Digital Bob Archive

DECEMBER 31, 1883-Some items of interest as the year ends:

There are now two sawmills on the channel. The first to get into production is down at Sheep Creek and is operated by E. H. ?Yank? Boggs. Our lawyer, Dan Murphy, has a financial interest. It started cutting lumber in July. Soon afterward, the Alaska Mill & Mining Company put in its sawmill at the camp that is increasingly becoming known as Treadwell.

Dan Murphy has also become our third postmaster, taking over the office last month from William Minturn, who had held it for a year. Minturn had succeeded Ed de Groff when the Northwest Trading Company sent him to Killisnoo to run its store there. Karl Koehler is now in charge of that company?s store here with Ed H. James as his assistant.

The camp now has three hotels: W. F. Reed?s Reed House and J. J. McGrath?s Juneau Hotel, both on Second Street, and the old standby Franklin Hotel on the waterfront. A young German named Frank Bach arrived here last May from San Francisco and is now running the Franklin for Wheelock and Flannery, the owners.

Fr. John Althoff regularly offers mass for his communicants on both sides of the channel. His first mass here was on July 17, 1882, when he came over from Sitka for the purpose. He had earlier lived in Wrangell but is now a permanent resident of this camp. Protestant services are held from time to time by the Rev. Mr. Corlies, who comes up from the Taku village down near Taku Inlet. He and Mrs. Corlies plan to return to their home in Philadelphia next year, but it is reported that the Rev. Eugene Willard will come down from Haines Mission to establish a mission here and possibly to build a Presbyterian Church. He will be a decided addition to the camp as he is a medical doctor as well as a missionary.

Some of the richest placer ground in Silver Bow Basin is the original claim staked by Dick Harris and Joe Juneau in 1880 and still operated by them. Despite the excellent returns from the workings, Joe is frequently in financial trouble. He is a hail fellow with a multitude of friends, especially when he is buying drinks, as he seems frequently to be doing. When it came time to shut down the operation last fall, Joe was $430 short of being able to pay his share of the expenses, consisting mostly of wages for the hired help. He borrowed $500 from George Nowell, giving his interest in the claims as security, and it is predicted that this will end his ownership in the property.