QUARANTINE BLOG # 523

September 4, 2021

Today we begin a new series, “Women of the Gold Rush.”

Grizzled faces. Shaggy beards. That describes 90 percent of the Klondike Stampeders, maybe more. But in fact, one in ten stampeders were women – drawn to the Yukon seeking the opportunities this new land offered. 

Some were prospectors, but women opened boarding houses, restaurants, and hotels. Teachers, nurses, and entertainers came. Wives of prospectors came. Gold rush women were of all ages. They were married, single, and divorced, and from all levels of society.

Arthur Harper, Alfred Mayo, and Leroy Napoleon “Jack” McQuesten heard about the potential of the Yukon River Basin. By 1874, two of the three men had married Athabascan women and all had joined forces to establish several trading posts which became the hubs of the gold strike.

KATHERINE McQUESTEN 1860-1918

In the summer of 1874 Satejdenalno, a 14 year old Athabascan woman, known as also as Kate, met and married Jack McQuesten.

Kate and Jack established the Alaska Commercial Company store at Circle City, and Fort Reliance, near present day Dawson. There they grubstaked many prospectors, giving them equipment and supplies on credit, effectively financing the gold rush. After Jack died in 1910, Kate moved to California, a wealthy woman. She lived in Berkeley with two of her daughters until her death in 1918.

JENNIE HARPER 1860-1924

Seentahna, whose Western name was Jennie, was a member of the Koyukon River people. In 1874, at age 14, she met and married 39 year-old trader Arthur Harper. He frequently left Jennie alone while he searched for gold, and his absences could last for two years. Still, they had eight children. In 1895 Jennie and Arthur separated permanently, and Jennie moved back to her people. Arthur Harper went on to Dawson. He died in Arizona in 1897.

In 1912, Walter, Jennie’s Athabascan son, became the first person to set foot on the summit of Mount McKinley.

Jennie died among her people in Tanana in 1921.

MARGARET MAYO 1860-1925

In 1874 14 year-old Neehunilthonoh was among the first of her people to marry an American – trader Al Mayo, a 27 year-old former circus performer.

A few days after they met, Mayo asked Margaret’s parents’ permission to marry her. At first her family said no, because Margaret’s mother knew that many white men eventually abandoned their Native wives. Before granting permission, she made Mayo promise that he would always take care of Margaret. The couple was married according to Athabascan custom, and Al never broke his promise to Margaret’s mother. He live out his days in the North with his wife by his side.

Al and Margaret did not follow the stampede when the big Klondike strike came. They opened the Alaska Commercial Company trading post at Fort Rampart, where they also operated a small hotel.

The population of Fort Rampart swelled during the winter of 1898-99, when stampeders were stopped by ice and forced to winter over in town. Among these stampeders were Wyatt and Josephine Earp. Josephine visited with Margaret over the long winter.

JOSEPHINE MARCUS EARP c. 1862-1944

Josie met Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, Arizona, in the spring of 1880. After the gunfight at the OK Corral, Josie and Wyatt spent a few years prospecting in Colorado, Idaho, and Montana.

In the summer of 1898, Josie and Wyatt Earp, had booked passage, but by the time their steamer left St. Michael, slush-ice had begun to form on the Yukon. It became obvious that the Earps would not reach Dawson before winter. Freeze-up found them at Fort Rampart, Al and Margaret Mayo’s trading post.

After ice break-up in spring, Josie and Wyatt returned to St. Michael to operate a canteen, selling beer and cigars. By late summer 1899, Wyatt decided the new boomtown of Nome was the place to be.

They built the Dexter Saloon, the first two-story structure in Nome, furnishing it with thick carpets, fine mirrors, carved sideboards, and draperies. The Dexter became the most fashionable saloon in town, and the money rolled in.

Josie and Wyatt left Nome after one year with enough wealth from their Alaskan adventures to live well. Wyatt died in 1928. Josie settled down to life as a respectable widow, dying in 1944.

ANNA DeGRAF 1839-1930

Fifty-five-year-old Anna De Graf climbed the Chilkoot Pass in early spring of 1894. With her sewing machine and a feather bed she went to the Yukon in search of her youngest son, George, who had gone to Alaska in 1892.

Anna arrived in Circle City where she got work from Jack McQuesten sewing tents to sell at his Alaska Commercial Company store. She also made clothing for the miners and dance-hall girls.

In the spring of 1896 Anna sold her sewing machine and left Alaska, taking her earnings in gold dust –$1,200 for two years of hard work ($40,000 today). When news of the strike on the Klondike reached her, she bought another sewing machine, bolts of fabric, and headed North.

Anna spent more than 20 years in Alaska and the Yukon. She left Alaska for good in 1917, never knowing the fate of her son. She died in San Francisco at age 91.

BRIDGET MANNION 1866-1958

In 1892, Irish immigrant Bridget Mannion was working as a cook for the Weare family in Chicago. One night, John J. Healy, an Alaska trader, and his wife Bella were dining at the Weare’s house, arranging financing for a trading post on the Yukon River. 

Bridget persuaded the Healys to offer her a one-year contract to serve as Mrs. Healy’s maid. Bridget was one of the very few eligible woman in the region, and she attracted countless suitors. She married prospector, Frank Aylward, the first marriage in Forty Mile. 

In 1896, she visited friends in Seattle, and a Seattle newspaper headlined a story about her, “The Queen of Alaska.” She won the name “The Queen” by providing  dry lodgings and hot food – to prospectors during the long winter months. Bridget and Frank settled in Seattle, Washington, where he died in 1919. She returned to Ireland in 1948, where she died ten years later at the age of 92.

Next week, successful women prospectors.

👉  Today’s close is by Charles Stanley.

“You were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, ‘The Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.’

“Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.’

“In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go” (Deuteronomy 1:26-33).

Standing on the edge of the Promised Land, the Israelites were overcome by fear. The size and strength of the enemy contrasted sharply with their own weakness and inability. Because we're human, everyone at times will experience inadequacy and the uncomfortable feelings that accompany it. The issue you and I face is not whether we are sufficient for a task, but how we will respond when a challenge is beyond our capabilities.

Like the children of Israel, we can give in to fear and then focus on the expectation of certain failure. As the obstacle grows in our minds, our feet run in the opposite direction, away from the challenge and toward safety. However, turning away from the task that God has given us will lead us not to security but into bondage. By allowing fear to control our choices, we'll become chained to feelings of inadequacy, which will shape our future decisions and, ultimately, our destinies.

As a result of their refusal to trust the Lord and move forward to conquer the land, the Israelites were consigned to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. The men who did not believe God's promise never saw the land that He wanted to give them. Opportunities are always lost when we let fear overrule our faith.

When God calls you to a task beyond your abilities, instead of giving in to your feelings, choose to rely on what you know about Him and His promises. By moving forward in faith despite your inadequacy, you will discover the Lord’s faithfulness. He always empowers us for the works He assigns.

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