandfather, William Tanner was a member of the bodyguard of President George Washington at the time an attempt was made by the British and Tories, to capture the First President.

“Senator Si,” as Alaskans affectionately refer to the Skagway solon, is serving his second term in Alaska’s law-making assembly.

Senator Josias Martin Tanner started out in life to be a miner. When he was twenty years of age, he left his home in Michigan and went to Central City, Colorado, then one of the famous mining camps of Gilpin county. Young Tanner worked in the gold mines and mills of Colorado for four years.

In 1871 he was married to Miss Juliette Valentine, sister of Former Mayor Emery Valentine of Juneau. To the union three children were born, two girls, who are now married and living in Tacoma, Wash., and a son, Fred Tanner who is associated in business with his father at Skagway. The family moved to Tacoma, where Mr. Tanner was engaged in the contracting business.

In 1896 he took a position in Emery Valentine’s general store located in Juneau.

He moved to Skagway in July, 1897, during the Dawson excitement, and has lived in the Gem City ever since. He was in charge of the Vigilantes, organized to preserve the peace and dignity of Skagway. The secret organization disbanded after the reign of terror created by the notorious outlaw, Soapy Smith. Organized lawlessness at Skagway culminated in Smith’s death on July 8, 1898.

For his executive ability and coolness during the time his men were endeavoring to drive Smith’s gang from the city, Mr. Tanner was appointed Deputy United States Marshal by Marshal J. M. Shoup. He served in that capacity for two years.

He was for five years a member of the Skagway City Council, and thrice served the city as mayor. He also was municipal magistrate for a term of five years.

Senator Tanner is an Elk, Oddfellow, and the Arctic Brotherhood.

He is owner of a hardware store, and is interested in the Home Power Co. of Skagway.

Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850-1950, Volume 2 p321-322, by Ed Ferrell (May 1, 2009
Alaska Digital Archives, James Joseph Connors Photograph Collection PCA 457