Biographies of Nome, Alaska
Biographies of Nome, Alaska
Tom T. Lane is the elder son of Charles D. Lane. He was born in Stanislaus County, California, May 3, 1869, and educated at Santa Clara College, a prominent educational institution of the state. He has been connected with the work of mining since his earliest recollection. When he was six or seven years old his father was placer mining in Idaho, and with plate and quicksilver the boy did some mining for himself, learning to clean the plates and retort the gold. He did not make a fortune, but the work was profitable early experience, and the returns from it made enough for "spending money." When he was attending school his vacations were spent on a hydraulic mine operated by his father in Del Norte County, California. He learned the business of minim; just as a farmer's boy learns farming, and has been operating both placer and quartz mines for himself ever since he was twenty years old. His early operations were in California and Mexico, but he has been identified with the Nome country since the beginning of active work in this region.
In 1898 he was instrumental in outfitting G. W. Price to go to Kotzebue Sound. Mr. Price was returning from this trip with "nary a color in his poker when he arrived at Golovin Bay and heard of the strike on Anvil, and was a member of the party mat organized the Nome District. In fact he was the only member of the party who was familiar with mining and mining laws. Mr. Lane did not go to Nome the following year, 1899, on account of his interests in Mexico, but he was there in 1900, the year of the receivers, and had charge of the vast interests of the Wild Goose Company during his father's enforced absence in California. It was during this period that he bought the Matoe, Lena, Edna and Rosalind for the Wild Goose Company. The price paid seemed to be large, but it set the seal of value on these bench properties, and subsequent developments have more than justified the investment.
The season was near the close when Mr. Lane found his first opportunity to undertake some explorations in a comparatively unknown and unprospected region of the peninsula. He had brought to Alaska a complete telephone equipment, and this had bees duly installed in Nome. In the latter part of September he went into the Bluestone country, but on account of the storms and heavy rains he was not permitted to do any prospecting. He extended his trip to the Kougarok, and has been acquiring property in this district every season since then. His faith in the mineral wealth of this district has never abated. He bought benches at a time when many people were abandoning creek claims and decrying this part of the country, and is now among the largest property holders in the district He built the first ditch in this part of the country. Work on this ditch was begun id the latter part of 1903 and completed last fall. It is ten miles and three quarters long, and brings water from Coffee Creek to No. 8 Dahl, covering not less than eight miles of auriferous gravel benches on Coffee, Dahl and Quartz Creeks. This ditch was constructed for fourteen cents the foot, costing less than any other ditch of similar capacity and length in Northwestern Alaska. He is constructing another ditch from Henry Creek to Homestake, a distance of thirteen miles; and crossing the Kougarok a ditch will be constructed ten miles to Arctic creek. This ditch will be twelve feet broad on the bottom, and will carry 3,000 inches of water, 600 inches being available in the dryest part of a dry season. The ground that these ditches will cover will not be worked out in a generation. Up to this date most of the work on the Kougarok has been of a preliminary character, but the season of 1905 should witness the beginning of work that will produce immediate and profitable returns. Mr. Lane will operate extensively on Dahl, Arctic and Homestake Creeks. In 1901 Mr. Lane bought the Maudeline, Diadem and the Little Jim fraction, adjoining the Mattie claim on the left limit of Anvil, and has successfully operated these properties.
T. T. Lane developed the first quartz mine in Seward Peninsula. In 1902 he acquired a quartz ledge on Hurrah, a tributary of Solomon River, and the work he did on the vein that season revealed enough good ore to warrant the erection of a stamp mill Accordingly a ten-stamp mill was put on the mine in 1903. Ten stamps have since been added to the mill, which has been profitably operated since the dropping of the first stamp. Mr. Lane has an undeveloped quartz property on Trilby Mountain, in the Solomon River region, and he thinks it is a promising prospect.
Mr. Lane's residence is in San Francisco. He is a member of the Bohemian and San Francisco Clubs of that city. He belongs to the Masons, Elks, Workmen and Native Sons. Possessing an inquiring and inventive mind, the experience of near a quarter of a century in mining has qualified him for the work he is doing. He has within him the spirit for big undertakings. This came to him as an inheritance. His independence of character is shown by the disposition manifested when he was a boy to work for himself. With the experience he has had, the perception he possesses, the force that dominates his character, and the opportunities in the Northland he has created for himself, he should within the next few years develop an extensive and a very valuable property on Seward Peninsula. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 245-246 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
Near 500 years ago Thomas Tusser said: "A stone that is rolling can gamer no moss,' and this quotation has survived the centuries and has been accepted as a truism. If we look about us we will find the application in hundreds of people we know, and see the truth of the converse of the trite sentence in only a few. The main difficulty encountered by the human stone is to know when to roll, as moss does not accumulate in every place. If the stone be in a dry place, where there is neither dampness of ground nor moisture of atmosphere, it would better roll and become fixed; in a spot where conditions are more favorable to the growth of moss. The subject of this sketch is not a rolling stone and having become fixed in a spot in Alaska where nature has not made adequate moisture available, he has created the conditions, as will be hereinafter told, where moss will grow luxuriantly.
When he came to the northern gold fields he first went to Dawson. In the Klondike country he acquired an interest in a bench claim on Hunker Creek and mined it for two years. Having an opportunity to sell it for a fair price he disposed of his interest and came to Nome in 1900. His first venture here was on Hungry Creek, in the Cripple River region. After mining the property and taking out of it a considerable quantity of gold, he acquired other property in the vicinity, constructed a road-house and made his Alaska home on Oregon Creek; he studied the country, prospected in creeks and benches, and continued to acquire property. Claim owners would lease mining ground in this neighborhood, and the laymen in most cases would work long enough to discover mat the ground was not rich enough to warrant shoveling in sluice-boxes and paying a royalty to owners. But ditches and hydraulic methods should accomplish something in a country where men can shovel into a sluice-box and make wages. This was the opportunity that Mr. Smith recognized when it called upon him. It is said that opportunity has a long forelock but is bald behind. When it has passed by, one finds difficulty in getting hold of it. But Mr. Smith did not let it pass. He got hold of that long forelock. He staked and acquired water rights, and in June, 1904, began the construction of ditches which will supply water for hydraulic mining in die region of die upper waters of Cripple River, and by extension can be made to supply water to nearly all die vast area of mineral ground in die water-shed of Cripple River. The work that can be done by this undertaking will not be accomplished in a life time. Although having a modest beginning it is a big enterprise, filled with magnificent possibilities.
F. S. Smith is a native of Utah, and of English and Scotch blood, by virtue of his father's and mother's lineage, respectively. He was born in Tooeley City, April 24, 1870. He is next to the eldest son in a family of four boys and one girl. His father owned and operated a farm and a saw mill in Utah. In 1880 die family moved to Idaho, and resided in Albion, Challis, Wood River and Boise City, the latter place being their present home. Mr. Smith's father followed stock raising and ranching in Idaho, and die subject of this sketch received die benefit of a public school education in the schools of Idaho. In 1898 he went to Dawson via the Chilkoot Pass. His brother, Ed. S. Smith, and P. W. Coebch accompanied him. They arrived in Dawson June 22, having made a successful trip without serious mishap or accident While they escaped the perils of this arduous journey, they packed 3,000 pounds over the pass, and became intimately acquainted with die strenuous life to which prospectors bound for the Klondike were introduced in the early days of the Yukon mining camp.
Soon after arriving in Dawson he and his brother and Mr. Kodsch located a bench claim on Hunker Credc, No. 8, right limit The pay-streak was found at a depth of twenty feet, and consisted of from two to five feet of gravel overlaying bedrock. The first winter die ground was worked by thawing with wood fires. The second winter a steam thawer operated by a ten-horse power boiler was used. The ground was rich, yielding as much as $43 to die pan. The last clean-up in the spring of 1900, of the winter dump, yielded an average of eighteen and a third cents the pan. They sold die claim in the spring of 1900, and his brother and Mr. Koelsch returned to Idaho. Mr. Smith came to Nome, arriving July 4. He and O. E. penned bought 500 feet of ground on Hungry Creek, and began work on it August 20, and did not dose down until October 10. They were satisfied with the season's work. Mr. Smith went home in the fall of 1900, and returned the following spring when he bought his partner out, and has continued his operations in this neighborhood ever since. He has mined on Trilby Creek, Oregon Creek and Nugget Gulch. He established the Oregon Creek Road-house, and is engaged in die transportation business, owning teams that make round-trips every two days between Nome and Oregon Creek.
Mr. Smith owns Trilby Creek, a tributary of Hungry. His property on this stream consists of Nos. 1, 2 and 3 creek claims, and the Sullivan, Saturday, McCubbin, Smith and Accidental bench claims. On Hungry Creek he owns No. 2 and 500 feet of the Le Clair fraction. Among other promising claims that he owns are No. 3 above die mouth of Oregon, and the Eureka bench opposite 6 below. He has secured long term leases on No. I Nugget Gulch, No. 6 below Oregon, I X L bench and the Portland and Laramie benches. In 1903 he staked water rights on Oregon, Aurora. Slate and the upper Oregon, 1,000 inches on each stream. June 20, 1904, he began the construction of a seven-mile ditch, beginning at the head of Aurora Creek and tapping the waters of Oregon Creek. This ditch, which is four feet wide on the bottom, six feet on top and a foot deep, will carry 800 inches of water. By September I three miles of this ditch had been completed, delivering water on the Portland and Laramie benches, and the giants were at work on these benches, washing out the vast deposit of auriferous gravel which they contain. This ditch when extended will cover Nugget Gulch, Trilby and Hungry Creeks. Another ditch will be constructed in 1905, which will bring water from the headwaters of Cripple and Stewart Rivers. When it is finished this ditch will be fifteen miles long. When these ditches are complete they will cover 1,000 acres of mineral land on the upper Cripple River, 200 acres on Trilby Creek, 200 acres on Oregon Creek, 320 acres on Cleveland Creek, 800 acres on Arctic Creek and several thousand acres on the lower part of Cripple River. All of this country is low grade ground, and some of it is rich enough to yield a profit when worked by the ordinary method of shoveling in sluice-boxes.
Mr. Smith is yet a young man, but he has matured plans, which will be the means of extracting a great deal of gold from this part of Seward Peninsula, and these plans will be consummated before the close of another year. He has mapped out the work of a life time. Modest, unassuming, but energetic and persistent, he has gone about his work quietly, and the water was running through his ditch before many people in Nome knew anything of his enterprise. It is work of this character that will develop the country, and hasten the time when the annual product of gold in Seward Peninsula will be double, treble, possibly quadruple the largest output of any season heretofore. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 246-249 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
Among the first men to arrive in Nome in the spring of 1899 was I. B. Sverdrup, of Valdez, formerly of San Francisco. The people who came down the Yukon over the ice were the first arrivals in that memorable year, but when Mr. Sverdrup landed from the steamer there were not more than ten tents in the camp. Since this early date he has been identified with die Nome country, but has spent most of the winters in San Francisco. He is extensively interested in mining in the vicinity of Nome, owning among other valuable properties. No. 6 Dexter Creek, which he has successfully operated. He was in Nome during the winter of 1902-1903, and took active part in the promotion of out-door sports, being one of the organizers of the ski club. He was prominent in the construction and management of the skating rink In these enterprises he was prompted by the desire to see the sequestered sojourners of this new Northland provided with wholesome, healthful amusement. Having lived during the days of his boyhood and early manhood in Northern Europe he was familiar with the winter out-door sports in high latitudes, and believed that their introduction in Nome would be benemcal to the "cabin'd, cribbed and confined miners who were patiently waiting for the long winter to pass. This was the inception of the most popular winter sport of Nome. Men, women and children have learned the art of skiing, and include it in exercise for pastime, or utilize their knowledge of the use of the ski in traveling over the country.
Mr. Sverdrup was born in the northern part of Norway December 24, 1664, and educated at Trondhjen. His rather was a merchant, and the family, which emigrated from Schleswig to Norway in 1620, is prominent in the political, educational and scientific affairs of Norwegian history. Prof. George Sverdrup helped to frame the Constitution of 1814, and Captain Otto Sverdrup, a cousin of the subject of this sketch, was commander of the Fram in Nansen's first polar expedition. He accompanied Nansen twice in Arctic voyages, and in 1900 was at the head of an expedition which entered the Arctic region through Baffin's Bay, and is accredited with having accomplished the most valuable scientific work of any of the explorers in the Frozen Sea.
Mr. Sverdrup came to America in 1888, and located in San Francisco, where he conducted a grocery business for ten years. In 1898 he went to Valdez, Alaska, thence to Nome in 1899. He is a courteous gentleman, unvarying urbanity being a conspicuous trait of his character, and is the possessor of those qualities of mind and heart which create the esteem and friendship of those who know him. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 249-250 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
JOHN P. PEARS0NJ. P. Pearson has shown his faith in the future o of quartz mining in Seward Peninsula by his investments in quartz property near Nome and in the Solomon River region during the past two years. He came to Nome in 1903, and has been active in the industrial field since his arrival. Besides being a large stockholder and director in two quartz mining companies, he owns some placer ground, is associated with a ditch enterprise, and has a road-house and mercantile business on Solomon River.
Mr. Pearson is a native of Sweden, and was born September 1, 1856. He is the son of a farmer, and was educated in the schools of Tirup and Alfredstorp, receiving a special course in agriculture, which qualified him for the work in which he was subsequently engaged in his native land. After leaving school he was employed as the superintendent of a three-thousand-acre farm, one of the largest in Sweden, at Sunnerborg, State of Smoland. He also had charge of a flour mill on the estate. He filled this position during a period of five years, when he decided to go to America. In 1882 he arrived in the State of Minnesota, and engaged in the creamery business. Until 1890 he was extensively interested in this industry, and in addition thereto owned a large milk business in St. Paul, being one of the organizers, and vice-president and superintendent of the Minnesota Milk Company.
In 1890 he sold out and went to the State of Washington, where investments in real estate swept away the earnings of years. Undiscouraged by the adverse turn in the wheel of fortune, he turned his attention to the line of work where his knowledge of the business gave him preeminence. For a period of four years from 1891 he had the management of stock farms and dairies in Oregon, and for five years subsequently was in the dairy business in California. During this latter period he was prominently identified with the dairy industry, and was well known as a promoter of education in matters pertaining to the methods of the business. He tried to get a dairy school established, and practically illustrated his belief in a technical knowledge of the industry by taking a course in dairy chemistry and bacteriology at the State University in 1896-'97.
In 1900 he became a member of the firm of Sutherland 6c Pearson, grocers, in Oakland, California, and disposed of his interests in 1903 to go to Nome. Mr. Pearson is an educated gentleman, an expert in the lines of work to which he has given his best thought and years of study, and a prudent and an honorable business man. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 250-251 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
EUGENE CHILBERGEugene Chilberg's first identification with Northwestern Alaska was as the treasurer of the Pioneer Mining Company. He still holds this position, but has also made his mark in the industrial field of this country as a mine operator in connection with the successful working of the Hot Air Mining Company on Glacier Creek, and as one of the operators of the Bella Kirk bench claim on Dry Creek. In the fall of 1904 and upon the organization of the Miners and Merchants Bank of Nome, his high standing in the community and his careful business methods caused him to be selected as the president of this institution. Mr. Chilberg was born in Seattle, Washington, October 29, 1875. He is the son of A. Chilberg, the highly respected and universally esteemed president of the Scandinavian-American Bank of Seattle. Eugene was educated in the common schools and in the high school of Seattle. He also at tended the State Agricultural College, and the School of Science at Pullman, Washington. In 1893-'94 he was a student in the State University at Seattle, and left the university to accept a position in the Scandinavian-American Bank, whch position he held until he became treasurer of the Pioneer Mining Company at Nome, Alaska. In 1904 he assisted in the organization of the Miners and Merchants Bank of Nome, the stockholders of this institution being composed almost entirely of business men and miners of Northwestern Alaska.
Mr. Chilberg is an estimable young man, prudent in business, honorable in alt the relations of life and possessing the moral attributes of character which make men of high standing and good influence; the future invites him to positions of still higher trust, responsibility and usefulness. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; page 252 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
CHAUNCEY G. COWDENC. G. Cowden is the cashier of the Miners and Merchants Bank of Nome, (an institution which he assisted to organize), has served three years as city treasure! of Nome and is treasurer of the Northwestern Ditch Company; and is also interested in a number of valuable mining properties. He comes from the Jersey shore, where he was born February 22, 1865. His boyhood days were spent in Pennsylvania, and his education was obtained in a Kentucky university. He is the son of a Christian minister, is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and belongs to an old family of the United States.
His first business venture was in the real estate line in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1888 he went to Tacoma, and was employed in the land department of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, mapping and appraising the value of lands. After two years of this work he was employed by the National Bank of Commerce of Tacoma, working for this institution in various capacities for ten years. Just prior to his going to Alaska, he was chief deputy county treasurer of Pierce County, Washington. He resigned this position to accept the position of cashier of the Alaska Banking and Safe Deposit Company of Nome, entering upon the discharge of his duties for this corporation in June, 1901. He resigned September 1, 1904, and helped to organize the Miners and Merchants Bank of Nome, of which he is now cashier.
Mr. Cowden has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in Tacoma in 1891, was Miss Florence Lithgow. A son, Parker, who is now a blight boy of thirteen years, is the only issue of this marriage. In 1902 Mrs. Cowden died suddenly while visiting friends in the states. During the winter of 1904-05 Mr. Cowden and Miss Hattie V. Thompson were married in Nome.
Mr. Cowden's high standing in the community is shown by the important positions which he fills. He has been successful in his Nome mining ventures and business enterprises, and is among the best known and most highly esteemed citizens of this part of Alaska. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; page 253 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
LEWIS B. TANNER"There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." The man who is industrious, alert and watching for this tide will see it coming, and with bellying sail and bending oar will hasten to reach the anchorage in the haven of a competence. Shakespeare's metaphor is the old story of opportunity, of which the successful man takes advantage. There are few men to whom opportunity has not come. Opportunity may mean the chance to accumulate a sudden fortune, and it may mean the chance for the manifestation of the business ability that lies behind the industrial features of the country.
When L. B. Tanner came to Nome in the spring of 1900 he did not have much money, but he saw in the chaotic condition of business the opportunity to begin in a small way in a line of work with which he was familiar, and he knew that the development of a new country would permit the business to grow. Having learned the trade of a builder and contractor from his father, and having followed it for years, he was familiar with the lumber business. A number of traders had brought stocks of lumber to Nome, and he set about to secure these small stocks. There was an apparent surplus of many articles of merchandise in the Nome market that year, and there were merchants and would-be merchants with cold feet. With the material secured from men who brought miscellaneous cargoes, including lumber, to Nome, Mr. Turner started a lumber yard. It was not an adjunct of another business-he dealt in lumber exclusively, and devoted all of his energy to his business. The growth of the town and the development of the mines created a steady and an increasing demand for the material he was handling, and the size of his lumber yard increased as his business grew.
By 1902 the business had grown to considerable proportions. This fact, together with Mr. Tanner's plans to reduce the price of lumber by buying timber and operating a sawmill, and shipping direct from his own plant, induced him to seek a good man for a partner to handle one end of the line while he looked after the business at the other end. This man was found in W. A. Clark, and the firm of Tanner & Clark took charge of the business. Mr. Tanner went out to Washington at the close of the season of 1902, and bought timber land equipped with a sawmill plant in King County, and in two years the firm has cut and shipped to Nome near 12,000,000 feet of lumber. Much of this material has been shipped in chartered schooners. The yard in Nome at the close of navigation of the past two seasons has contained between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 feet of lumber. A complete modern planing mill is a part of the equipment of this yard. From a modest beginning this business has advanced to a leading position, and in the history of the business of Nome is a monument to enterprise, energy and honest methods.
Mr. Tanner is a native of Canada. He was born in Brantford, Ontario, January 17, 1866, and was educated in the public schools of the province. He learned the trade of a builder and contrator, which he followed, with the exception of a few years devoted to mining in the Rossland and Trail Creek country, B. C, and the Klondike region, until he came to Nome. He emigrated from Canada in 1890, going to Seattle and subsequently to Portland, Ore. In 1898 he went to Dawson, but returned to Seattle the following year. He came to Nome in the spring of 1900 on the steamer Alpha, and began the successful business career narrated in the foregoing. September 5, 1900, L. B. Tanner and Miss M. N. Pickard were married in Tacoma.
Mr. Tanner deserves credit for his success, but more credit for the methods by which he achieved this success. In the earlier days of his thriving business he has said: "If the town of Nome should be destroyed by fire tonight the price of lumber in this yard would be the same tomorrow as it is today." In a new town, remote from its base of supplies, there are frequent chances to take advantage of other men's necessities, but these methods were not Mr. Tanner's conception of the way to obtain the confidence and patronage of the public. With the good quality of business rectitude he possesses sound judgment and quick perception, is brimful of energy which must find a vent in work, but never too busy for the social amenities of the gentleman. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 253-254 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
The world's progress is due to the combined efforts of the workers. They may not be conspicuous in the battle of life, because they are "the men behind the guns." They are the men that succeed, and in their success not only obtain the benefit of their labor, but contribute to the benefit of others. Every enterprise that is the means of private gain must have for its secondary object the public good, and every man who establishes himself in a legitimate vocation, and builds his business until it is a helpful concern in the development of the country, is a very useful member of society.
W. A. Clark belongs to this class of men. He is a member of the firm of Tanner & Clark, owning and conducting the largest lumber business in Northwestern Alaska. The foundation of this large concern, owning its sawmill plant and timber lands in Washington, and lumber yards in Nome, Alaska, where from five million feet to six milKon feet of lumber is kept in stock, was laid by L. B. Tanner, the senior member of the firm, in 1900. Mr. Clark's association with the business dates from 1902. The undertaking that Mr. Tanner had started in a modest way had grown to considerable magnitude, and the new firm planned to supply the people of the Nome country with lumber direct from the saw mill, thereby eliminating the expense resulting from a commodity being handled by middle men, permitting a reduction in selling price without curtailment of profits. The prominent position in Nome that this firm occupies, its reputation for fair dealing and honest methods, and its constantly increasing business, are evidence of a successful career.
Mr. Clark is a native of Youngstown, Ohio. He was born October 10, 1870. When six years old he moved with his parents to Portland, Oregon, where he attended public school. When eighteen he began an apprenticeship to learn the iron molder's trade. After serving his time he took a course in a business college at Seattle, and then worked for about six years at his trade. In 1897 he caught the Klondike fever, and started for Dawson. He went over the White Pass route, and had an arduous and a perilous trip. The condition of the trail during this first great rush was almost indescribable. He and a companion packed 1,200 pounds over the pass on their backs the greater part of the distance to Bennett, thirty-seven miles. They made eleven round-trips for every relay, and were from the middle of July until October 9 accomplishing this task. After reaching Bennett a boat was purchased, and a start was made to cross the lakes and descend the Yukon. The second day out they were wrecked in Windy Arm, on Lake Tagish, but escaped without a more serious mishap than the wetting of all their supplies. They had some exciting adventures in Thirty-Mile River, and their boat almost filled with water when they shot the White Horse Rapids. A disaster was narrowly averted at Five Fingers further down the Yukon. Ice began to form in the Yukon before they got half way down the river to their destination, and they encountered many snow storms. Sixty miles above Dawson at the mouth of Stewart River, ice blocked the river, and they went into camp. Three days later the ice broke, and they started with it down stream, arriving in Dawson November 2. The following day the ice froze solidly, and their boat had to be chopped out of the ice to get it ashore.
That winter Mr. Clark mined on Bonanza. The following spring he went out and bought a stock of merchandise, which he took into Dawson. He made three round-trips that season, taking each time a stock of goods to Dawson, and was fairly successful in these ventures. During the last trip he and Miss Laura Johnson were married in Seattle. Mrs. Clark did not accompany her husband to Dawson but he came out after her in the spring of 1899. Returning to Dawson, he found the Nome excitement at its height, and determined to go to the new camp. He arrived in Nome September 22, 1899, and earned his first money in this town ferrying people across Snake River. The receipts from his ferry in seven days were $190. He was in some of the stampedes the following winter, and staked a lot of ground. In the spring of 1900 he opened a road-house on Anvil Creek, and later in the season built a home in Nome. During the winter he also mined on the beach. He followed mining and conducted the road-house until the fall of 1901, when he went to Nome and went into partnership with L. B. Tanner. One member of the firm lives in Seattle and attends to the manufacturing and forwarding of the lumber; the other in Nome attends to the sales and distribution. In 1902-03 Mr. Tanner was at the manufacturing end of the line; this season, 1904-'05, Mr. Clark is in Seattle, where he owns a pretty home.
As noted in the outset of this sketch, Mr. Clark is a worker, and somebody has said that "industry is a species of genius." The domestic trait of his character is conspicuous. He loves home, wife and children. In the commercial world he is known as an honest man, and among his friends as a companionable associate, an ethically honorable man and a good citizen. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 254-255 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
Colonel William T. Perkins has been identified with the Northland since 1898. He is not only a prominent citizen of Nome, but he is a prominent citizen of Alaska. He is associated with the leading commercial and transportation company of Northwestern Alaska, occupying the position of auditor of the Northwestern Commercial Company. This company has exploited many avenues of the natural resources of Alaska and Siberia.
Colonel Perkins is a native of Buffalo, New York, and was born November 2, 1858. He is the son of Nathaniel Perkins and Annette Hawkins. He is a descendant of Revolutionary sires, and is a member of the Washington, D. C, Society of American Sons of Revolution. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Buffalo and Lockport, New York. He prepared for college at New Hampton Institution, New Hampshire, in 1877, and was graduated by Bates College of Maine in 1881 with the degree of A B. In 1884 he was graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan with the degree of LL. B. He has been admitted to the bar of Michigan, North Dakota and Alaska. He began the practice of law in North Dakota in 1884, and continued the practice of his profession until 1896. From 1892 until 1896 he was vice-president of the First National Bank of Bismarck, North Dakota. For a period of two years after 1896 he engaged in mining in Colorado. He came to Alaska in 1898, and followed mining for two years. In 1900 he arrived in Nome, and became the general auditor of the Northwestern Commercial Company, a position which he still fills. He is also attorney in fact in Alaska for the managing director of the Northeastern Siberian Company, Limited.
Colonel Perkins has received a number of political honors from his friends and party. In 1888 he was elected as one of the first aldermen of Bismarck, North Dakota, and was a member of the Board of Education and its secretary at Bismarck for a period of twelve years. In 1889 he was elected to the office of County Superintendent of Public Schools of Burleigh County, North Dakota, and held this position during his residence in this state. He took an active interest in both local and state politics in Dakota. He was selected as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago in June, 1904, and was one of the first delegates to represent Alaska in a Republican National Convention.
Colonel Perkins took an active and a leading part in educational work during his residence in Dakota. He was president of the North Dakota Educational Association in 1895. He was commissioned Colonel in the National Guards of North Dakota in 1892. In May, 1903, while in Seattle, he was elected as chairman of the executive committee selected to make the Alaska arrangements for the reception of President Roosevelt. At the time of the visit of the United States Senators who were appointed by Congress to inquire into needed laws for the purpose of determining the best legislation that could be enacted for the district, Colonel Perkins was selected by the citizens of Nome as the chairman of the executive committee to entertain the Senatorial Committee.Colonel Perkins is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and deputy for Alaska of the Inspector General for Washington, Idaho and Alaska, of the Scottish Rite and Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is a Past Grand Master of the A. F. and A. M. of North Dakota, and Past Grand Commander of the Knights Templar, North Dakota. He is also a member of the Arctic Brotherhood, Camp Nome No. 9, a fraternal organization that has its home in the Northland; and at the last grand session of the order held in Seattle in November, 1904, he was elected Grand Arctic Chief.
It will be seen from this brief and hasty narrative that Colonel Perkins has had a very active and busy Efe; that he has stood and stands high in the estimation of his fellow men with whom he has come in contact; that he has been called upon to fill many positions of civic and fraternal honor. While he has taken an active part in politics he does not belong to the genus politician. He is a man of unquestioned and unimpeachable integrity, and his interest in politics " simply the interest of a good citizen desiring better and cleaner government His native intelligence has been polished by education. He knows his capacity and limitations, so mat he does well whatever he undertakes to do. No citizen of the Nome country commands more of the public esteem and public confidence than does Colonel Perkins.
He was married December 16, 1884, at Denison, Iowa. Mrs. Perkins was formerly Catherine Laub. (Source: Nome & Seward Peninsula, History, Description, Biographies & Stories, by E. S. Harrison, Seattle, 1905; pages 255-256 - Submitted by Peggy Thompson)
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