Edward Webster arrived in Juneau in 1881 and staked placer claims in the Silver Bow Basin with his father, William I. Webster (Stone 1982).

Over the next ten years, the Websters located and developed the Humboldt Mine on Gold Creek. During this period, they established the first stamp mill in the Juneau Gold Belt (Alaska Monthly 1907). Webster also worked as a pile driver contractor, participating in the construction of wharves along the Juneau waterfront (Alaska Monthly 1907).

Frank Bach arrived in Juneau in 1883. He later moved across the Gastineau Channel to Douglas and opened a merchandise business (Alaska Monthly 1907; DeArmond 1967).

In 1893, business partners Edward Webster and Frank Bach constructed a two-telephone system across the channel to improve communication between their residences. The system proved successful, and the Treadwell Gold Mining Company soon connected to the line.

As other residents requested telephone service, Webster and Bach formed the Juneau and Douglas Telephone Company. By the late 1890s, the partnership dissolved and Webster assumed full ownership of the company.

Edward Webster married Anna Faulkner-Scott-Knutson Webster on August 10, 1910, in Juneau. She brought three daughters from previous marriages into the household: twins Mabel Grace Scott and Minerva Beatrice Scott, and Carol “Carrie” Swanhilde Knutson.

The Edward Webster House, located at 135-139 West Second Street, sits on the east ridge of Telephone Hill overlooking downtown Juneau. Photographs of Juneau from the 1880s confirm that the Webster House was among the earliest homes constructed in the area. Robert E. Hurley, the grandson of Edward and Anna Webster, owned the home when the 1984 Telephone Hill Historic Site and Structures Survey was conducted.

The Webster family owned and operated the Juneau and Douglas Telephone Company from 1893 until 1968, providing the first commercial telephone service in Alaska. The telephone company operated from the Webster home from 1915 to 1958 (DeArmond 1967; Hurley & Carrigan 1983).

Edward Webster began construction of his house in 1882, and numerous additions were made during the following seventy years (Hurley & Carrigan 1983). District Recorder records and the 1894 plat map of the Juneau Townsite show Edward Webster and Frank Bach owning Lots 7 and 8 in Block 1.

After Edward Webster’s death in 1918, his wife Anna assumed management of the company and continued operating it until her death in 1957.

Sources
Stone 1982
Alaska Monthly 1907
DeArmond 1967
Hurley & Carrigan 1983