Men and women from every part of the United States and from all walks of life immigrated to the northern frontier, following the Alaska Purchase in 1867 and the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon Territory in 1897. World travelers, military heroes, empire builders, fortune hunters, and seekers of adventure, as well as school teachers, farmers, and fishermen staked their claims in this new land. Some of them established permanent homes, while others stayed only temporarily.
This work fills a void by making obscure and un-indexed material available to researchers in Alaskan and Canadian history and genealogy. It contains over 400 biographies, alphabetically arranged and full of fascinating information and family history. It is rich in Northwest history, and should appeal to researchers in the West and Northwest whose ancestors may have been Alaska-Yukon immigrants. Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco were points of departure and return; some of the immigrants settled in those regions after trying their luck on the frontier. Most of the accounts tell of the men and women who went to Dawson, Nome, and Fairbanks during the gold rush.
Many of these biographies and obituaries describe individuals who made contributions to the Territory in mining, business, exploration, government, law, religion, journalism, and civil rights. The majority of these early Alaskans came to the Territory between 1880 and 1910. The primary sources used for this compilation were newspaper obituaries and magazine articles. The sources are cited in each biographical entry.
Ed Ferrell was the director of the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter-Day Saints Family History Centers in Juneau, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Sitka, Haines, and Yakutat. His work has been published in the Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly and in The Saga of Southern Illinois, a publication of the Genealogical Society of Southern Illinois, The Beaver magazine, and Alaska magazine.
Ed Ferrell
(1994), 2008, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, 362 pp.
ISBN: 9780788400872
101-F0087
