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Tag: Ferguson

  • Daniel Ferguson-Last Project

    Daniel Ferguson photographed by M. M.Hazeltine of Baker City about 1872

    I have written before about Daniel Howes Ferguson and his family. One post about a steamboat disaster on the Willamette River in Oregon, I called Too Much Fire in the Box. Before this Daniel joined the California Gold Rush in 1849. I wrote about this in a post called Traveling by Mailboat. Here are some other related posts.

    Places the Fergusons lived in include Norwalk and Danbury and in Connecticut. They also lived Yuba, California, Portland, Linn City and Baker City Oregon, the Cascades, Washington, and Lone Pine, California. Every time I open my research about the Fergusons, I wonder and theorized about his death and burial place.

    Why did he die in Maryland when he and Jeannette lived in the state of California? Where was he buried?

    Daniel Ferguson died rather suddenly near Washington DC. The Ferguson Family Bible reads, “Daniel H Ferguson died at Beltsville Station, Prince George County, State of Maryland on 28th day of September AD 1876, aged 60 years 6 months and 10 days”

    Upon Leaving The Cascades

    In my post titled Images, I described the Fergusons in Washington territory. They lived along the Columbia River in a town called the Cascades. Sometimes in the late 1860s the Fergusons left the Cascades.

    In 1868 Margaret’s older brother, James Ferguson, moved to Baker City and went into business with Margaret’s husband, Edwin Reynolds. They established a dry goods store in Baker City. James had been working in Eastern Washington in the Fort Colville area in his father’s shipping, selling and trading businesses.

    While living in Baker City James became acquainted with a young schoolteacher named Jennie Mann. In June of 1870, he married Jennie Mann of Barre, Vermont. This new couple moved into a house next door to Edwin and Margaret Ferguson Reynolds.

    The US census of 1870 for Baker City, Baker, Oregon, dwelling no. 3, family 3 lists James F. Ferguson, age 24, occupation, retail grocer, real estate value, $1500, personal property, $2000, born in New York.  Listed next is Jennie Ferguson, age, 21, occupation, keeping house, born in Vermont.

    The next entry, dwelling no. 4, family no. 4 is for Edwin W Reynolds and his family. Margaret Ferguson Reynolds, age 22, occupation, keeping house, born in New York is listed next. The three children were George, Addie and Frances, all born in Oregon. Lastly, Jeannette Ferguson, age 53, born in Connecticut is listed. Some of the names are spelled wrong.

    Here is an image of this June 28 1870 Federal Census record for Baker City, Baker, Oregon

    In June of 1870, Federal Census records placed Daniel Ferguson in Cerro Gordo, Inyo, California. Daniel, head of family no. 18, owned $300 in real estate and $3000 in personal property. His occupation was listed as “teamster” as were the other two men who were Omie Mair and Edward Foster. Here is an image.

    Cerro Gordo, California

    Cerro Gordo Spanish “Fat Hill” was the name of a mountain in the Inyo range. Daniel was here in the mining camp called Cerro Gordo. This mountain, located near Death Valley, is about eight miles east and 5,000 feet above Owens Lake. Other mining communities in this area were Dolomite, Swansea, Keeler, Olancha and Cartago. These camps were located along the shoreline of Owens Lake. In 1872 there was even a place called Ferguson’s Landing on Owens Lake. Today the lake is dry and the towns are ghost towns. Here is a map.

    Map based on map found in digital-desert.ca

    Getting the Ore from the mine to Los Angeles

    The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 and there were short line railroads in many western towns. This was not the case for the Cerro Gordo mines. Transport was by mules pulling wagons.These wagons loaded with silver and lead traveled more than 200 miles. It was that far from the Cerro Gordo mines to the ports and markets of Los Angeles. On the return trip the wagons carried supplies for the miners. The miners needed clothing, building materials, utensils, dishes, tools, tack, canned goods, flour, sugar, coffee, liquor and other goods. The drivers of these wagons were called teamsters.

    An estimated 17 million dollars’ worth of silver and lead arrived in Los Angeles from these mountain mines. Residents of Los Angeles credit these mines for the size of their city. They say it would not have become the large bustling port town it was in the late 1800s. It would not be the big city it is now.

    In the early 1870s Daniel’s wife, Jeannette and son, James joined Daniel in Southern California at Lone Pine.  Jeannette’s relatives In Connecticut wrote to Jeannette in Lone Pine, Inyo, California in 1873.

    During the 1870s Lone Pine was an important supply town for Kearsarge, Cerro Gordo, Keeler, Swansea and Darwin. Lone Pine was about 5 miles from Ferguson’s Landing and 12 miles from Cerro Gordo.

    The Building of the Bessie Brady

    Starting in June 1872 the Bessie Brady, hauled ore milled into ingots at Swansea across the lake. Before this the 85-pound silver-lead ingots had to be hauled by mule and wagons around Owens Lake.

    In 1872 a shortcut across Owens Lake was orchestrated by James Brady and Daniel Ferguson. I found a credible reference for this partnership. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had this to say.

    So much silver was extracted that a small steamer, the Bessie Brady, was built in 1872 by James Brady and D.H. Ferguson. (Its purpose) was to ferry the bullion across Owens Lake from Swansea to Cartago Landing, thereby reducing reliance on mule transport.
    Los Angeles Department of Water and Power ,https://www.lawp.com, page 30

    This saved time and money on the 200-mile trek to the ports of Los Angeles. The building of the Bessie Brady involved both men’s time, money, and experience. D. H. Ferguson had knowledge of steamboats and how to build them. My theory is that Daniel’s experience building the ill fated Gazelle, guided much of this project.

    Another project Daniel did in 1872 was acquiring a plot of land at the northwest corner of Owens Lake. He built a wharf there and called it Ferguson’s Landing. The daughter of James Brady, Bessie Brady, christened these men’s boat at Ferguson’s Landing on July 4, 1872.

    After the Bessie Brady was built, she was moored at Swansea. She crossed Owens Lake to both Ferguson’s Landing and Cartago Landing carrying silver-lead ingots.

    This article called “Naming of the Bessie Brady”, provides details about what Daniel and James had been doing. It describes an interesting day in the life of some 1870ers.

    Naming of the Bessie Brady


    By 1872 Cerro Gordo’s bullion output was large. The mode of moving it to tidewater at Santa Monica or San Pedro was by teams, under a general contract. Later this method was brought to precise system; but at that period, it was both unsatisfactory and inadequate. Many tons of bullion were usually pulled up near Owens Lake from the furnaces at Cerro Gordo and at Swansea, awaiting moving. Hauling around the lake was slow and expensive; it takes a twelve-animal team five days to go from Swansea to the foot of the lake…hauling but six tons a load. The need of improvement caused Superintendent James Brady of the Owens Lake Silver-Lead Co and D. H. Ferguson to decide to build a boat. It was constructed in the spring of 1872, at a cost of $10,000. Its dimensions were 85 feet keel, 16 feet beam, 6 feet depth of hold, with a 20-horsepower engine. A 52-inch propeller drove it and with light draft part of the propeller was always out of the water. Though not large the boat was a big step ahead in facilities, for it was able to make a round trip daily from Swansea, at the lake’s northeastern curve to Cartage at the southwest carrying 70 tons of freight.  A comparison with the teaming time and capacity already mentioned is of interest. For nearly ten years, until the coming of the Carson & Colorado railroad caused the Cerro Gordo Freighting Company to quit this field, the boat was a money- saving factor in the valley shipments, both ways for the mines and the valley.
    On the Fourth of July 1872, the valley’s chief celebration centered around the christening of the little ship. Twenty carriage loads of people and many horsemen from Independence and Lone Pine and the country between, left Lone Pin that mourning and traveled the five miles to Ferguson’s Landing before the boat, coming across from Swansea, arrived towing a barge to serve as a temporary wharf. A hundred and thirty excursionists embarked. The little Bessie, daughter of Superintendent Brady, stepped to the bow of the boat and broke a bottle of wine on it, lisping "Bessie Brady”. W. H. Creighton, a citizen with poetic aspirations, read an “Ode to the Bessie Brady”. 
    The first steamer excursion on the lake made its way to the lower end. With the seven-mile speed, the unclouded July sun overhead, an open deck, the reflecting water around and the heat of an unhoused engine to add to its might, it may be supposed that some degree of enthusiasm was required to enjoy the dancing which went on until the perspiring excursionists reached the mouth of Olancho Creek. Disembarking there, the party picnicked, listened to the Declaration of Independence and otherwise spent the time until evening coolness came, and a delightful return journey became possible. The festivities ended at Lone Pine.
    The Silver-Lead Company built a 300-foot wharf at Swansea and others were put up at Cartage and Ferguson’s landing. The lake was then supposed to be unfathomable; but its very gradual deepening made light draft a necessity in the boat. Good water was obtained on the eastern side by boxing an underwater spring so that its water rose several feet above the lake level for the steamer’s use.
    “Naming of the Bessie Brady”, Inyo Independent (Inyo), 29 Sept 1916, Vol.47 No. 21, California Digital Newspaper Collection, archived (http://cdnc.ucr.edu)

    In September of 1872 James Brady sold his interest in the Bessie Brady to John Daneri and Daniel Ferguson. Unfortunately, in 1875 their steamboat company folded and Casper Titchworth purchased Ferguson’s interest in the Bessie Brady.

    Questions and Theories

    Here are my theories about Daniel and Jeannette’s travels to the east coast in 1876.

    Daniel and Jeannette decided to go back east as far as Washington, D.C. Daniel’s mother Fanny Ferguson died in Davenport, Scott County, Iowa on April 30, 1876. I hope he saw her before she died.

    Fanny had moved to Davenport sometime after 1880; her youngest child, Fannie A. Ferguson Stewart and her husband Jacob Stewart lived in Davenport.  The old blue scrapbook held two photos of Aunt Fannie, one taken in Davenport around 1880.

    Daniel Ferguson died near Washington D.C. The Ferguson Family bible gave the date as September 28, 1876,in Maryland.

    After

    After Daniel died, Jeannette did not return to the West directly. Instead she stayed with her brother and sister-in-law. In 1880, she was found in the household of her older brother Albert Keeler and his wife Harriet. They lived in Yonkers, New York. Here is a image of the 1880 U.S. census record for Albert and Harriet Keeler ling in Yonkers,Westchester, New York. Jeannette Ferguson, age 65, is listed as a boarder.

    She died in Baker City, Oregon on April 19, 1894. Family buried her in Mount Hope Cemetery in an unmarked grave next to her daughter-in-law, Jennie Ferguson. Her obituary reads:

    Last Friday’s Oregonian noted the death on the day previous of one of the pioneer women of the state at Baker City,” Mrs. Jeanette Ferguson, aged 79 years, widow of the late D. H. Ferguson, a well-known pioneer of 1853, died of cancer and paralysis. She was born in Danbury, Con., on April 10, 1816, and resided in Oregon City, Or., in 1853.” In the early times before the great flood of 1861 her husband was a prominent businessman and mill owner at this place. When Linn City was flourishing, he was the principal mill owner at that place and many of the old timers remember well both him and his wife. Mrs. Ferguson was a grandmother of Mrs. E. M. Mack (Addie Ferguson) of this city.
    “Chat About Town”, Oregon City Enterprise (Oregon City), April 27, 1894, Image 3, Col. 3, digital images, Historic Oregon Newspapers,(http://oregonnews.edu accessed: April 23,2015)

    Daniel and Jeannette Ferguson were Oregon pioneers, adventurers, parents, and unassuming people. Jeannette was buried in an unmarked grave in Baker City, and we don’t know where Daniel was buried.

    Certainly, Daniel Howes Ferguson embodies the definition of an entrepreneur. A definition reads“a person who organizes and operates a business taking on greater than normal financial risk ”.  In his sixty years of life, Daniel did this many times. His freighting and trading activities coupled with his inventiveness made life in the American frontier easier.

  • Water and Steamboats

    Part 3 of the Daniel Ferguson Story

    Frances Perritt, my husband grandmother, saved a clipping of her grandmother’s obituary. Her Grandmother, Margaret St John Ferguson Reynolds, was Daniel’s daughter. The part in the obituary about Daniel reads:

    Her father Daniel H Ferguson was a mill man and steamboat owner. In the early days and at one time he owned the dam where Oregon City locks are now located.

    The obituary of Louis P. Reynolds reads that “he was the grandson of the late Daniel H. Ferguson who was one of the principal owners of the Willamette Falls Canal and Milling Co. of Oregon City, in 1852 to 1853.”

    In my search for the owner of Willamette Falls Canal and Milling Co., I found several articles about Robert Moore saying he was the owner of this company. Then after much searching, I found a newspaper article In the Oregon Argus, dated August 21, 1858. This article explained the ownership of this company. But first a little background would be appropriate.

    Before Daniel bringing his family to Willamette Valley, he prospected for gold on the Yuba River in northern California. He and his brother, Thomas, had other business besides gold mining. One was investing in fast growing towns. Thomas wrote in a letter to his wife in Florida in April of 1850. He said “I have invested in Lindd <sic> City (Linn City, Oregon) one thousand dollars.”

    Daniel and Thomas were in business together. They referred to themselves as Ferguson & Ferguson or the Ferguson Brothers.

    So, Daniel had some dealings with Linn City a couple of years before his arrival in Oregon.

    The Main Water Ways of Oregon

    Before railroads came to the Willamette Valley, travel by steamboat was the main way to get between Astoria and Marysville. Shipping on the upper and lower Willamette was a profitable enterprise.

    Two river dominated Daniel’s life after he moved with his family to Oregon—the Columbia and the Willamette. The Columbia River separated Washington Territory from Oregon Territory when Washington Territory was established on March 2, 1853.

    The Willamette River flows through the Willamette Valley north from Eugene. The upper tributaries of the Willamette originate in the mountains outside Eugene.  On its way north to the Columbia River this river flows through the many Oregon towns. Some of these towns along the upper Willamette are Eugene, Corvallis, Albany, Salem, Newburg, Wilsonville, Oregon City, and Portland. It empties into the Columbia River at Kelley Point, Portland, Oregon. It is the 13th largest river by volume in the United States. The Willamette Falls is located between West Linn and Oregon city. It is the second largest waterfall by volume of water in the U.S.

    This large waterfall was an obstacle to steamboat travel on the Willamette River between the upper and lower river.

    Photograph of Willamette Falls in Oregon City, Oregon, from California Historic Society and USC

    Grass crops like wheat and rye did well in the upper Willamette Valley. The excess crops needed to be transported down the Willamette to Portland and beyond.

    Ideally transporting these excess crops on the river would solve the problem. The typical steamship was large and deep keeled. It couldn’t maneuver in the shallow water of the upper river beyond Oregon City. The Lot Whitcomb, built in Milwaukie, Oregon in 1850, ran on the lower Willamette. She traveled between Milwaukie and Astoria. Daniel planned to enter this new industry with boats designed for the shallower upper river waters. Getting the right design of steamboat was not the only problem.

    The other problem was getting the goods from the upper river to the lower river.  There was a 35 feet drop over Willamette Falls at Oregon City. A portage road around the falls existed at this time.

    Robert Moore’s Linn City

    Donation Land Claim Map 1852 Linn City and Oregon City from West Linn Historical Society

    Robert Moore’s Linn City (West Linn) was situated on the west bank of the Willamette River. Oregon City on the east side was directly across the river. In 1846, Linn City consisted of about 15 houses occupied by mechanics employed by Moore. They worked in his flour and lumber mills. His employees also ran a ferry which crossed the river to Oregon City. Moore also owned Willamette Falls, Canal, Milling and Transportation Company and a newspaper, The Spectator.

    Daniel Ferguson in Linn City

    When the Ferguson family came to Portland, they soon acquired a home there. Their house stood on 2nd Street, one door down north of Mill Street. It was close to the Willamette River. Soon after they were settled in Portland, Daniel started traveling upriver to Linn City. By 1853 Daniel even had living quarters on the hillside overlooking Linn City. Robert Moore lived nearby. By the time, this man was tremendously overweight, unhealthy and had debts.

    In December 1852, Robert Moore transferred the title and the land of this company to Daniel. Robert gained some capital and a promissory note. Daniel acquired a ten-year mortgage. Daniel was now the owner of the Willamette Falls, Canal, Milling and Transportation Company. He also owned the land where the Oregon City Locks are now located. Daniel’s ownership of these properties lasted only a few months.

     In January, 1853, he asked the provincial government of the Oregon territory for permission to incorporate this business. Then in March of that year he transferred the title and the debt to this new corporation. People referred to this company as the Willamette Falls Company, the Willamette Falls Canal Company, D. Ferguson Company and Messrs., Ferguson and Company.

    Daniel’s Building Projects at Canemah

    In June of 1853 Daniel ran this ad in The Weekly Oregonian.

    Wanted Immediately

    Twelve good drillers and blasters; Fifty good common labors, person used to quarrying and working rock; Six good carpenters, such as are used to working timber; Three good hands used to boating and rafting timber; Also One good blacksmith, one that is competent to do all kinds of black smith work.

    Constant employment and good wages will be given to such by applying to the office of the Willamette Falls Canal Company.

    Daniel H. Ferguson         Superintendent

    “Wanted Immediately,” Weekly Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) 2 July 1853, p.3; digital images, GenealogyBank (http//:www.genealogybank.com

    Daniel wanted to build a breakwater. His men would dig a basin big enough to accommodate a steamboat while loading and unloading cargo. This work would be carried out at Canemah. Canemah was at the southern end of portage around Willamette Falls. It was used by native Americans as a takeout place for canoes before carrying the canoes around the falls. Here boat traffic from the upper Willamette River stopped. People and goods were unloaded and taken around the falls to Oregon City around the falls. Then they were loaded into another boat.

    Before Daniel left Canemah he and his men had built a sawmill, gristmill a warehouse, and a wharf.

    In August of 1853 Daniel Ferguson is praised by the editor of the Oregon Spectator. The article reads.

    At Canemah, within the past twelve months…Our neighbor too, Linn City is not behind in enterprise and good works. Under the energetic management of D. Ferguson and Company, a fine breakwater and dam are rapidly advancing to completion. Mills and warehouses are now framed and soon to be erected, all calculated to give unsurpassed facilities for transportation of merchandise above and below the falls together with magnificent water power which could drive all the mills of Lowell and Rochester combined. The work is built so far as we can judge, in the most durable and permanent manner, with great strength and on a judicious plan. Nature has done wonders for the locality, and Messrs., Ferguson and Co. are most ably seconding her labors.

    “Improvement,” Oregon Spectator, (Oregon City, Oregon) 26 August 1853, p.2 col 2; digital images; Historic Oregon Newspapers,(http://oregonnews.edu

    In the January 7th 1854, the editor of the Spectator again praises Daniel’s work in Linn City. The editor describes the breakwater Daniel is having built. The editor also describes a device Daniel is having built that will make unloading and loading the boats much easier.

    …The plan is admirable, and no giant power of water could have been more completely controlled and managed. The breakwater is some thirty rods cast from, and running parallel with the west bluff of the river, and continues near one-fourth of a mile up the river from the perpendicular falls, so that by a connection of the west bluff with the breakwater by a dam passing along near the brink of the precipice, the various designs and objects in view of water into are fully accomplished, viz: the reception of water into the harbor for the admission of steamers, and for the purpose of driving their and extensive saw and flouring mills and enable them  to exchange the lading from boats above and below the falls, loaded with the various products of the upper country, and those below laden with  goods, can come together and have their freight discharged by a timber built into cribs, which  are piled with stone and sufficiently covered with plank. The works are placed upon the solid rock and are as lasting and durable as the very hills. Ferguson and Co. are much applauded for the undertaking of that which seemed almost impossible…

    “For the Spectator,” Oregon Spectator, (Oregon City, Oregon) 7 January 1854, p.2 col 3; digital images; Historic Oregon Newspapers,(http://oregonnews.edu

    The Steamboats

    In 1851, the only way boating on the upper Willamette was by canoe. The trip to Salem and Marysville (Corvallis) was long, tiring and not practical for transporting goods.

    In 1853, four steamboats operated out of Canemah. They were the Oregon, the Wallamet, the Portland and the Belle. Daniel’s Willamette Falls Company, owned the Belle and the Oregon. In April 1854 ,Daniel planned to launch another steamboat that was being built at Canemah. This steamboat, the Gazelle, would run on the upper river between Marysville and Canemah.

    The Belle, which was already in service ran on the lower river. With the launch of the Gazelle the company would have three steamboats on the Willamette River.

    On March 4, 1854, Daniel puts this ad in the Weekly Oregonian.

    Notice to the Public

    The Willamette Falls Co. is now ready to receive and forward all kinds of merchandise, through their new warehouse, up and down the river. The steamer Belle, Capt. Wells, is running from Portland to the falls in connection with the steamer Oregon from our new warehouse to the head of navigation on the upper Willamette.

    The new steamer Gazelle, under the command of Capt. R. Hereford, will be ready to run in a few days.

    Charge for passing freight over the fall is $1 per ton.

    Passengers will be conveyed to and from Oregon City at all times with dispatch.

    D. H. FERGUSON, Superintendent

    Notice to the Public,” Weekly Oregonian, (Portland, Oregon) 4March 1854, p.5 Col. 1, digital images, GenealogyBank.com,  (http://www.genealogybank.com

    On March 11, 1854, Daniel puts this ad in the Weekly Oregonian.

    On March 18, 1854 the Gazelle made her first run on the upper Willamette with Capt. Robert Hereford at the helm.  A local newspaper had this to say about the run.

    The fine weather and good music tended not a little to enhance the pleasure of the ladies and gentlemen on board, and all were highly entertained and pleased. Her tables are laden with Oregon’s choicest productions, together with a select variety of imported fruit, etc. Who wishes for better accommodations, even in this Tyee day of Oregon refinement?

    “Gazelle (sidewheeler,1854)”, Wikipedia, Sept. 1, 2011, (http://en.wikipedia.org:

    In this description of the Gazelle’s first trip on the upper Willamette, the editor uses the term “Typee day. The term, “Typee day”, comes from a novel by Herman Melville called Typee and published in 1846. It means a relaxed and unhurried day. This is a high point in Daniel’s life’s work and is about to change. It would be a long time before Daniel had a Typee day again.

  • Traveling by Mailboat

    The Ferguson Brothers Go West

    for week 28-travel

    Daniel Howes Ferguson, my husband’s 3rd great grandfather traveled to San Francisco, California in 1849. Part of this trip he was with his brother, Thomas Jefferson Ferguson.

    When I think of this trip, the nursery rhyme, “To Market, to Market”, comes to mind.

    To market, to market to buy a fat pig:
    Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
    To market, to market to buy a fat hog.
    Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

    In this nursery rhyme the travelers rode in a cart or buggy pulled by a horse. The Ferguson brothers traveled by ship. Daniel left in the spring of 1849 from Norwalk Harbor, New York City. Thomas left from Key West, Florida. They met in Panama City and traveled together from there.

    Letters exchanged between Thomas and his wife, Rosalinda, describe the doings of these two industrious and lucky gold miners. Mary Haffenreffer transcribed most of these letters and published them along with her research into the Ferguson family in the Florida Keys Sea Heritage Journal, fall 2012 and winter 2013. She also sent me copies of the original letters.

    The Fergusons traveled on a mail boat steamship. The Falcon was the one Thomas rode. This small steamship with Captain Thomson at the helm, was one of the three ships carrying U.S. mail as well as passengers on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama. The Falcon’s first trip between New York City and Charges, Panama happened in December of 1848 and took 26 days. The Falcon left New York City on December 1 and arrived in Charges on December 27. The route was New York to Savannah to Charleston to Havana to New Orleans to Chargres. It included mail pick-ups and drop-offs as well as passenger pick-ups.

    Here are maps showing the route.

    Around the time Thomas left Key West Florida for Havana, Cuba, he received this letter from his brother William E. Ferguson. It reads:

    Brother Thomas,

    I have thought it advisable to write you to give you the particulars brought by the Steamer Northerner from Chagres.

    I was conversing with a passenger who went from New York in company with fifteen others. They thought to get passage from Chagres but they found no opportunity to get from there. There is onboard three who bought steerage tickets in New York for $100.00 for each. One sold at Chagres for $450.00, one for$500.00 and the other for $700.00, and they state that there is 2500 persons on the Isthmus now waiting for a passage to San Francisco. My informant states that they think that there is a poor chance of the steamers returning from San Francisco and there is no sailing vessels at Panama. He states that he is going to New York to procure tickets if possible to go through, if not to write them to return to New York and proceed around the hook. I would advise you to go by land some route through Mexico if possible. I think we will get from here next week. They are getting every ready as soon as possible.

    Remember me to all friends.

    W.E. Ferguson

    Letters to Rosalinda

    Charleston April 5th, 1849

    The first letter Thomas wrote to his wife Rosalinda Corcoran Ferguson reflects what his brother William said.

    Havana, April the 8th, 1849

    I arrived here at 9 o’clock the next morning after I left home. I learn here that there are two thousand passengers at Panama waiting for passage. I think of altering my route to Vera Cruz and go through Mexico.

    The trouble with going through Mexico was that the United States had just won a war with Mexico, known as The Mexican War in the States and The American Intervention War in Mexico.  Mexico lost on third of its territory by the “Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo”. Traveling from Vera Cruz through Mexico, those Americans who chose to that way were likely meet angry Mexican citizens who would have no interest in aiding them and might even rob and kill them.

    In his next letter also written from Havana to his wife, he had changed his mind about traveling through Mexico.    He now planned to sail to Chagres on the steamer Falcon.

    Panama April the 22th, 1849

    Dear Wife,

    I write you once more from this place though I expected to leave here before this but receiving information from Vera Cruz not very favorable of the route through Mexico, I have altered my mind and shall go the way of Panama…  I expect I shall find my brother Daniel there if he has not got passage away which is doubtful. The steamer Falcon will be here on the 25th going to Chagres… Write me whether you heard anything more from Albert before he left Charleston.

                                     Thomas J. Ferguson

    On April 25, 1849, Thomas Ferguson left Havana on the Falcon heading to Chagres. He arrived in Panama City on the Pacific side of the Isthmus on May 9, 1849. Thomas didn’t mention how he got across the Isthmus after he landed at the mouth of the Chagres River.

    Up the Chagres River and on to Panama City

    The 60 miles between the mouth of the Chagres River and Panama City is challenging for most. It involved first chugging up the Chagres River in a small steamboat for 12 miles. Then the river became very shallow. Travelers boarded flat bottomed canoes called bungas which were poled or dragged by men. Clouds of mosquitoes, stifling heat and big alligators added to the atmosphere.  The passengers rode mules for the last 24 miles because the waterway ended at the very small village of Gorgona. Besides the discomfort caused by heat, reptiles, insects there were illnesses. People often caught cholera, malaria and yellow fever on this route.

    Daniel had a similar though longer journey as he had traveled from Norwalk Harbor. He arrived in Panama City before his brother Thomas.

    Letters to Rosalinda

    Panama May the 11th, 1849

    Dear Wife,

    I arrived here day before yesterday and shall leave day after tomorrow morning on the ship Norman in company with my brother Daniel, Stafford and Saywood and the rest of the Key West party who I have found here all well, all excited to get away to the Land of Promise. Daniel tells me he had a talk with fifteen young men who arrived here a few days ago on the steamer Oregon from California on their way home. They said they got as much gold as they wanted and were going home to enjoy it. They had got seven bushels of pure gold with them that they had dug themselves in the space of six months. Daniel says they told him to keep cool, that there was enough gold there for all…I have got my passage in a first rate ship by Daniel’s having a pass engaged for his brother-in-law who hasn’t got here yet.

                                                         Thomas J. Ferguson

    San Francisco- July 31st, 1849

    Dear Wife,

    I arrived here on the 15th of this month having sixty three days passage from Panama, rather a tedious  passage but well and hearty, the weather at sea was calm and sea very Smooth. On my arrival here Daniel and I took a small job which we done in a week for which we got five hundred dollars. Since then we have built us a boat to go up to the mines and intend to leave tomorrow. I was offered sixteen dollars a day the day I got here and refuse good jobs now to go up to the mines so you may judge what I think of the prospect. The gold stories we heard about California before I left home was no humbug. I have seen lots of the gold here, one lump weighing fourteen and half pounds. I don’t know as I shall find any of those big lumps but I am bound to have gold of some sort; there is plenty of it here and no mistake. This place is very healthy though cold. I have wore flannel shirt and drawer with my thick buckskin pantaloons ever since I have been here and then been cold with a severe wind from the sea like our Northers in Key West but back from the coast it is warm.  I eat apples, Pears and blackberries here. Some things here sell high, others very low .Clothing is cheaper than it is in the States,  flour $10, pork $25, beef $5,of the best salt, fresh beef from 12 to 18 cents a lb., potatoes $10 for a hundred lbs., onions seventy five cents a pound, cheese fifty, saleratus (baking powder)$2.50, butter $1.50, cheese fifty cents. This town is overrun with goods, the streets and yards full, lying about open, nobody steals. There ain’t a quarter stores enough to hold them. …

                                                                 Thomas J. Ferguson

    By October they were on the Yuba River prospecting and had made a claim. The Yuba River, located in the Sierra Nevada’s in northern California, is a major tributary to the Feather River.

    Uba (Yuba) River Calif. Oct 21st 1849

    Dear Wife,

    … I will now give you a statement of my success. After arriving here I spent a month in hunting, or prospecting as they call it here, up and down the river for a good place to locate. I at length found one which prove to be good on which my brother and myself built two machines for washing out gold and a water wheel to lift up water out of the holes we dig which works them all effectually so much so that we have made over five thousand dollars in the last three weeks…

    By a great odd we have got the richest spot I have ever seen on the river. It is a small bar on the side of the river in the form of a triangle about fifty yards on each side with rocks ten feet high on two sides and the river on the other. We have the whole of it to ourselves and nobody troubles us…

    I am faring very well here. We have got plenty of pork, dried beef, ham, flour, hard bread, beans, cornmeal, coffee, sugar, molasses, dried peaches and cherries. We get fresh beef every few days so we fare pretty well. I made some molasses cake this morning which went very well. It wasn’t quite as good as you used to make but it done very well.

    Albert is not here. We are looking for him every day. I have wrote letters directing him where to find us.                                                                            Thomas J. Ferguson

    Selling Goods to Other Miners

    Daniel’s and Thomas businesses have grown. They are buying more goods for sale to their fellow miners on the Yuba River. He writes to Rosalinda about this.

    San Francisco Feb 28th, 1850

    I am here now buying goods to take to the mines. Since I was here and wrote you, last, Daniel has been down and taken up $3000 worth of goods. Immediately on his return I came down again. We are selling a great many goods, as soon as I return now we shall start another store at Eliza Town on the Feather River at the head of Steam navigation. We purchased a lot there a few days since for which we paid six hundred dollars. We have been offered six hundred for one half of it. We also have another lot in the town given to us by the Proprietor of the town in consideration of our being the first who landed goods there from a steamboat… We have our own teams to haul our goods, eight mules and six horses, which we bought last winter when they were cheap. Now they are worth from two to three hundred dollars apiece.

    By March of 1850 Daniel and Thomas established two more stores and are buying a stock of goods large enough to have freight bills over twenty five hundred dollars. Daniel has taken charge of the mining and trading operations in Yuba while Thomas travels up and down the river to buys goods.

    In his April letter to Key West, Thomas said he had been to San Francisco three times buying about four thousand dollars’ worth of goods each time. Daniel worked on some damming projects to turn the river. Thomas also mentions three towns they had invested in, Elisa, Fredonia, and Lindd City. Could this be Linn City of Oregon, the town on the Willamette River where Daniel worked and lived when he brought his family west?

    Thinking of Home and Family

    Daniel and Thomas thoughts turned to home and family. In April Thomas writes, “I am beginning to like this country quite well. You needn’t think strange if I should be home this fall for you and Daniel’s wife and bring you out to this country.” Rosalinda answered this proposal in her May letter. She writes: “If you think that the place will suit me and the children I am willing to go any place under the globe to you. I’ve become acquainted with a fine Irish woman. She is willing to work and would be glad of the offer to go with me to California.

    In November of 1850 Daniel and Thomas were preparing to go home. They gave their wives December 15th as the date they would start back. Daniel and Thomas Ferguson had taken ample gold out of their mine. They also had sold many items to their fellow miners. Thomas and Daniel planned to return via Havana together. From there, Thomas would ship to Key West and Daniel to New York.

    The Ferguson brothers had done well.  A newspaper article from San Francisco states: “Thomas J. and Daniel H. Ferguson, from Danbury, Ct., have obtained $150,000 in gold dust by mining operations upon the Yuba River, during the past summer.” Using an inflation calculator this would be about $4,829,000 in 2018.

    Going back to the nursery rhyme “To Market”, the Ferguson brothers had certainly brought home the bacon. Their families would live high on the hog.

  • Siblings

    Week 10

    To have an entire family group’s history laid out like the many dishes at a Turkish banquet occurs, but not often. For the Reynolds family, the stories were all there in Grandma Perritt’s scrapbook. I just provided the labels.

    The family I am referring to is the Edwin and Margaret Reynolds family. I will focus on their children who included Bessie Reynolds and her siblings.

    About a quarter of Frances Perritt’s holds newspaper clippings and photos of her mother’s siblings. Frances’s mother, Bessie Reynolds had six sisters and two brothers who lived to adulthood.

    I have in my possession an 8” by 6” studio photo taken by Davies photo studio located on Third and Morrison Street in Portland, Oregon. It was likely taken in 1917 when Louis Reynolds was visiting relatives in Portland before he took a job in New York.

    The Photograph

    The photo is labeled on the back thus.

                   1st row L to R: Aunt Mamie, Uncle Louis, Great Grandmother Reynolds, Uncle George

                   2nd row L to R: Aunt Bertie, Aunt Fannie, Bessie (Grandmother Goughler), Aunt Addie

                   3rd row: Aunt Tootie, Aunt Millie

    Reynolds Family

    I am confident one of Frances’s daughters labeled this photograph. I know this because of the relationships mentioned. Rose and Betty’s great grandmother, Margaret Ferguson Reynolds, in the front row is easily recognizable from her other photos. The aunts and uncles would have been great aunts and uncles to Rose and Betty.

    In 1969, Millie and Mamie were still alive at the ages of 83 and 78. I remember meeting them outside Calaruga Terrace in Portland, Oregon when I was dating my future husband.

    Because of Grandma Perritt’s scrapbook, I feel I knew these people. It has been an invaluable resource in my search for stories about the Reynolds, Cabells and Fergusons.

  • Fanny’s Letter

    Fanny’s Letter

    Week 7–Letters and Diaries

    About 30 years ago when Tom Hambright was working as a curator for the Key West Art and Historical Society. He found some old letters Ferguson letters written in 1849 and 1850. In 2012 Mary Haffenreffer transcribed most of these letters. She published them along with her research about Ferguson family in the Florida Keys Sea Heritage Journal, Fall 2012 and Winter 2013. She sent me a copy of an earlier letter from Fanny Howes Ferguson to her second son Thomas Jefferson Ferguson. Thomas was living in Key West Florida in the 1840s. Fanny’s letter mentions 10 her children, informs Thomas of his upcoming sister Elvina’s wedding and mentions his cousin Cornelia Howes Higgins, daughter of Malchus Reed Howes. Fanny was planning the wedding of her oldest daughter, Elvina, to James P. Sanders and thinking about how much she wants Thomas and all her other sons to be there. Thomas is living in Key West, Florida a long way from Danbury, Connecticut where Fanny lives. In this letter, she gives news about Thomas’s other siblings- George, Daniel, Isaac Reed, Albert, Fred, William, Fernando and his two sisters Elvina and Fannie A.  She mentions her husband but not by name. She writes:

    Danbury Oct 29th 1840

    My Dear and long absent son,

    In the silent hours when labors and care is laid Aside and the rain pouring down in torrents I take up my pen to inform you of this situation of our family which perhaps never will interest no one but you. We have only 2 sisters left with us. George took Fernando last march to live with him till he is a man. George with his wife and 3 children and Fernando made us a long visit last summer, Daniel his wife and one child visit us frequently, they live in Norwalk. Fred & Elbert has not visited us this year, William lives in Miltown [apprenticed] to Mr. Crosly learning the shoemaker trade, he come to see us, and I regret to think that I can’t have it to say that Thomas visits us too, but you are separated far from us in a country where you are surrounded I fear with Indians, I frequently see accounts of their [?] in Florida, and it makes me shudder for fear I shall find your name among the sufferers, but you grant that I never may, I do feel to hope that you will someday come to visit us, last summer we looked forward with bright hope, and begun to anticipate the day when we should embrace you but going to the post office I found a letter there, which told us we must suspend that hope for one year, which caused tears to flow but was glad that we could hear particulars from under your own hand, of your business and situation, and that you intended to come Another year, it would be very pleasant to us, and no doubt it would to come if you could be here on the 19th of next month which is Thanksgiving not only thanksgiving but wedding day, tis expected that Elvina will be married on that day to James P sanders, I expect our relatives all will be present and you are respectfully invited to attend(Elvina would like some of your Figs to treat her company with) Reed and Lydia A Lewis are chosen to stand up with them, you are perhaps would like to hear something about James, suffice it to say we are all pleased with him. We live where we did last year and your Father works at the hatting business, and is doing well, his health is good, and he is quite a reformed man, in the land of civil habits, I wish you to write as soon as you receive this and let us hear how you got along this summer. I hope you will not stay there and expose your life [?] and you all to the massacre of Indians, do come where you can lie down to sleep and not be in danger, this leaves us all well, our friends and relatives likewise. Cornelia Amanda Higgins with her little son 16 months old has visited us this summer, also her step mother from mobile, they met in New York and was to your brother George’s together, the evening is far spent and I must  draw to a close but not till I tell you that Alan Percy is married to Deborah Ann Heveland little you gave my love to Betsey, your housekeeper, and tell her I want she should look well to you and except for yourself the best wishes and prayers of your mother.                                                                                                                                    Fanny Ferguson

    Fanny and Nathaniel

    Fanny and Nathaniel married in Fanny’s hometown of Southeast, Putnam, New York on March 16, 1811.

    They called their first son George Washington Ferguson; the second they named Thomas Jefferson Ferguson. For the third son they used a typical Scottish naming pattern. They named this one for Fanny’s father, Daniel Howes. Their third son was called Daniel Howes Ferguson. When the gold fever struck- four of Fanny’s sons wanted to go. Thomas, Daniel and Albert journeyed to California to find gold. Only two returned, Albert died in San Francisco.

    Less than a year after Fanny wrote the letter, Nathaniel died at their home in Danbury. He died on November 9, 1846 in Norwalk at the age of 70. Only her youngest daughter, also called Fanny, was still at home. Fanny A. was 8 when Nathaniel Ferguson died.

    Road Block

    Fanny and her daughter, Fanny A, lived in Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut in 1850. This is where I found the surname, Meeker for Fanny.

    Several years later, I found a marriage announcement in the Republican Farmer, a Connecticut newspaper.

    On October 15, 1843, in Connecticut, USA, Mrs. Fanny Ferguson married Joseph S. Meeker.  Above is an 1843 news clipping from the Republican Farmer referring to Fanny and Joseph’s marriage in Norwalk. Joseph died November 2, 1846 in Norwalk, Connecticut.

    She was still using the last name of Meeker in 1870. She lived with her sister, Esther Ryder and her brother-in-law in Danbury. Fairfield County, Connecticut. Here is a snippet of the 1870 census for Danbury.

    A final Trip

    Fanny died April 30, 1879 while visiting her daughter Fanny A. Stewart in Davenport, Iowa.

  • E.W.Reynolds-Thrills & Chills

    Week 6–Surprise

    Edwin Reynolds

    Early 1900s

    Baker City, Oregon

    The Envelope-A Thrilling Find

    I found an envelope glued onto a page of Grandma’s Perritt scrapbook soon after the scrapbook came into my possession. The envelope, labeled Wesley Papers, contained an affidavit from Rulough J Dutcher. The affidavit was typed on yellow paper and copied from the original. Finding this thrilled me as this was oldest paper in Frances’s scrapbook. The original bore the date August 25, 1879 and location of Otsego, New York. It starts like this.

    Summary

    I, Rulough J. Dutcher, of the village of Richfield Springs in said County, certify and declare, that I am the only survivor of the children of Cornelius Dutcher. I was born at Granville in Washington County in the state of New York, and am now sixty nine years of age. Mary Dutcher, a daughter of my father by a former wife was ten years older than myself.

    He goes on to said the Dutcher family moved to Cherry Valley, Otsego county in 1820. Mary married Smith Reynolds here in 1822. Smith Reynolds died in 1826, after which Mary traveled to Albany, New York to live with a sister. Mary meet James Edwin Reynolds, a widower, in Albany. They married in February of 1834 and came to Cherry Valley where Mary had two children. Her son, Edwin Wesley was born in October 1837.

    How James Wesley Left Mary Dutcher

    The surprising part of this story is that James wasn’t there for the birth of this son, Edwin. By the summer 1837, James lived in Canada with his new wife, Lucy Pennell.

    The oldest son of James Wesley and his third wife, Alfred Z. Wesley wrote to Bessie Reynolds Cabell Curtiss in 1912 telling her something about why James E. Wesley left Cherry Valley, New York. He wrote:

    Mr. Dutcher (Rulough) must have made a mistake in dates (the date of Edwin’s birth in 1837). Father (James E. Wesley) told mother that he had trouble with this man Dutcher, and he left there (Cherry Valley). They were in the blacksmith business, and Dutcher was cheating him.

    Rulough Dutcher did make a mistake the birth order of Edwin’s and Mary’s children. Their daughter was born first. Later census reports (1860, 1870, 1880 and 1900) are consistent with the year 1837 being the year of Edwin’s birth. The 1840 U. S. census reports that Mary Wesley had two children under 5, a boy and a girl. Assuming these children were born two years apart, their births would be in the 1835 to 1837 range.

    In this same letter from Alfred to Bessie Alfred wrote of his father’s marriage to his mother.

    …Now dear, my sister has my mother’s marriage certificate where she was married in Mill Village, Queen’s Co., Nova Scotia, by Rev. Moody, pastor of the Episcopal Church of Liverpool, N. S., on the 3rd of July, 1837 and on the 12th day of October,1838, I was born. The Rev. Moody christened me and was my God father. He lived to be 95 years of age, and I remember him well. After me came five sisters, Emma, Ellen, Cassie, Jessie and Fannie. Father’s son by his first wife was Friend Charles. Wesley and his daughter was Merceilla. My stepbrother and sister were born in Albany, N. Y. His first wife was Nancy Smith, a native of Macclesfield Eng. We are directly descended from the Rev. John Wesley in America. Father had a heavy scar on one side given by his brother John when boys with a hatchet. My brother (Friend Charles Wesley) died in Halifax when I was 9 years old and Merceilla in 1875. Hoping these lines will find you all well, and with love to mother (Margaret Reynolds) and all my nieces and nephews. I am your loving old Uncle T. Alfred Z Wesley.

    So, James Edwin Wesley married Lucy Pennell in Nova Scotia. Edwin Wesley was born in Apple Valley, New York 3 months later.

    I don’t know why James Wesley left Mary Dutcher Reynolds Wesley in the short time before Edwin’s birth. As a result of this abandonment, Mary went back to using her first husband’s surname, Reynolds. Edwin Wesley became Edwin Reynolds.

    Oregon

    Little more is known about Edwin’s early life. We know he came to Oregon in 1856 at the age of 19. He spent three years steam boating on the Columbia traveling between Portland and The Dalles.

    Eight years later, Edwin Reynolds married Margaret St. John Ferguson at the Portland home of the Daniel Ferguson family. Her mother, Jeannette, and her brother, James Ferguson, were witnesses. March 2nd was the day. The Ferguson family bible records it this way,

    Edwin W Reynolds and Margaret were married in Portland, Oregon the year AD 1864 by the Rev Mr. Cornelius, a Baptist minister. 

    First Home

    Margaret and Edwin moved into their first home in Auburn shortly after they married. During the first few years of their marriage Auburn was the largest town in Eastern Oregon. It was the first county seat of Baker Country. Edwin Reynolds ran one of the twenty stores here, a Hudson Bay Company store. Their home was one of about a thousand which dotted the landscape around this booming gold mining community.

    Two children were born to the Reynolds while they lived in Auburn. George Putnam Reynolds was born on October 15, 1864, at Auburn. Addie Jeannette Reynolds was born October 15, 1864, in The Dallas, Wasco County, Oregon.

    Shortly after Addie’s birth the Auburn gold mine pinched out. The family moved to the nearby town of Baker City where they settled and raised their family.

    Baker City

    Edwin’s first business in Baker City was an express office. He ran this ad in the Oregonian for between 1867 and 1872.

     

    Miles F. Potter in his book about early gold mining in Oregon listed some of Baker City’s first business establishments. One was Reynolds and Ferguson’s express office.

    The Wells Fargo part of Edwin Reynolds express business involved gold dust and mail. Baker City, a mining town, needed employees who would handle robbers. Another part of this job was exchanging, storing and transporting gold.

    In 1874, Edwin served as city recorder, filling out the term of W.J. Eastabrook who had resigned. The next year Edwin lost his city recorder post to J. M. Shepherd even though the editor of the Bedrock Democrat supported him and wrote, “Mr. Reynolds is a good scribe and a first-rate accountant”.

    In 1887 the Baker City water committee undertook solving the problem of supplying water to the town. In November of 1889, Edwin Reynolds was appointed water superintendent and held that position until 1891. At the end of this appointment Mayor McCord addressing the city council said this in thanking Edwin.

    Our city water system is not on a paying basis (there were no charges for water). We have good wells, reservoir, pump, boiler and appliances; also, about 7 ½ miles of water mains and 71 fire hydrants.

    Children

    Edwin and Margaret had seven more children. They were Frances, Bertha, Bessie, Margaret Stewart, Mildred, Louis and Mary Lydia.

    The Chilling End

    The abrupt end of Edwin’s life came as a shock. This event at the end of Edwin’s life shocked Oregonians as this event was widely reported in the papers.

    At the Oregon State Archives in 2000, as I searched for Reynolds death records, I found Edwin’s. It listed the cause of death. “The cause of death was as follows: prussic acid poisoning(self-administered). Other information on this record is:

    Place of death: Portland, 362 Third; Married; Father, Jas. Edwin Wesley; Father’s birthplace, England; Maiden Name of Mother, Dutcher, Date of Death, Sept 1, 1906; Burial Lone Fir Cemetery; Date, Sept. 4, 1906

    Afterthought

    Edwin had been ill for at least 3 years. He and Margaret had recently moved from Baker City to Portland, Oregon. They lived at the Iris Hotel where he died.

    Edwin thought he had liver disease. He had watched his son-in-law die a slow death of this illness in 1901. He did not want the same ending.

    Edwin Wesley Reynolds was a hard working, intelligent, civic-minded family man; but he was not patient.

    Taken on 23 December 2010 at the Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, Oregon

  • Tootie Reynolds

    Tootie Reynolds

    Week 3– Nickname

    Nicknamed “Tootie”

    To carry the nickname “Tootie” seems paradoxical for this Alaskan pioneer who with her former husband founded the Daily Alaska Dispatch, Alaska’s first daily paper.

    Frances Cabell called Margaret Reynolds Russell, a sister of her mother, Aunt Tootie. When Margaret became Tootie to her family is unknown; it probably happened early in her life. She was born on April 5, 1877, to Edwin and Margaret Reynolds in Baker City. Her older sister, Bessie, who was born about 2 and ½ years earlier, would have been curious about the new baby. Maybe Bessie mispronounced Margaret’s name. More likely the delightful little noises the baby made caught Bessie’s attention and Margaret Stewart Reynolds became Tootie. As an adult, Margaret even signed her letters to Bessie as, “your loving sister Tootie.”

    Juneau, Alaska

    On February 15, 1898, Margaret Reynolds married Edward Crawford Russell in Seattle, Washington. As a result, she started going by the name, Mrs. Ed C. Russell.

    In the same year, she and Edward “took a printing press to Alaska… and after issuing a weekly(newspaper) for a time, they bought another weekly in Juneau and published it as a daily. This paper, the Daily Alaska Dispatch, grew and thrived under their care. Edward was the editor, and Margaret took care of business details. In August of 1900 she traveled to Seattle to find a new foreman for the print shop.

    Looking After Frances

    Margaret and Ed did not have children of their own, but they did like children. In March of 1904, Margaret’s sister, Bessie, needed someone to look after her 8-year-old daughter, Frances Cabell. So, on March 3. 1904, this item appeared in the Daily Alaska Dispatch. It read, Mr. and Mrs. Ed. C. Russell returned on the Cottage. Miss Frances Cabell, a niece of Mrs. Russell, accompanied them to spend the summer in Juneau. Frances spent the spring summer and fall with her aunt and uncle in Juneau.

    During the time Frances lived with her Aunt Tootie and her Uncle Ed, she wrote letters. She wrote to her mother in Portland and her uncles and aunts in Baker City. She wrote about her Aunt Tootie’s activities.Tootie washed clothes by hand, prepared meals, read the Dispatch and talked to neighbors and returning ship captains.

    One thing Aunt Tootie particularly enjoyed was buying and wearing hats. She bought large hats with wide brims- hats that would add height to a woman’s frame as well as being decorative. Keeping one of these hats on her head was difficult. Often the hat needed to be secured with hat pins as long as 12 inches.

    In late April, Aunt Tootie even bought Frances a hat which Frances promptly wore to church on Sunday.

    Sometime in October of 1904, Aunt Tootie took Frances home to her mother in Portland. Tootie didn’t return to Juneau until December. An item in the Dispatch, dated December 6, 1904 reads,”Mr. and Mrs. Ed C. returned…Mrs. Russell spent the past two months visiting with relatives in Portland.” 

    Selling the Dispatch and After

    Two years after the Russells returned Frances to Portland, they sold the Daily Alaska Dispatch at a profit. Tootie sent a photo with a “X” marking the the spot where their newspaper office was located in Juneau.

    After selling, they traveled and their marriage fell apart. Exactly when they separated is unknown.

    In 1920, they lived separately. Ed lived in a boarding house in Seattle working as a journalist. On the 1920 census record he said he was married, so he may have remarried.

    At this time, Margaret lived in Portland, Oregon. She was divorced and working for a printing company. Later, she would run a small job printing shop. She died March 13, 1932, at her sister, Addie Reynolds Mack’s house.

    Remembering Margaret Stewart Russell

    Some people remember Margaret as the young woman who went to Alaska near the end of the Juneau Gold Rush. The first daily newspaper in Alaska was successful largely due to her business acumen.

    Frances remembered this woman as her Aunt Tootie who gave her as amazing Alaskan adventure. This Margaret with the ridiculous nickname of Tootie was someone the family put their arms around.

    Frances Perritt labeled all photos of Margaret as “my Aunt Tootie.” She even used Margaret real first name for her first child-Rose Margaret Coursen.