YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Northwest Americana
In Memoriam
WINLOCK W. MILLER, Jr., '28

' f 3 O

~^- l^u^e^

te^c^~~f. fae*^€*^€**~?

Lovers' Lane, Sitka.

THE STORY OF
SITKA

THE HISTORIC OUTPOST OF THE
NORTHWEST COAST
THE CHIEF FACTORY OF THE RUSSIAN
AMERICAN COMPANY

C. L. ANDREWS
Seattle, Washington

PRESS OF
]gmaaxi&][a3darA.tQ SEATTLE

CONTENTS
Foreword  1
I Discovery  7
II Settlement  '.  13
III Progress of Colony  27
IV Natives  45
V Churches and Schools  54
VI Social Life  60
VII Trade and Industry  66
VIII Sitka under United States Rule  77
IX What to See  92

ILLUSTRATIONS Facing Page
Lovers' Lane  1
Mount Edgecumbe  11
Sitka in 1805  25
Bakery and Shops of the Russians  36
The Ranche  46
Cathedral of St. Michael  54
The Madonna  56
The Baranof Castle  60
The Grave of Princess Maksoutoff  62
Sitka in 1860  66
Sitka in 1869  77
Sitka — East on Lincoln Street  93
Interior of Cathedral  95
Russian Blockhouse  100
Map of Sitka  108

TO MY MOTHER
THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED
THE AUTHOR

Copyright 1922
By C. L. ANDREWS
Seattle, Wash.

SITKA

Foreword,
The panorama of sea, island, and moun
tain, which holds Sitka, Alaska, as a jewel in
its setting, is one of the most beautiful of
those which surround the cities of the
world. Toward the sea from the peninsula
on which Sitka is situated stretches an expanse
of waters, studded with forest-clad islands
which break the swell of the Pacific that
foams and tumbles on the outer barriers. To
the westward Mount Edgecumbe lifts its per
fect cone, its summit truncated by the old
crater whose fires have been dead for cen
turies; to the northward Harbor peak lifts
its signal to mariners; the Sisters, with a
gleam of snow and ice among their pinnacles,
lie in the distance of Indian River; to the
east is the arrowhead of Mount Verstovia;
the glaciers glisten beyond; and the sweep of
mist-clad mountains, in their softness, beyond
the bay to the southeast completes the circle.
Radiating like the spokes of a wheel,
waterways with historic memories reach out
[1]

THE STORY OP SITKA
from the town. Krestof Bay, where the
early navigators cast anchor; Neva Strait,
commemorating the first Russian ship that
visited Sitka from around the world; Kat-
leanski Bay, on \yhich was situated Old Sit
ka; Silver Bay, a Norwegian fjord trans
planted to Alaska; Lisianski Bay, named for
the Russian navigator of a century ago; the
inlet at Ozerskoe Redoubt and Grlobokoe
(Deep) Lake; the island-studded way to the
Hot Springs ; each with its individual charm ;
the ocean, with the deep, rich, marine tints of
northern waters ; the forest of blue, that folds
like a robe over the mountains ; the mountain
summits beside the glaciers, clad in the ex
quisitely wonderful green of the Northland,
all are delightful. But when the sun sinks low
in the west, with the long, lingering twilight of
the North, and the soft, delicate rays touch
and blend with the water and islands, the
mountains and sky — then, in the mystery of
the evening, is the supreme beauty of the land.
To those who have really known and loved
Sitka, there is no place on earth to compare.
There are pleasant recollections of those
who have lived there. Jovial Edward De-
groff and his stories at the Roastology Club ;
the Mills, whose hospitable home is known to
every resident of the town ; Wm. Gouverneur
Morris, whose name recalls a leader of Revo-
[2]

THE STORY OP SITKA
lutionary days; genial George Barron, who
upheld every good tradition of the Navy ; the
gallant old soldier, Matthew P. Berry ; digni
fied Judge Delaney, Alaska's staunchest advo
cate through all vicissitudes; Governor
Brady, with his neverfailing faith in Alas
ka's greatness; Captain Prancis, without
whom the early naval commanders thought
the warships could not thread the intricate
passages ; Nicholas Haley, with his optimistic
dreams of El Doradoes; Pauline Arch-
angelsky, for whom the "Old Timers" have
pleasant recollections; Alonzo Austin and his
mission; Captain Kilgore of the "Rush";
Merrill, who caught on the photograph plate
the elusive spirit of the varying surround
ings as only a true artist could; Katherine
Delaney Abrams, whose touch in watercolor
delineated the glory of the sunsets as none
else could; Professor Richardson, who for a
quarter of a century returned year after
year thousands of miles to perpetuate in
paintings the exquisite tintings of glaciers
and mountain ; George Kostromitinoff (Pather
Sergius) ; Pather Metropolski, and many
others who have made a part of the quaint
old town. There is a saying that whosoever comes
to love the waters of the Indian River will
ever after yearn for them, and it seems true,
[3]

THE STORY OP SITKA
for always is that harking back to its banks
with an unsatisfied longing.
Prom prehistoric time this has been the
home of the Sitka K wan Of the Thlfngit peo
ple. For sixty-three years it was tlie scene of
the chief activities of the Russian American
Company, who represented the rule of the
Muscovites, who, when Chicago was but a
blockhouse in a sedgy swamp on the banks of
a sluggish, reedy river, and when San Fran
cisco was but a mission and a Presidio of
sun-burned bricks, maintained in Sitka a
community of busy people who were casting
cannon and bells, and who were building
ships for commerce.
In the establishment of this outpost the
foundation was laid for the title of the United
States to the southeastern part of Alaska, a
land rich in fur and forest, in gold and copper,
in marble and fish, the potential possibilities
of which are not even approximately forecast
ed today. Enough to say of it, that in its lim
its are two mines, one of which has yielded
over sixty-five millions of dollars in gold, and
the other ranks among the richest of the
mineral producing veins of the world.
Some may have an interest in the story of
the quaint, quiet, beautiful village on the shore
of Baranof Island. I hope this may add some
thing to history, keeping the events of the
[4]

THE STORY OP SITKA
past bright in the memory of those who love
the Northland and its story, and add a little of
interest and information of the (present to
those who come as. transient visitors to while
away a few days among the myriad islands
of the Sitkan Archipelago. It is a link to
connect the Sitka of the past, the Novo Arkh
angelsk of the great Russian American Com
pany in the romantic days of the fur trade
when it was the center of the vast domain of
Russian America and gathered to its maga
zines the pelts of sea-otter and fox, with the
Sitka of today with its fisheries and mines.
The old landmarks are fast disappearing,
scarce a year passes without some monument
passing away, and even their location will
soon be forgotten unless some record is made
for those who do not know where they stood.

[5]

SITKA

THE HISTORIC OUTPOST OP THE
NORTHWEST

CHAPTER I
DISCOVERY
Sitka of the Russians, a century ago, was
the center of trade and civilization on the
Northwest Coast of America, the chief factory
of the Russian American Company in the vast
and little known land of the Russian Posses
sions in America. The sails of ships from far
off Kronstadt on the Baltic brought Russian
cargoes. The famous clipper ships of New Eng
land made it a stopping place on their way to
the China seas. English traders and explorers
visited it on their voyages, and in it was cen
tered the trade of a wide region. It was the
chief factory of the greatest rival in the fur
trade of the world, with which the Honour-
[7]

THE STORY OF SITKA
able, the Hudson's Bay Company, which then
was the controlling power in the English fur
market, had to contend.
The story of Sitka goes back past the
middle of the Eighteenth Century. There are
Russians, Spanish, English, Prench and
Americans who have woven each their own
part of the web of the tale, and the scenes
have been as varied and strange as the people.
July 16, 1741, a Russian ship stood into a
broad harbor on the Northwest Coast of
America. The commander, Captain Alexei
Chirikof, had sailed three thousand miles
across the unknown Pacific from the shores
of the Okhotsk Sea. Civilized eyes had never
before rested on these shores and he was keen
with the excitement of adventure and discov
ery as he dropped anchor. He sent a party
ashore in the ship's longboat to explore, and
awaited the result. Days passed and no word
or signal came, so the remaining boat was
sent to recall the party and it was swallowed
up in the labyrinth among the green islands.
Signals indicated that it safely landed but
none returned to the ship although the orders
were imperative that both boats return at
once. The last boat was gone. Three weeks
passed. Captain Chirikof could not reach the
shore and could no longer lie at anchor, so re
luctantly and sadly he set his course for the
[8]

THE STORY OF SITKA
far off Kamchatkan shores and sailed away
from the port of missing men.
Nearly two centuries have passed since the
Russian seamen landed and no word has come
from them. For more than seventy years the
Russian Government sought for some sign of
their fate.* Tales were told of a colony of
Russians existing on the coast but each upon
investigation proved but a rumor.
There is a dim tradition among the Sitkas—
of men being lured ashore in the long ago.
They say that Chief Annahootz, the predeces
sor of the chief of that name who was the firm
friend of the whites at Sitka in 1878, was the
leading actor in the tragedy. Annahootz
dressed himself in the skin of a bear and
played along the beach. So skillfully did he
simulate the sinuous motions of the animal that
the Russians in the excitement of the chase
plunged into the woods in pursuit and there
the savage warriors killed them to a man, leav
ing none to tell the story. The disappearance
of Chirikofs men has remained one of the
many unsolved mysteries of the Northland,
and their fate will never be known to a cer
tainty.

* January 20th, 1820. a letter written hy the Directory at St.
Petersburg to Chief Manager Muravief at Sitka enclosing instructions
previously given to Hagemeister, Instructing him to find the descendants
of Chirikofs lost men, urging that it must be done, and expressing
surprise that it had been neglected thus long. (Russian American
Archives. Correspondence, Vol. 11, No. 108.)

[9]

THE STORY OF SITKA
The faulty record of the navigation of a
time that counted by dead reckoning, and
without a knowledge of the currents of those
seas, does not tell us the exact location of the
anchorage, but beyond a reasonable doubt it
was in Sitka Sound, and the Russian seamen
died at the hands of the Sitka Kwan of the
Thlingits. In this manner Sitka first became
known to the White Man's World.
On the 16th day of August, 1775, came the
Royal Standard of Spain, flung to the breeze
from the little schooner "Sonora," Only 36
feet in length, under command of Don Fran
cisco de la Bodega y Quadra. Quadra was one
of the greatest and best of the Spanish navi
gators in the North. His voyages are among
the most successful of those of the mariners
of his nation in the waters of the north Pacific
ocean, and his name was once linked with
that of the English Commander on the island
now bearing the name of Vancouver. Quadra
came from the Mexican port of San Bias, and
after many thrilling adventures and grievous
hardships he sailed into a broad bay and
dropped anchor. There was a mountain, of
which he says: "Of the most regular and
beautiful form I had ever seen. It was also
quite detached from the great ridge of moun
tains. Its top was covered with snow, under
which appeared some gullies, which continue
[10]

Copyright by E. W. Merrill. Sitka.

Mount Eclgecumbe.

THE STORY OP SITKA
till about the middle of the mountain, and
from thence to the bottom are trees of the same
kind as those at Trinity."
He named the mountain San Jacinthus,
and the point of the island that extends out
toward the sea, Cape del Engano. No one who
has looked upon the slopes of the mountain
which stands to the seaward from Sitka can
mistake the description. He anchored in what
is now known as Krestof Bay, about six miles
northwest from Sitka, and he called it Port
Guadalupe. Captain Cook, on his Third Voyage of
Exploration, in 1778, with the ships "Resolu
tion" and "Discovery," passed along the
coast and noted the bay, of which he says:
"An arm of this bay, in the northern part of
it, seemed to extend in toward the north, be
hind a round elevated mountain I called Mount
Edgecumbe, and the point of land that shoots
out from it Cape Edgecumbe." This name
supplanted the one given by the Spaniard and
the beautiful cone is yet known by the title he
bestowed. The early Russians called the mountain
St. Lazaria, assuming that it was the peak
seen by Chirikof on his ill fated voyage of dis
covery and so named by him. The small island
at the south is still known as San Lazaria
Island. [11]

THE STORY OF SITKA
Captain Dixon, of H. M. S. "Queen Char
lotte," came during the summer of 1787, on a
fur trading voyage. Dixon had just departed
from the harbor when Captain Portlock, of
the English ship "King George," which was
lying in Portlock Harbor, to the northward
in Chichagoff Island, sent his ship's boat
through the passage behind Kruzof Island to
about the present site of Sitka, and made the
discovery for the civilized world that Mount
Edgecumbe is on an island.

[12]

CHAPTER II
SETTLEMENT
The sea-otter, a marine animal about four
feet in length when fully grown, with soft,
long black pelage of silky texture, is one of
the most valued of the fur-bearers. It was
found abundantly all the way along the North
west Coast, and especially in the passages about
Sitka. It is now nearly extinct.
The Russians had been gathering the
skins of the sea-otter in the northern waters
for years, ever since Chirikof made his voy
age to Sitka, and they were truly an El Dor
ado, in fur, to the traders who plied their
trade along the coasts. Captain Cook and
his sailors, when on their voyage in these
waters bought skins for mere trifles, some for
a handful of iron nails. These same skins
sold for as much as sixty dollars each in
China where they visited on their way home.
The story of the furs went over the world
and English, French and American traders
thronged to these waters to sail their ships
into the straits and barter for the rich pelts.
[13]

THE STORY OF SITKA
To secure a profit of $50,000 on a voyage was
not unusual. Ingraham, the lieutenant of
Captain Gray whom we all know so well for
his discovery of the great River of the West,
sailed to near Sitka before his principal en
tered the river which he named for his ship,
the Columbia. The French ship "Solide,"
in 1791, sailed from Prance to gather a por
tion of the harvest. Her captain, Entienne
Marchand, anchored in Sitka Bay, and called
it Tchinkitinay, as he declares it was known
to the natives. To his ship flocked the paint
ed and skin-clad natives with their peltries
for barter. On their persons he saw articles
of European manufacture, showing that other
ships had visited there, and in the ears of
one young savage were hanging pendant two
copper coins of the colony of Massachusetts.
His success in trade was not such as he might
have wished, so he sailed way, remarking
that, "The modern Hebrews would, perhaps,
have little to teach to these people in the art
of trade." March 31st, 1799, the Yankee skipper,
Cleveland, of the merchant ship "Caroline,"
sailed into the bay, dropped anchor and fired
a cannon shot as a signal. He was one of
those shrewd, lean traders, skilled in naviga
tion, who sailed from Boston round the Horn,
with their bucko mates, who could drive a
[14]

THE STORY OF SITKA
tack with the prow of a ship, so to speak, and
in those days there were no corners of the
earth where they might not be found seeking
for profit. He was wise to the ways of the
sharp trading canoemen of these waters, and
their aggressive proclivities, so he prepared
his ship with regard for all the possibilities
of the business. Around it as a bulwark he
stretched a barrier of dry bull hides brought
from the California coast. At the stern was
a place prepared for the trading. Forward
on the deck were planted cannon, shotted with
shrapnel, trained so as to rake the after deck,
and beside each was a gunner's match.
On the first day, for two hundred yards
of broadcloth, he purchased a hundred prime
sea-otter skins, worth $50 each in Canton.
Barter was going merrily on, when a scream
from amidships startled the crew. The
Thlingits sprang to their boats. The squaws
backed the canoes away from the ship's sides.
Arrows were fitted to bowstrings, spears were
poised and muskets primed. On the ships the
sailors lighted the cannon matches and stood
by ready to fire. A fight was hovering in the
air when the cause of the disturbance was
discovered. An inquisitive Thlingit pried be
tween the bull hides opposite the cook's galley,
and the cook had saluted him with a ladle of hot
[15]

THE STORY OF SITKA
water. In his surprise he upset his canoe
and his family were struggling in the sea.
His baby was rescued by a seaman, amends
were made to his injured feelings, and the
barter proceeded as before.
The waters were filled with ships. In a
stay of a month the "Caroline" spoke the
ship "Hancock," the ship "Despatch," the
ship "Ulysses," and the ship "Eliza," all of
Boston; and the English ship "Cheerful,"
all trading for furs among the Sitkan Islands.
The Russians, in their colony on Kodiak
Island, were jealous of the intruders on what
they considered as . their -domain. Gregory
SheTikof, a Siberian merchant, one of the
wealthiest and most far seeing of the leaders
among the Aleutian Islands, conceived the
plan of combining the whole of the fur trade
in one great monopoly. In pursuance of this
policy he secured a charter from Emperor
Paul in 1799, under the name of the Russian
American Company, which gave the exclusive
right to all profits to be derived from every
form of resource in the Russian possessions in
America for a period of twenty years. To the
management of his business in the Colony he
established on Kodiak Island he appointed
Alexander Andreevich Baranof, a Siberian
trader of great ability and experience. Baran
of, the wise and far-seeing Russian ruler of the
[16]

THE STORY OF SITKA
Russian American Company, at his factory
in St. Paul's Harbor on Kodiak Island, had
long planned the extension of his settlements
to the southeast. The sea-otter catch of the
Russians was made by brigades of Aleuts
from the western islands, who went along the
shores and to sea as far as 20 miles, in their
wonderful skin boats called bidarkas, to hunt.
When a sea-otter lifted its head from the
water to breathe, within sight of a detach
ment of Aleut hunters, its fate was sealed,
for it seldom escaped.
The passages between the islands about
Sitka were called the "Straits" by the Rus
sians, and in them the sea-otter skins were
taken by the thousands. It was not unusual
for a Russian hunting party consisting of a
hundred bidarkas to take on one expedition
2,000 skins of the Morski ooorov, as they
called the sea-otter.
The animals were becoming scarce in the
seas about the western islands and Baranof
was compelled to replenish his trade by the
catch of the southeastern waters. In 1795 he
sent one of his ships as far south as the
Queen Charlotte Islands and it visited Sitka
on the way. Two thousand skins were se
cured by the hunters while on this voyage.
In the same year Baranof himself paid Sitka
[17]

THE STORY OF SITKA
a visit, coming through the strait from the
north in his little schooner "Olga," a 40-foot
boat, and he named the passage for his craft
as Olga Strait. On the shore near his an
chorage he erected a cross ; the bay he named
Krestof Bay, and he then selected the locali
ty of his future settlement.
In the spring of 1799, Baranof sent or
ders to the tovons, ^r_i3lfi£fs^oT^Ee--4ribes
onJthe islands around Kodiak-to-assemble-the.
hunters. Five hundred and fifty bidarkas,
each manned by from two to three Aleut
paddlers, came in answer to his call, and
with two convoying ships he set sail for Sitka
Sound. On July 7th he landed at a bay six
miles north of the present town of Sitka, pur
chased a tract of land from Skayeutlelt, a
local chief, and began the construction of a
post which he named redoubt St. Michael.
The building was done under great difficul
ties. Rain fell incessantly. There were but
thirty Russian workmen as most of the
Aleuts returned to Kodiak, hunting as they
went. Of the men who remained ten had to
stand guard XonsTantly, jor the^~Thlingjjts
wjgrenot to be trusted^^Barracks, storehouses,
quarters for~The commanding officer, were
constructed ; bath house also, for the Russian
must have his bath, and the whole was sur-
[18]

THE STORY OF SITKA
rounded by a stockade and strengthened by
blockhouses. Their troubles were not all with
the elements, for during the winter the scarc
ity of provision and other causes brought
scurvy to add to their discomfort. Their
food was mostly yukali (dried salmon), but
during the winter the hunters took 40 sea-
lions, and in the spring many seals were
killed in the bay by the Aleuts.
The natives, called Thlingits at the pres
ent, were known as~the^^h^fa"byXhe Rus-
sians. They were dryideoT among themselves
in iheixJteeling«-4»ward-ihe- new -settlers in
their- midst. ~ Some-looked- w#h-extreme -dis
favor upon the establishment, while others
were TTriendly . The young and turbulent
warriors were hostile.^ A messenger was sent
ToTnTiteTnem T,o a prdzdnik (holiday) at the
fort. He was taken prisoner by them and de
tained until Baranof landed in their midst
with an armed force and demanded his re
lease, when they set him free and ridiculed
the incident. At_.a dance at the fort many of
the Kolosfe cainewith long knives concealed
under "Their cloaks^ TEeir treachery was de
tected and therFdesign frustrated. The cour
age and caution of Baranof held them in
check until spring when he departed for
Kodiak, leaving strict instructions as to the
precautions to be observed during his ab-
[19]

THE STORY OF SITKA
sence. After his departure the discipline
grew more lax and the Kolosh became more
bold. The watchful savages at last saw an
opportunity to rid themselves of their new
neighbors. On a June day of 1802, the exact date is
not recorded, a horde of painted savages
burst from the forest, clad in all the para
phernalia of war masks and barbaric armour.
A fleet of war canoes landed warriors on the
beach in front of the redoubt. In the attack
that followed the stockade and buildings were
reduced to smoking ruins, the magazines
were robbed of rich stores of furs, most of
the defenders died on the spears of the Ko
losh or were tortured till death relieved their
sufferings, and the women and children were
made slaves. Skayeutlelt, the false friend of
Baranof, directed the battle from a nearby
knoll and his nephew, Katlean, was one of the
principal actors in the bloody tragedy. A few
survivors who were hunting in their bidarkas
or were in the forest, escaped to the ships of
the English and American traders which were
in the bay.
Captain Ebbetts on an American ship
and Captain Barber of the British ship
"Myrtle" were in the harbor. Some of the
survivors on reaching these ships asked them
to rescue their countrymen. Captain Ebbetts
[20]

THE STORY OP SITKA
ransomed several prisoners, but Captain Bar
ber adopted a more effective course. Chief
Katlean and Chief Skayeutlelt came on board
his ship to trade. He at once put them in
irons and threatened to hang them to the
yardarm of the ship if the captives remaining
in the hands of the natives, and also the plun
dered sea-otter skins, were not immediately
surrendered to him. The threat was effective,
the greater part of the sea-otter furs and
several captives were brought on the ship
and delivered to him. He then took the ran
somed captives from the other ship and sailed
for Kodiak, where he demanded a ransom of
50,000 rubles from Baranof for the captives.
The ransom was later reduced to 10,000
rubles which was paid by Mr. Baranof.
Two years passed before much is again
known of Sitka. English and American cap
tains sailed their ships into the harbor and
gathered the furs which Baranof had en
deavored to garner in the storehouses of the
Russian American Company. In the summer
of 1804 Baranof gathered a force at Kodiak
with which to cross the Gulf of Alaska to
re-establish his post. There were one hun
dred and fifty bearded promyshileniks, or fur
hunters, and over 500 Aleuts in their skin
bidarkas. With him were the ships "Alex
ander," "Ekaterina," "Yermak," and "Ros-
[21]

THE STORY OP SITKA
tislaf." When they reached Sitka they found
there Captain Lisianski of the Imperial Rus
sian Navy, with the ship "Neva," one of the
first Russians to circle the globe, and who
came to help to recapture the post.
The Indian village of Sitka was almost
in the same place as the present town,
grouped around the Baranof hill which was
called by the Russians a kekoor. On the top
of the kekoor was a redoubt, and a stronger
fort was near the mouth of the Indian River,
or Kolosh Ryeku.
On the morning of September 28th the
Russian ships moved to a point opposite the
village, the "Neva" being towed by a hundred
bidarkas. The Sitkans abandoned their village
and the fort on the hill and withdrew to the
stronger fortification near the river. Baranof
landed a force and occupied the kekoor,
planted cannon on the top, then opened
negotiations for the surrender of the other
fort, but his overtures were rejected by the
Indians. The ships were brought near the river
fort and the cannon were trained on it. The
fort was built of thick logs in the shape of
an irregular square, with portholes on the
side next the sea, and inside the breast works
were 14 barabaras, or native houses.
The walls were of such thickness that the
[22]

THE STORY OF SITKA
cannon shot from the "Neva" made but little
impression on the structure. Baranof was
impatient and urged an attack. Reinforce
ments were landed from the ships under
command of Lieutenants Arbusof and Pola-
vishin. The hunters, sailors, and Aleuts
flung themselves against the fortifications,
but meeting a murderous fire were driven
back in disorder and only saved from disaster
by the protection of the fire of the ships.
Ten men were killed and 26 wounded, and
among the wounded was Baranof.
Captain Lisianski then took command
and moved his ships nearer the shore. A
canoe with reinforcements and a supply of
powder for the Indians approached among
the island but a shot from the "Neva" struck
it, the powder exploded, and the Indians who
were saved from the wreck were taken on
board the Russian ship. The bombardment
was steadily continued until the 6th of
October, when the Kolosh proposed to sur
render, and a parley was held, but during the
night they evacuated the fort and went over
the mountains to the north. In the fort were
left the bodies of 30 warriors and also the
bodies of five children who had been killed
to prevent their cries making the retreat
known to the Russians. The only remaining
survivors were two old women and a little
[23]

THE STORY OF SITKA
boy. A few straggling warriors remained
lurking about, seeking revenge, and a few
days later they killed eight Aleuts who were
fishing on Jamestown Bay.
How the Kolosh went over the mountains
was long a mystery to the Russians. They
reached the shore of Peril Strait and cross
ing to the north shore placed a fort near the
entrance to Sitkoh Bay which was stronger
than their old fort at Indian River and where
over 1,000 people gathered. A tradition
among the old Indians says that the fugitives
first went to Old Sitka, then over the moun
tains to the northeastern side of the island.
On the way they suffered extremely from
fatigue and hunger, and one Sitka Indian
who lives on Peril Strait relates that his
father was a child at the time of the exodus.
His father carried him till exhausted, when
he abandoned him, and his mother then took
him up and carried him the remainder of the
way. The property left in the fort by the
Kolosh was taken out, the fortification was
burned and the canoes on the beach were
broken to pieces. There was enough remain
ing of the structure that some of the remains
of the foundation may yet be seen in the
forest which has sprung up around it in the
[24]

Sitka in 1805 — Prom lisianski's Voyage.

THE STORY OP SITKA
Indian River Park, although more than a
century has since elapsed.
Then began the restoration of the post,
on the present site of Sitka, and with energy
and despatch the building of a new Russian
settlement proceeded. Around the kekoor
the native nouses were removed, and along
with them more than a hundred burial houses
with the ashes of the bodies which had been
burned. The great tribal houses, or barabaras,
as they are called in the Russian accounts,
were spacious, some measuring 50 feet in
width and 80 feet in length.* In their place
rose the town of New Archangel (Novo
Arkangelsk,) and on the kekoor was built a
redoubt. This was the official name and
generally recognized by the Russians, but the
name Sitka was early used by them. Baranof
frequently used the term Sitka in his letters,
and in the letter of the Minister of Finance
to the Minister of Marine, from St. Peters
burg, April 9, 1820, Sitka is used in several
places. The name Sitka, or Sheetkah, in the
Thlingit language, means, in this place, that
this is the place, or the best place, implying
superiority over all other places.

* In WrangeU, and at a few other places in Alaska may yet be
seen some of these old tribal houses, built as ln primitive days in
most ways. The beams and planks were fashioned with an adze, and
the evenness of the workmanship in hewing them is marvelous.

[25]

THE STORY OP SITKA
All winter there was cutting of logs in the
forest and by the spring of 1805 there were
eight substantial buildings, the space for 15
kitchen gardens had been cleared, the live
stock brought on the ships were thriving, and
an air of prosperity prevaded the place.*
Surveys of the harbor were made by Captain
Lisianski who also made the first ascent of
Mt. Edgecumbe, and who then sailed for
Kronstadt, Russia, by the way of Canton,
with a cargo of furs for the China trade
valued at 450,000 rubles.!

* The livestock taken to Sitka in 1804 consisted of "Four
cows, two calves, three bulls, three goats, a ewe and a ram, with
many swine and fowls." (Lisianski, Voyage Round the World,
p. 218.) t Lisianski made the surveys and named the islands of the
archipelago which had not been charted by Vancouver, of which
he says: "By our survey it appears that amongst the group
of islands, which in my chart I have denominated the Sitka Is
lands, from the inhabitants, who call themselves Sitka-hans, or
Sitka people, are four principal ones, viz.: Jacobi, Crooze, Baranof,
and Chichagof." (A Voyage Round the World, Lisianski, p. 235.)

[26]

CHAPTER III

PROGRESS OF THE COLONY
The courtly Chamberlain of the Tsar,
Nicholas P. Resanof, son-in-law of Shelikof
who was the founder of the first Russian
colony in America, came to Sitka in 1805, via
Petropavlovsk, Siberia, on the "Nadeshda,"
one of the first Russian ships to circumnavi
gate the world, and was a special representa
tive of the Russian American Company, of
which organization he was one of the
founders. In his report to the Company he tells us :
"The fort is on the high hill, or kekoor, on a
peninsula in the gulf. On the left side of the
kekoor close on the peninsula is built an
immense barracks with two projecting block
houses or towers. All the building is made
from mast timber from the top to the founda
tion, under which is a cellar. Besides this
building are two warehouses, a material
magazine and two cellars, also two large sheds
for storing food, and under the sheds are the
quarters for the workmen. On the side op-
[27]

THE STORY OF SITKA
posite the fort is a shed for storing cargo, at
the right side is the kitchen, bath, and quarters
for the servants of the Company, clerks, etc.,
and on the shore are the blacksmith shops
and other workshops. On the top of the
kekoor is a building five sazhens* long and
three sazhens wide, with two rooms. In one
I live, and in the other there are two ship
masters. There are still some old Kolosh
yourts, in which live the kayours and the
Kodiak Americans (Aleuts, they are gener
ally called) .f
"Our guns are always loaded, every
where are sentinels with loaded arms, and
in the rooms of each of us arms constitute
the greater part of the furniture. All the
night the signals from post to post continue,
war discipline prevails; in a word, we are
ready at any minute to receive our dear
guests, who generally profit by the darkness
of night to make an attack."
The additional number in the garrison
owing to the arrival of the Chamberlain and
his suite made it more difficult to procure
provisions for. the winter. The hostile Kolosh
made hunting and fishing dangerous. In the
autumn there was but flour enough for an
allowance of a pound a week for one month
• The Russian sazhen is 7 feet.
t Pronounced Al-e-ut.
[28]

THE STORY OF SITKA
for the 200 men in the fort. For other food
supply they were dependent on the fish caught
in the bay, the dried yukali and sealion meat
from Kodiak, and the dried seal meat from
the Seal Islands.
Baranof bought the ship "Juno," an
American sailing ship of about 250 tons, from
Captain George D'Wolf, of Bristol, Conn.,
with its cargo of flour, sugar and other
articles, for the sum of 68,000 piastres
(Spanish), equivalent to about the same
number of dollars. This relieved the im
mediate necessity, but before spring the
supply became so low that the scurvy, that
dread malady of the seas and of outlying
localities, attacked the garrison. This scourge
often fell heavily on the early Russian expe
ditions, and in 1821 the Russian ship "Boro
dino" lost 40 men through its ravages in a
voyage from Sitka to Kronstadt.
In March, Resanof sailed for San Fran
cisco in the "Juno" to purchase breadstuffs
and other supplies. He also wished to exam
ine the coast with the view of making other
settlements farther south, at Nootka, at the
Columbia, or even farther south in Califor
nia. He secured a cargo of the products of
the south and returned to Sitka in June.
On his southward journey Resanof recon
noitred the mouth of the Columbia River,
[29]

THE STORY OF SITKA
seeking a site for a future settlement. He
was unable to enter the river owing to con
trary winds; and the condition of his crew,
debilitated by lack of proper food and suffer
ing from scurvy, caused him to hasten on.
He heard that a party of U. S. soldiers were
building a fort there. This rumor doubtless
came from the presence of Lewis and Clarke
near the present Astoria.
While on this visit to San Francisco
Resanof met the Spanish beauty, Dona
Concepcion de Arguello, of whom one of the
visitors said, "She was lively and animated,
had sparkling, love-inspiring eyes, beautiful
teeth, pleasing and expressive features, a fine
form and a thousand other charms," and he
lost his heart to her. The romance of the
Russian courtier and the fair Californian
furnished to Bret Harte the theme for some
of his most beautiful verse. Resanof, hurry
ing home to Russia to gain the Imperial
permission to his marriage, died at Krasnoy
arsk, Siberia, and Dona Concepcion waited
for years for the coming of her lover, not
knowing that he lay dead under the Siberian
snows. When the news of his sad fate came
to her she donned the habit of a nun and
devoted herself to charitable works.
This visit to California was the beginning
of a trade that continued for many years,
[30]

THE STORY OF SITKA
through all the period of Russian occupation.
During the days of the gold discoveries in
California large shipments of goods were
made from Sitka to San Francisco, and after
the sale of the territory to the United States
great quantities of merchandise were shipped
from the warehouses of the Company to the
California metropolis, amounting to over a
quarter of a million dollars in one year.
The breadstuffs for the colonies were
procured from California, from San Fran
cisco and from Ross Colony, or from Peru,
until 1840, when a contract was made with
the Hudson's Bay Company under which
the supplies were brought from the farms
of the Nisqually or from Vancouver, in Ore
gon Territory.
Until the time of the arrival of the
"Neva", 1804, all trading goods were brought
across Siberia to Okhotsk, and thence by sail
ing vessel to the colony, or were purchased
from the American or English trading ships
which came to the coast for furs. To the
natives the English who came to these waters
became known as "King George Men," and
the Americans were called "Boston Men,"
the latter being from the great number of
ships that sailed from the great shipping
port of New England. Prom these traders
goods were purchased by Baranof at lower
rates than those cost which were brought
[31]

THE STORY OF SITKA
from Russia. John Jacob Astor was one of
the first to engage in the trade. He sent the
ship "Enterprise" to Sitka in 1810, and the
"Beaver" in 1812. From Washington Irving
we have the description, through the account
of the Captain, of the "Hyperborean veteran
ensconsed in a fort which crested the top of
a high rock promontory," which is well
known to all readers of stories of western
life, and in which the impression of the
character of Baranof as given to the reader
is very erroneous. The traders exchanged
their goods with the Russians for furs, some
times going to the Pribilof Islands to receive
the seal-skins ; sailed to China, where the furs
were traded for silks, nankins, and teas ; they
then voyaged on around the world to their
home port.
The sloop-of-war "Diana," the first
Russian warship to reach Sitka, arrived in
1810 under the command of Captain Vasili
M. Golofnin, who was widely known for his
adventures while a captive in the Kingdom
of the Nipponese, where he was carried about
in a bamboo cage and exhibited to the popu
lace. His description of his visit to Sitka
is entertaining, and of it he says :
"In the fort we met nothing so unusual
or costly as to be worthy of special remark;
the fort consisted of solid log towers, and
[32]

THE STORY OP SITKA
high strong palisades, with apertures or
embrasures, in which were set guns and
carronades of different calibres. The interior
construction, barracks, storehouses, house of
the commander and other buildings were made
of thick logs and were very solid, these being
very common in this place, around which
grows, so to say, within reach of a windlass,
a multitude of most beautiful trees suitable
for structures of every description.
"In the house of Mr. Baranof were
ornaments and furniture in profusion, of
masterly workmanship and costly price,
brought from St. Petersburg and from Eng
land, which corresponded with his position
as the head official of a great company. What
astonished us most was an extensive library
in nearly all European languages, and many
pictures of remarkable merit. I must con
fess, that I badly judge in painting, and only
could know, that in the uncultivated wild
border of America, there would be none ex
cept Mr. Baranof to value and understand
them, unless there might happen to be edu
cated travelers, or masters of United States
trading vessels visiting this place, there
would be no one to appreciate the fine art.
Mr. Baranof, noting my astonishment, ex
plained the riddle, saying, that the pictures
attracting our attention were gifts of the
[33]

THE STORY OF SITKA
Company and of distinguished persons in
St. Petersburg, for the establishing of a
library, and the Directory sent them out. On
these works he commented with the follow
ing remarkable view: 'Better that our
directors had sent us a doctor, for in all the
Company's colonies there is not one doctor,
nor one doctor's assistant, nor one doctor's
pupil.' "
Golofnin soon left Sitka to return to
St. Petersburg. His successful voyage, to
gether with that of the "Neva" and the
"Nadeshda," encouraged the shipment of
goods by sea from Russia, and from that time
onward ships came regularly, laden with
supplies of every kind for the post, and
returned with rich cargoes of peltry.
By 1825 surgical and astronomical in
struments of the best quality were sent to
the colony, an apothecary shop of three rooms
provided medicines, and four Creole boys,
under the charge of a doctor, attended to the
dispensing of the potions. A hospital was
in connection and the sick received fresh food,
tea, sugar, and medicines, free, upon the
order of the doctor.
An observatory, equipped with the most
improved magnetic and meteorological in
struments was later provided and there was
kept a record of natural phenomena, while
[34]

THE STORY OF SITKA
a museum of objects of interest from the
surrounding country was open for the instruc
tion of all.
The library was brought from St. Peters
burg in 1806 by Resanof. Mr. Khlebnikof
tells us that it contained more than 1,200 vol
umes, valued at 7,500 rubles, and they were
in the Russian, Prench, German, English,
Latin and other languages.
When Mr. Resanof was preparing for his
journey he addressed letters to many of the
leading men of St. Petersburg, soliciting
their contribution of books to promote the
beginning of education in the far off posses
sion of the Czar. Many sent a response in
writing accompanied by one or more volumes,
and the letters so sent were richly bound in
a separate volume and placed with the library
in the building at Sitka. Among the patrons
were the Metropolite Ambrosia, Count Ru-
miantzof, Count Stroganof, Admiral Chic-
hagof, Minister of Justice Dimitrief, Senator
Zakarof and others. The sentiments were
varied, but many agreed in voicing the desire
to "sow the seed of science in the breasts of
the peoples so far outlying from the enlight
enment of Europe." Some of them reflected
the personal character of the donors: The
Metropolite Ambrosia sent books for church
services ; the Minister of Marine sent plans of
[35]

THE STORY OP SITKA
ships; and Count Rumiantzof contributed
works on husbandry.*
Mr. Kyril Khlebnikof, the accountant
of the Company, who was in charge of the
counting house at Sitka from 1818 to 1832,
to whom we are indebted for many valuable
writings relating to the early history of the
settlements, tells us that when Mr. Baranof left
the colony the buildings had become badly de
cayed and much new construction had to be
done. In 1827 there had been built, three
sentry houses, a battery of thirty guns on the
kekoor, and below them magazines, barracks
and other buildings, a bakery, wharf, arsenal,
etc. In the shops were blacksmiths, copper
smiths, locksmiths, coopers, turners, rope
spinners, chandlers, painters, masons, etc.
At the Ozerskoe Redoubt, on Deep
Lake, were barracks and a fort, a flouring
mill, a tannery, and other buildings. A zapor,
or fish trap, in the stream took sixty thousand
fish each year.
The workmen got out timber from the
forest for the building of ships, they cut fuel
and burned charcoal in large quantities ; kept
• These books and letters were brought by Resanof in the
"Nedeshda," and upon reaching Kodiak Resanof established the library
at that place. It was afterward removed to Sitka, probably by
Baranof when he changed the chief factory to that place in 1807.
After the United States took possession the library disappeared,
whether taken to Russia or left in Sitka does not appear, but the
books were likely left in Sitka and gradually disappeared through
theft in the years when there was no custodian of such property.
[36]

The Bakery and Shops of the Bussians — Later the Sitka Trading Co.'s Building.

THE STORY OP SITKA
the buildings in repair and did other duties
required on the factory. The work of the
gardening was chiefly done by the Aleuts,
who were paid a ruble a day for their services.
The Russian Captain Lutke came to
Sitka about this time and he tells us that
there were many pigs and chickens raised by
the inhabitants, and that a pig might be had
for 5 to 7 rubles, a hen for 4 to 5 rubles, and
eggs at from 3% to 10 rubles per dozen. The
chief drawback to the chicken industry was the
presence of the great black ravens that carried
away the young chicks and sometimes even the
old hens. The ravens were such successful scav
engers that they were called the New Arch
angel police, and he says they even bit the
tails off the young pigs, so that all the hogs
of the place were tailless.
He mentions the abundance of deer on
the islands and also says that mountain sheep
were killed by the Aleuts and brought to the
fort. He must have confused the sheep with
the goats, for the sheep never approach the
coast so closely, and he speaks of the wool
being used for weaving the blankets for the
ceremonial dances of the Kolosh. This would
indicate that the animal in question was the
mountain goat. A later writer says that 2,700
game animals were brought into Sitka for
sale during the winter of 1861-62.
[37]

THE STORY OP SITKA
A shipyard was established as soon as
the necessary buildings to house the garri
son were completed. It occupied a part of the
present parade ground near the Russian Bar
racks and included a portion of the present
street. Many vessels were built in the yard
during the Russian occupation, the first, being
the tender " Avoss," launched in 1806, followed
by the brig "Sitka," built by an American
shipbuilder named Lincoln, and for which he
was paid 2,000 rubles as a royalty upon the
completion of the ship. A frigate of 320 tons
was the largest vessel built before 1819, and
at that time construction was discontinued
until 1834, when work was resumed and con
tinued until the close of the Russian regime.
The "Politofsky" was one of the last
vessels to be built at Sitka, and it was sold by
Prince Maksoutoff to H. M. Hutchinson and
Abraham Hirsch for $4,000 in 1867. The
next year it was sold to Hutchinson, Kohl &
Co., and later was sold to a firm that ran it to
Puget Sound, and from Alaska to San Fran
cisco. It was built of Alaska cedar timber,
the dushnoi dereva or. scented wood of the
Russians, and was spiked with hand-made
copper spikes. It was taken to Alaska in the
gold rush of 1898, and found its last resting
place, very appropriately, in the land where
[38]

THE STORY OF SITKA
it was built, in the harbor of St. Michael, the
old Russian port on Bering Sea.
The fear of shipwreck, and of death at
sea hung over every soul of the community.
The long voyages in uncharted and unlighted
waters with sailing ships — more than six
months at the shortest from Kronstadt —
often three months or more against baffling
winds from Okhotsk — the voyages to the re
doubts and odinoshkas (detached posts with
one man only) of the Bering Sea and of the
Gulf of Alaska, to collect the fur catch of the
year and bring it to Sitka ; the long journey
via Canton on the return to Russia — all held
many dangers for the sailing ships of those
days. The "Phoenix," the first ship built on
the Alaskan shores, foundered with all on
board, including the Bishop and his retinue,
in 1799, on the return voyage from Okhotsk ;
the "St. Nicholas" went ashore on the coast
of Washington in 1808, and those who sur
vived the waves were held in bondage for
years by the savages of that coast.
During the latter part of August, 1812,
the ship "Neva" left Okhotsk — contrary
winds delayed her in the Sea of Okhotsk —
storms beat her back along the Aleutian
Islands till it was November before land was
sighted in Alaska. The 'storms damaged the
rigging and ship until it was necessary to put
[39]

THE STORY OF SITKA
into Voskresenski Harbor (Resurrection
Bay) for repairs. She arrived off Sitka about
December 1st. After four or five days Mt.
Edgecumbe was sighted but a storm drove the
ship to sea where she beat about for weeks
before again nearing the port. Scurvy
afflicted the passengers and crew and added
to the general distress. On January 8th, 1813,
Mt. Edgecumbe again appeared. In trying
to make the harbor the ship grounded on the
rocks under the cape on the morning of the
9th and speedily broke to pieces under the
terrific pounding of the seas.* Some of the
people on board reached shore after incred
ible suffering and hardship.
After several days two of the sailors
wandering along the shore met a Kolosh boy
and persuaded him to take them to Sitka,
where they arrived, cold, exhausted, and
almost starving. Boats were at once fitted
out by Mr. Baranof, the survivors were res
cued, brought to Sitka, and their sufferings
relieved. From those on board the ship, 38
had perished, including Kalinin, the com
mander, Boronovolokof, the intended future
chief manager of the Company, and five

* The "Neva" was long Identified with the affairs of the colony.
Bought in England for the first Russian expedition round the world,
Captain Lisianski reached Sitka in time for her to participate in the
driving of the Indians from their fortifications. She returned to
Russia later to be sailed to the colony in 1810, and was on her third
voyage at the time of her loss.

[40]

THE STORY OF SITKA
women passengers. In the cargo was food
and clothing, the messages of the year for the
exiles, and rich vestments and furnishings
for the church that was soon to be built in
Sitka, all scattered for miles along the wild
coast of Kruzof Island. This was one of the
worst disasters of the sea that visited the col
ony, although many others are part of the
records of the time.
It is said that Chief Katlean tore his hair
with rage when he learned of the wreck, be
cause he did not find it and destroy the sur
vivors out of revenge for his defeat and ex
pulsion from his home at Sitka.
There are many traditions among the
residents of Sitka concerning the wreck of
the "Neva." Among them is that there was
a vast treasure of gold for the use of the gar
rison and the traders. This is erroneous, for
there was no gold used in the colonies, the
trade being by barter or conducted with scrip,
called assignats, issued by the Company for
the purpose. The story of the gold has been
so generally believed that serious plans have
been made for attempting the salvage of the
treasure. The term of office of Alexander Andree
vich Baranof as the chief manager of the
Russian American Company came to a close
in 1818. He had been 28 years in the colonies,
[41]

THE STORY OF SITKA
leaving Russia in 1790 for the post of Three
Saints on Kodiak Island, which at that time
constituted almost the only Russian estab
lishment in America, the other stations being
little more than outlying trading posts.. He
left their dominion an empire in extent,
reaching from the Seal Islands in Bering
Sea, at the edge of the ice pack of the Arctic,
to Fort Ross, among the sunny hills of Golden
California. Captain Hagmeister came to re
lieve him, and in his 72nd year the old chief
manager, bent with the weight of years and
of long and arduous service, closed his ac
counts and set sail on the "Kutusof," one of
the Company's vessels, for his far-off home
in Russia. When the time arrived for Baranof to take
his departure from the land he had made his
home for so many years, sorrowfully he took
his leave of the associates with whom he had
so long shared the dangers and hardships of
the uncivilized land. Upon being relieved of
the duties of his office he first considered build
ing a home at the Ozerskoe Redoubt and spend
ing the remainder of his days in the place he
had learned to love. Later he decided to return
to his native land and sailed on the "Kutu
sof" for Kronstadt. A delay at Batavia in
the tropics proved too severe for his advanced
years. The day after leaving Batavia he
[42]

THE STORY OF SITKA
died and was buried at sea in the waters of
the Indian Ocean.
Captain Leontius Andreanovich Hage
meister succeeded to the office of chief man
ager but remained only a short time at Sitka,
then sailed for Russia, leaving Captain Sim
eon Ivanovich Yanovski in charge.
Captain Yanovski became enamored with
the beautiful daughter of Baranof, and if you
search the old records of the Cathedral of St.
Michaels at Sitka you will find the entry as
made of the marriage of Simeon Ivanof Yan
ovski "with the late head governor of the
Russian American possessions, Collegiate Ad
viser and Cavalier Baranof 's daughter Irina,
one of Creoles."
In 1830, Baron Ferdinand Petrovich
Wrangel, scientist and explorer, came to ad
minister the office. He had sailed the frozen
ocean along the northern shores of Siberia as
an explorer, and WrangeU Island, WrangeU
Strait, etc., on the maps of today perpetuate
his name. Under Baron Wrangel, as assistant to
the manager, served Adolph Carlovich Etolin,
a native of Finland, who came to the colony
as an officer on the war sloop "Kamchatka"
in 1817, who sailed in the service of the Com
pany to nearly every port from the Seal
Islands of Bering Sea to Chile, who made sev-
[43]

THE STORY OF SITKA
eral voyages around the world, and who was
made chief manager in 1840. In 1846 he re
turned to Russia to accept the trust of Com
mercial Counsellor in the head office of the
Company in St. Petersburg.
About fourteen miles to the southwest,
across the bay and facing Edgecumbe, with
a beautiful view of the peak and islands, is
the Hot Springs, well known for their medici
nal properties by the natives before the ad
vent of the Russians, and frequently resorted
to by both as a panacea for many ills. In the
Place of Islands (Chasti Ostrova) is reputed
to be a spring with a sour taste, while almost
within the limits of the town of Sitka, Dr.
Scheffer, a German physician who made a
sojourn in the place about 1815, claimed to
have found a medical spring whose waters
were equal to some of the famed watering
places of Germany.

[44]

CHAPTER IV
NATIVES
Most of the Sitkan Kolosh kept aloof
from the Russian settlement after the estab
lishment of the new fort on Chatham Strait,
near the entrance of Peril Strait. All the
kwans, the Khootznoos, the Hoonahs, the Chil-
kats, the Auks, Stikines, Kakes and others,
joined with the Sitkas in the hatred of the
Russians. Parties going out from the fort
at Sitka for hunting expeditions, for cutting
of wood, for traveling to the Hot Springs,
had to be on their guard and with arms at
hand prepared to fight at a moment's notice.*
Small groups were often cut off and mur
dered. As it was impossible to decide which
of the many kwans did the act, and as there
were those in each kwan who were peaceable,
with whom it was desired to keep the peace,
revenge against any village was inadvisable.
Even as late as the date of the lease to the
Hudson Bay Co. the Russian ships that sailed
among the islands to trade with the Kolosh
* Golofnin, Voyage of the Sloop "Kamchatka," in Mat. Pt. 4, p.
103.
[45]

THE STORY OP SITKA
were compelled to act with the strictest cau
tion. Only a few natives were admitted on
board at a time, the trading was done in a
space near the stern, and was conducted un
der the muzzles of loaded cannon concealed in
the fore part of the ship.* The conditions
were thus until 1821, when the Sitkas were
invited to reoccupy the site of the old village
and to live in what is now known as the
"Ranche," under the guns of the redoubt.
The Thlingit nation is a strange, warlike,
shrewd people, physically strong and endur
ing, and possessed of many excellent qualities.
Hunters and fishermen by nature and train
ing, they are skillful boatmen, and in those
days they built wonderfully beautiful canoes
of the red cedar, some of them large enough
to carry sixty men at the paddles. Each
spring more than a thousand men gathered
together in Sitka Bay, coming from the differ
ent villages, to fish for herring at the spawning
time, when those fish run in countless myriads
in those waters. Hemlock boughs were placed
in the water, and on them the herring roe
collected until they were encrusted with the
eggs which were then stripped off and dried
for future use.
In 1807 there were over 2,000 hostile
natives gathered in the harbor at the herring
* Lutke : Voyages. Mat. Pt. 4, p. 147.
[46]

The "Ranche" — looking7 north from the top the Baranof Castle.
The Steamer at the left is the "Coquitlam," noted for her participation in pelagic sealing
and she was under seizure by the TT. S. Government.

THE STORY OP SITKA
season and they threatened an attack on the
settlement. Kuskof, the most trusted and
able lieutenant of Baranof, was in charge,
and it put his wisdom and watchfulness to
the test to avert disaster. The strictest
discipline was maintained. The tribesmen
waited outside day after day, hoping for
news of some relaxation of the precautions
of the defenders to be brought to them by
the women of the tribe who were married to
the Russian promishleniki (hunters). Day
and night the sentinels paced the beats on
the stockade and along the waterfront, till,
weary of waiting, the Kolosh finally dispersed
to their homes.
In the great tribal houses several families
lived, sometimes as many as fifty or sixty
persons. Over the door of the house was
painted the family totem, for the Sitkas did
not raise the house totem in a pole in front
as did many of the kwans of the Thlingits,
and as the Hydahs do. In these houses were
held the potlatches, or gift parties, which
were made by the wealthy chiefs.
The potlatches were of different kinds,
although all partook of the nature of a feast
ing or merrymaking and were distinguished
by the giving of gifts. In the ordinary
visiting potlatches, or in the berry potlatches,
the visitors came in their canoes with which
[47]

THE STORY OP SITKA
they formed a line off shore opposite the
houses, put planks from one canoe to another
and on these planks danced the tribal dance.
Those on shore danced the welcome dance and
invited the guests ashore. Then the visitors
disembarked and each family became the
guest of their kinsmen of their totem or they
went to the guesthouse of the kwan. All the
people of the same totem are supposed to
be blood relations, so all those of the wolf
totem go to the Gooch-lieat, or the dwelling
blazoned by the rude heraldry with the wolf
rampant. In the great social potlatches a
wealthy chief invites his friends from many
villages and entertains them for a week or
more with dancing and feasting and makes
presents varied and valuable, from Hudson's
Bay blankets to bolts of calico or of flannel,
and in primitive days, copper tows,* Chilkat
blankets, and even slaves were handed over
with a lavish hospitality.
On special occasions in the olden time,
with great ceremony the visitors landed at a
distance from the village, drew their canoes
ashore and proceeded to the village dressed
in festive garments adorned with sealion
heads or other strange headdresses, in which

* The tows were large pieces of native copper from the Copper
River hammered out flat by the natives. These were carried in front
of the chiefs by slaves who beat them like gongs.

[48]

THE STORY OP SITKA
they danced the rare and picturesque "Beach
Dance," in acknowledgement to the Spirit
of the Sea for the bouutiful supply of salmon
and herring of the past season — for the native
American is a thankful being and omits not
to show it when occasion offers to acknow
ledge it to the Giver of all good and perfect
gifts. During the earlier years of the colony
the Kolosh were implacable enemies. War
parties of young men constantly haunted the
islands of the bay, lying in wait for any
unwary hunter or fisherman from the fort.
Later, when they were settled under the walls
of the fort they became more tractable, for
their homes and families were commanded
by the guns of the fortress, but on the least
provocation the savagery in their blood would
boil, from their great tribal houses they
issued forth, faces blackened to the semblance
of devils, war masks grinning, and the howl
ing mob shouted defiance at their neighbor
over the stockade. Many a bloody tragedy
was enacted in the "Ranche" for their code
was primitive, "an eye for an eye," and a
life for a life.
Feuds raged between the different totemic
families. About 1853 a party of WrangeU
Indians (Stikines) visited Sitka, and while
[49]

THE STORY OF SITKA
being entertained in the guest-house were
murdered and their bodies piled into a canoe
which was then paddled to Japonski Island.
On striking the shore it was so heavily laden
with the bodies of the dead that tradition says
the canoe split from end to end. It is said
that the bones of the dead are still to be seen
in the undergrowth along the shore. In retalia
tion, about 1855, the WrangeU Kolosh made an
attack on the Hot Springs settlement, burned
the buildings, stripped the inhabitants of
property and clothing and left them to make
their way over the mountains around the head
of Silver Bay to Sitka, where they arrived
more dead than alive from hunger and ex
haustion. This feud was not settled until 1918,
when a peace treaty was consummated between
the kwans on Armistice Day, a coincidence
which is much made of by the tribesmen.
The Kolosh were as firm believers in
witchcraft as any of the more civilized
nations. They resorted to their shamans
(ekhts) or medicine men in case of illness.
If his weird incantations failed to relieve
the sufferer, his resort was that the victim
was bewitched and some poor unfortunate
paid the penalty by enduring the most fiend
ish torture. One March day in 1855 *a commotion
arose in the Kolosh village. A sentry caught
[50]

THE STORY OF SITKA
an Indian who was stealing and punished
him, for which the tribe called for vengeance.
Some rushed to the stockade and began to
cut away the palisades. Other forced their
way into the Koloshian Church through the
outer door. From this vantage point they
fired on the garrison and in return the batter
ies of the fort blazed back with solid shot
and shrapnel. For two hours the fight
continued, when the Kolosh gave up all
hope of success, and ceased the battle. The
Russian loss in killed and wounded was 20
men, while the Kolosh loss was estimated at
60. This was the last attempt of the natives
to destroy the Russian stronghold.
At times during the later days of the
colony the Kolosh were employed as seamen
and as workers in the ice trade by the
Russians and thus they occupied a place in
the industrial life. Etolin was the most
successful in conciliating them of any of
the Chief Managers, and he at one time held
a fur fair at Sitka to which peltry was
brought from far and near, modeled some
what upon the idea of the great fur mart of
Nizhni Novgorod. Most of them, however,
hunted and fished, lived in their tribal houses,
carved their canoes, wove their baskets, and
practiced their witchcraft, while their civiliz-
[51]

THE STORY OP SITKA
ed neighbors gathered the furs and built
ships. Under the walls of the fort, in the old
tribal houses of the Kolosh which had not
been destroyed, lived the Aleuts. Properly
speaking the name belongs to the natives of
the Aleutian Islands, but the term was also
applied to the natives of Kodiak Island and
the surrounding islets. These speak a differ
ent language from the true Aleuts, but other
wise resemble them closely. During the hunt
ing season they scoured the seas in their skin
bidarkas, in the pursuit of fur animals. In
winter many of them remained at Sitka in
stead of returning to their homes. Their time
was spent in idleness, spending the summer's
earnings in the pleasures and vices of the
white man. One who saw them in their kazh-
ims, as their dwellings were often called,
describes them: "Morally, the Aleut is not
bloodthirsty. He delights in simple rejoic
ings and will play you a game of chess with
walrus ivory pieces — a duck for a pawn and a
penguin for a king — with the greatest of
good humor. Even when squabbles arrive the
argument is carried on in poetry to the ac
companiment of dancing, and one would be
inclined to prefer the Aleut angry to the
Aleut amiable, did he not know he also dances
when festive and when religious.
[52]

THE STORY OP SITKA
"Among them the social duty of visiting
has its drawbacks. Several families live to
gether in the kazhims, and during one's visit
they all lie around in every conceivable pos
ture, jolly and genial, naked and unashamed.
The fumes of the blubber oil lamps and
stoves, the stores of raw meat, the many
naked bodies, well smeared with grease and
scented with primitive ungents, combine to
make an atmosphere difficult to tolerate and
not easy to describe. Yet, if you will, you
may enjoy the warmest hospitality, and have
heaped upon you the most assiduous atten
tions."

[53]

CHAPTER V
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS
It was not until 1816 that a priest arrived
at Sitka, and in that year the first entry is
made in the church records under the name
of Alexander Sokolof. A church was built
at the south of the street, which was then
called the Governor's Walk, almost opposite
the present cathedral. A monument marks
the spot where the altar stood, and a cross
marks the site of a grave, said to be that of a
priest. Tradition also tells that there are two
graves there, and assigns the other one to the
daughter of Baron WrangeU, the Chief Man
ager of the Company at one time.*
The present cathedral of St. Michael,
which is the central point of historic interest,
in the center of the town at Lincoln Street,
was dedicated November 20, 1848. It fronts
on a small court and with its green painted
spire surmounted by the Greek Cross is so

* In the church records appears the entry : "Died, August 27,
1832, Naval Captain of the 1st Rank and Cavalier Baron Ferdinand
Wraugel's daughter — Mary." There Is also to be found : "Died,
December 29th, 1839, Priest Vasili Michaeloff Ocheredln, 23 years old."

[54]

Cathedral of St. Michael.

THE STORY OF SITKA
typically Russian that it might readily be
believed to have been transplanted from old
Russia. The chime of bells, a gift from the
Church at Moscow, would be worthy of any
shrine. The building is in the form of a
cross, has three sanctuaries and three altars.
The larger and central sanctuary is that of
the Archistrategos Michael. In the center is
an elevated platform, the episcopal Cathedra,
and it is separated from the main body of
the church by a partition called the Ikonastas,
which is ornamented with twelve ikons, or
holy paintings, covered by plates of silver in
repousse work in the true Russian style of
art, and through the Royal Gates the priest
appears. The silver in the ikons is valued at
over $6,000. The ikon of St. Michael is said
to have been in the wreck of the "Neva,"
and was rescued after being cast up by the
sea. Another is a gift of the monks of the
monastery of Solovetsk ; another was brought
by Bishop Innocentius (Veniaminof) from
Petropavlovsk. The ikon of the Resurrection
is painted on a board from a tree in Hebron,
was consecrated in Bethlehem, and bears
the autograph signature of the Patriarch of
Jerusalem. The chapel at the right is dedicated in
the name of St. John the Precursor and
Prince Alexander Nevsky. [55]

THE STORY OP SITKA
The chapel at the left is in honor of Our
Lady of Kazan. In it is a painting of a
Madonna and Child from which the beautiful
Byzantine face looks down with a sweet
radiance. The vestments and sacred vessels are
rich and elegant. The white Easter vestment
is of cloth of silver and the cloth of gold for
high feast days was the personal gift of
Alexander Andreevich Baranof, the great
Russian who established the colony. The
belfry clock is said to be the work of the
hands of Veniaminof. The priest in richly
brocaded vestments holds the services, and a
choir of boys chant the chorus with a melody
that would be the envy of many a far more
pretentious edifice. The worshipers stand
during the services, the clouds of incense rise
toward the rounded dome, then one by one
the worshipers pass and kiss the jeweled cross
in the hand of the priest. Pather Metropolski
presided over the church for many years,
and Pather Sergius is one of the best known
in recent years.
There were two other churches during
Russian days, one, a Lutheran, built during
Etolin's time, which stood near the site of
the first church, and is said to have contained
a small but very excellent pipe organ, brought
from Germany. The other church stood near
[56]

The Madonna.

THE STORY OF SITKA
the blockhouse on the hill, was on the line
of the stockade, and had two doors, one inside
the fortification, the other outside and used
as an entrance by the natives. It was known
as the Koloshian Church, and its site is
marked by a monument. Both these build
ings long ago fell into ruin and were removed.
The Russian religion was closely associat
ed with the Government, so in the colonies
the official charter of the Company compelled
them to provide well for the church and the
priests according to the standard of the times,
and the work was carried on with zeal and
fortitude by the missionaries who came from
the monasteries of the old Russian cities.
Of all the missionaries who came to
Russian America, the greatest was Ivan
Veniaminof. Father John he is often called
in the old records, a wonderful man, broad of
mind and of body, combining the qualities
that inspire awe and reverence with a gentle
ness of word and deed that made him beloved
wherever he was known. His zapiski, or
letters, are among the best authorities extant
which remain from those years on Alaskan
matters, and they were written home to Russia
during his stay in the* Aleutian Islands and
at Sitka. He came to Sitka after a ten-year
stay at Unalaska, remained there for five
years working for the church and teaching
[57]

THE STORY OF SITKA
in the schools, then returned to Moscow and
was consecrated as bishop of the new diocese.
He again arrived in Sitka in 1842, and made
a tour of all the churches in the colonies,
traveling by sailing ship to every settlement,
then went home to Russia where he became
Metropolite of Moscow.
The schools of Sitka, under the Russian
regime, were well maintained, and many of
the mechanics, clerks, pilots, and men of
other trades were educated there. Kadin,
who drew the charts for Tebenkof's Atlas
of Alaska from the surveys made by the
Russian Navigators; Tarantief, who engrav
ed the maps on copper-plate at Sitka; and
many of the shipmasters and accountants
in the employ of the Company, were the prod
uct of the educational institution of Sitka.
In the time of the greatest prosperity there
were five schools. The church school was
advanced to the grade of a seminary in 1849
and there were taught navigation, mathemat
ics, astronomy, bookkeeping, and other
branches of learning. Some of the best pupils,
both Russian and Creole, were sent to St.
Petersburg for more advanced instruction.
Chief Manager Etolin was the especial patron
of education, and made many improvements
in the system. Under the auspices of Madame
Etolin, who was a native of Helsingfors and
[58]

THE STORY OP SITKA
was educated in the schools of that city, a
school was opened and maintained by the
Company for the girls of the colony. After
the transfer to the United States of the
Territory the teachers returned to Russia and
the schools were closed.

[59]

CHAPTER VI
SOCIAL LIFE
At the top of the kekoor, or the Baranof
Hill as it was called in recent years, there
stood a building occupied during Russian
days as a residence by the Chief Managers
of the Russian American Company. The
one known to the residents and visitors of
the earlier days of the American occupation
was known as the Baranof Castle, although
Baranof himself never lived in it. There
were three, if not four different buildings
which occupied that position. The first to
be placed there was built at once upon the
founding of the post and is described by
Resanof in his letters to the Company as be
ing a very "Unpretentious building, and
poorly constructed." Before the close of
Baranof 's administration, however, accord
ing to the account of Captain Golofnin, it
was an establishment well built and furnished
with some degree of luxurj^.
The structure known as the Baranof
Castle, which stood on the hill at the time of
[60]

The Baranof Castle.

Built in 1837 for the official residence of the Chief Managers of the
Russian American Company, and occupied from the time of Kuprianof
Tintil 1867. It was the headquarters building of the Commanding- Officers
of the TJ. S. troops 1867 to 1877, and was destroyed by fire in 1894.
The TT. S Agricultural Department building occupies the site at the
present time.

THE STORY OF SITKA
the transfer to the United States, would seem
to be the third building constructed on the
site, was completed about 1837,* and was
burned to the ground on the morning of
March 17th, 1894.
The historic building was the scene of
many interesting events, and sheltered many
distinguished persons.
The first mistress who presided over the
mansion on the kekoor was Madame Yano
vski, a daughter of Baranof and the wife of
Lieutenant Yanovski, the third Chief Man
ager of the Russian American Company.
Lady WrangeU was the first to come
from Russia to preside as the First Lady of
Sitka, and she was succeeded by Madame
Kupreanof , who is said to have crossed Siberia
and the Pacific Ocean to accompany her
husband to his post. Sir Edward Belcher
gives a spirited account of a ball given in
his honor, in the castle, which was then, in
1837, just completed. He says: "The even
ing passed most delightfully," although "few
could converse with their partners," English
being spoken by few at that time in the
capital of Russian America.
Princess Maksoutoff, the wife of the last
Chief Manager of the colonies, came from
* Narative of a Voyage Round the World, 1836-1842, by Captain
Sir Edward Belcher, Vol. 1, pages 95 et seq.
[61]

THE STORY OP SITKA
St. Petersburg, but died soon after her
arrival, and the stone which marks her grave
may be seen on the hill between the two
cemeteries, near the site of the upper Block
house. Her successor, the sceond Princess
Maksoutoff, young and beautiful, presided
with grace and tact over the mansion until
the transfer of the territory to the United
States. She was one of six Russian ladies
present at the ceremonies and is said to have
wept when the Russian flag was lowered.
There is a legend of a beautiful princess
whose ghost haunted the Castle for many
years. The story has been told by many at
different times and is one of the romantic
tales that cluster around the old metropolis
of the fur trading days. Her lover was sent
away or killed through the influence of an
ob er offitzer who sought her hand in marriage.
Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, who wrote so de
lightfully of Sitka in her journeys in Alaska
in 1883, saj^s that, "By tradition the Lady in
Black was the daughter of one of the old
governors. On her wedding night she disap
peared from the ballroom in the midst of the
festivities, and after a long search was found
dead in one of the small drawing rooms."*

* Frederick Schwatka, the explorer, seems to have been one of
the first to put the story in print, which be did in the early eighties.
It appeared in the Alaska News, a newspaper of Juneau, on December
24th, 1896, and the time is fixed as being in the administration of

[62]

m

JSmM xivi
n^-'T.ayi*5* ^p»»j

The Grave of the Princess Maksoutoff.

THE STORY OF SITKA
The Chief Managers entertained lavishly,
and the dinners in the Castle were events
long to be remembered. They were well
worthy the representatives of a rich and
powerful company, a corporation with a
domain that was greater than the realm of
many a royal ruler. Into the sumptuously
furnished and richly decorated dining-room
came the bishop and priests, resplendent in
the official robes, the naval officers glittering
in their gold laced uniforms, the secretaries,
accountants, storekeepers, all in the uniform
of the Ministry of Finance, the masters and
mates of the ships in the harbor; the guests
in their best apparel ; all gathered around the
hospitable board of the chief manager. At
times a hundred sat at the table and back
of them dined the cadets of the naval school.
After the dinner came dancing and until
morning the gayety went merrily on, for
Russian cheer is proverbial, and their hos
pitality is lavish.

Baron WrangeU. In 1891 Hon. Henry B. Hayden published it in
verse in a small volume printed at Sitka. John W. Arctander, in
his Lady in Blue, elaborates it to a small volume and ascribes it to
Etolin's time.
There is a strange fact which gives some color to the story.
In the Russian American Company's Archives now on file in the State
Department, Washington, D. C., under date of September 23rd, 1833,
a letter from St. Petersburg refers to a report of Baron WrangeU of
November 30, 1831, which reported the death of under officer Paul
Buikof, and implicating one Col. Borusof. Unfortunately the records
of 1831 are missing and so the report cannot be had. Baron Wrangell's
daughter, Mary, died during his stay in Sitka.

[63]

THE STORY OF SITKA
Usually the Captain of the port, the
secretaries, three public and two private, two
masters in the navy, the commercial agent,
two doctors, and the Lutheran clergyman,
dined with the chief manager by general in
vitation, Sir George Simpson tells us. The
civilian masters of vessels, accountants,
engineers, clerks, and bookkeepers, dined at
a club which was organized by Mr. Etolin,
and they lived at the old club house a little
to the east of the ehurch.
A wedding was an elaborate affair, a
bridal cake which figured in many mystic
signs, tea, coffee, chocolate and champagne;
the ladies attired in muslin dresses, white
satin shoes, silk stockings, kid gloves, fans,
and other necessary appurtances. After the
ceremony of an hour and a half was consum
mated, the ball was opened by the bride and
the highest officer present, and the dancing
lasted until three in the morning.
Easter was an event of much hilarity
after the close of Lent, which was strictly
observed by all. From morning to night
everyone ran a gauntlet of kisses; when two
persons met, one said, "Christ has risen,"
while the other replied, "He has risen, in
deed," and then followed the salutations.
These seemed not to have been distasteful to
visitors, although one remarks that most of
[64]

THE STORY OF SITKA
the dames had been more liberal with other
liquids than of pure water. Throughout it all
was a continuous peal of bells, for the Rus
sian is fond of bell-ringing. All carried eggs,
boiled into stones, and dyed, gilded or painted,
which they presented to their friends.

[65]

CHAPTER VII
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Sitka, under the Muscovite, existed be
cause of the fur trade, and every energy and
interest centered on the gathering of peltries
from every available quarter. Sailing ships
moved in and out of the harbor, taken to their
moorings or out to sea by the harbor tug;
some from Michaelovsk with the beaver and
martin from the Yukon, others en route to
California or to the Sandwich Islands; the
supply ships from Kronstadt around Cape
Horn or returning via Canton and the Cape
of Good Hope laden with furs; still others
bound for the Kuril Islands or Okhotsk.
The steamer "Nikolai" plied along the pas
sages of the Alexander Archipelago, explor
ing the inlets, surveying the bays and rivers,
gathering furs, always furs, for that was the
reason for their living on this distant shore.*

* Between 1821 and 1862 there were shipped by the Russian
American Company, from Alaska, 51,315 sea-otter, 831,396 fur-seal,
319,514 beaver, 291,655 fox. Fur-Seal Arbitration, Vol. 2, p. 127
(Washington, Government Printing Office).

[66]

Sitka in 1860, Near the Close of the Russian Administration.

THE STORY OP SITKA
Near the entrance to the Kolosh village
was the market where the natives were per
mitted to trade. There they brought their
game and fish, their furs and baskets, to trade
for calico and beads, blankets and ammuni
tion.* This market was closed by a portcul-
lised door which permitted entrance through
the stockaded wall, and was enclosed by a
railed yard. Armed guards stood on duty,
and at the least dispute in the market, down
came the door and they proceeded to punish
the delinquents. The warehouses were stored with thou
sands .on thousands of the richest furs of the
Northland; sea-otter, worth today from $800
to $1,000 per skin, and not to be had at any
price, were numbered by thousands in the
earlier years; sealskins by shiploads, some
killed off the harbor, but mainly from the
Seal Islands; of land otter, the Hudson's Bay
Company paid them two thousand skins each
year for the lease of the territory from
Portland Canal to Cape Spencer. The mar
tin, the American sable, with its fluffy pelage.
Foxes, blue, white, black, silver gray, red and
cross, were there by thousands, brought from
* "For the largest deer, which weighs about four poods, five sazhens
of calico are paid ; for a duck, a quid of tobacco ; for a goose, two
quids ; fish priced according to size ¦ all according to price list estab
lished by the commander of the post of New Archangel." Russkie na
Vostochnom Okean (Russians on the Eastern Ocean), by A. Markof,
St. Petersburg, 1856.
[67]

THE STORY OP SITKA
the Arctic, from the Aleutian Islands, from
the Valley of the Yukon ; mink, ermine, musk-
rat, beaver, land otter, pile on pile. Tons of
ivory from the walrus herds of Morzhovia
and bearskins and wolfskins from Cook Inlet
and the Copper River. The right to the fur
trade belonged exclusively to the Company by
Royal ukaze, and any employe who was found
attempting to infringe on their rights was ar
rested and sent to Russia for punishment.*
Prom the top of the Castle, over 100 feet
above the sea, a light burned as a beacon to
mariners entering the harbor, and this was the
first light-house to throw its beams over the
waters of this northern ocean. In the cupola
which rose from the roof were four little
square cups into which seal oil was poured and
wicks burned in grooves rising from them,
while back of the flame was a reflector that
threw the light far out to sea among the
islands. The stock of goods in the magazines was
large and varied. It covered almost every
article carried in the general European trade
as a necessity, and many of the luxuries —
sugar and sealing wax, tobacco, both Virginia

* Hunters who disposed of their furs to an English shipmaster
were arrested and sent to Siberia. Russian American Archives. Corr.
Vol. I, p. 275. In January of 1820 Muravlef was ordered to watch
certain officers of a ship who were suspected of trading for furs on
their own account. Id. Vol. 2, p. 38.

[68]

THE STORY OP SITKA
and Kirghis, silk and broadcloth, calico and
Flemish linen, ravens duck and frieze, arshins
of blankets and poods of yarn ; vedras of rum,
cognac and gin ; butter from the Yakut, from
California and from Kodiak; salt beef from
Ross Colony, from England and from Kodiak ;
beaver hats and cotton socks.
In the arsenal were kept about a thousand
muskets, three hundred pistols, two hundred
rifles, as well as sabres, cutlasses, etc., while
four fire engines provided against loss by con
flagration. Some rare weapons were also
found there. A saber set with gems valued at
560 rubles; a Persian carbine of a value of
450 rubles; two Persian yatighans, silver
mounted ; a Damascus saber, and two Persian
pistols, silver mounted.
The soldiers' guns were for a great part
of French or English workmanship; rockets
and false-fire for signalling ships were made
each year.
Tallow for candles was brought from Cali
fornia, moulded at the port and distributed
so many candles to each employe according to
their presumed needs each month.
Liquors, generally rum, were served by
the Company, a drink twice a week, extra
allowance being made on difficult work and al
so for holidays. All kinds of devices were re
sorted to by individuals in order to get rum,
[69]

THE STORY OF SITKA
and one author says that a pair of boots for
which the makers would demand ten rubles
might be secured in barter for a bottle of rum
worth three rubles.
The soldiers stationed at the fort when
not on duty were employed by the Company
and given a special compensation for their
labor. Some of the soldiers and hunters by
their industry and thrift accumulated con
siderable money which the Company held to
their account and either paid to them on their
discharge or sent home to Russia for them.
Others spent their earnings, were continually
in debt to the Company, and as their contract
provided that they were not to be discharged
while in arrears of debt, some of them served
the remainder of their lives with no hope of
return to Russia. .
Around the hill ran a parapet and sentries
walked their beat night and day. On the
stockade which enclosed the town from the
beach at the edge of the "Ranche" to the
shore beyond the sawmill, making with the
shore line an irregular rectangle, also walked
the sentinels on their vigil, for the Thlingit
at the gates was at all times an enemy to be
feared. Strict military discipline was main
tained at all times. At the foot of the hill were
clustered barracks, storehouses, bakeries,
warehouses, etc., for the use of the garrison
[70]

THE STORY OP SITKA
and workmen. The old structure which was
used as a bakery, and for shops, was later
known as the Sitka Trading Company's build
ing, and has recently been removed. The
barracks are at present the jail, and the
Russian counting house is today the postoffice
of the United States. The fur warehouse
stood to the west of the hill and was torn down
in 1897-8, while the landing warehouse on the
wharf was burned in 1916. These were all
built about the time of the incumbency of
Etolin, and that time might be termed the
Golden Age of the Colony. Ships were being
built, the fur trade was still prosperous, new
explorations were being made into the interior
of the country, trade was being extended into
the Yukon Valley and there was an active
interest in all the industries of the settlement.
There were men of many trades, engineers,
cabinet makers, jewelers, tailors, builders,
etc., and an efficient machine shop constructed
engines to equip the vessels constructed in
the shipyard. Plowshares and spades for the
Spanish farmers in California were forged
and bells for the Franciscan missions were
cast here. The first steam vessel to be built
on the shore of the North Pacific Ocean was
constructed at Sitka, for, before 1840 the
whole of the machinery for a tug of seven
horsepower, as well as of two pleasure boats
[71]

THE STORY OF SITKA
had been constructed here. The steamer
"Nikolai" of 70 horsepower was built and
equipped with the exception of the boilers
which were brought from New York. The
ship ways at Sitka was the repairing place
for many a vessel in the days of the gold
seekers in the valleys of California.
Two sawmills, one near the site of the
present mill, the other on Kirenski River,
now called Sawmill Creek,* cut the lumber
for the settlement and for export. Two flour
ing mills, one in Sitka, the other at the Ozer-
skoe Redoubt on Globokoef (Deep) Lake,
ground the breadstuffs. A tannery furnished
the leather for shoes, made from California
hides, and also prepared the lavtaks for the
bidarkas for the seal and sea-otter hunters.
The burrs for the Sitka mill were of the finest
French stone but those at the Redoubt were
cut from the granite found on the lake shore. %
A hospital of forty beds provided for the
comfort of the sick, of which Governor Simp
son said: "The institution in question would
do no disgrace to England."
• The mill on Sawmill Creek was located ln the gorge below
where the dam is situated which provides the power for the present
light plant of the town. The timbers of the old mill were removed
In 1916 to make way for the building of the present improvement.
t Golobokoe Lake was sounded to a depth of 190 fathoms
by the Russians. Materialui, Pt. 3, p. 48.
X Obzor Russklkh Colonii iv Syevernoe-Amerika, Survey of tive
Russian Colonies in North America, by Captain-Lieutenant P. N.
Golovin, pp. 72-73.
[72]

THE STORY OF SITKA
Brickyards were maintained, ice was cut
on the lakes and at times shipped to Califor
nia. The ice-houses were near the outlet of
Swan Lake and were of a capacity of 3,000
tons. One day in the spring of 1852 the Amer
ican ship "Bacchus" came into Sitka to pur
chase a cargo of ice. All the ice for San Fran
cisco had to this time been brought in the hold
of sailing ships around Cape Horn from
Boston and the idea of getting the supply from
Sitka was conceived. From the Company's
icehouses was laden on the ship 250 tons, and
this was the beginning of a trade during the
year of not less than 1800 tons at an average
price of about $25.00 per ton. A Company
was organized in San Francisco for carrying
on the trade and it was known as "the Ice
Company." The ice on the lake was not of
sufficient thickness owing to the fact that four
degrees below zero is the coldest record ever
made in Sitka during a hundred years, con
sequently the Ice Company later transferred
their chief place of operation to Wood Island,
near Kodiak.
Cows were kept for milk, and the hay
for their provender was cut on the Katleanski
Plains on Squashanski Bay.
Sir George Simpson, Go vernor-in- Chief
[73]

THE STORY OF SITKA
of the Honourable, the Hudson's Bay Com
pany, visited Sitka in 1841 and in 1842. He
describes the settlement, the natives, and the
fur trade, and was entertained at the Castle
by Chief Manager Etolin. During his stay
he indulged in a Russian steam bath. His
humorous description of the details ends with
a promise never again to undergo such a casti-
gatiou. The account of his stay at the Hot
Springs is enlivened by a story of how a rosy
cheeked Russian damsel, each time she passed
his chair, made a profound obeisance, which
he attributed to his personal attraction until
he discovered her doing the same when the
chair was empty, and then saw that a saintly
ikon occupied a place on the wall directly over
it, which dispelled the illusion. Thirteen ships
were in the harbor, and he remarks that the
bustle was sufficient to have done credit to a
third rate port in the civilized world. Sir
George sailed for Okhotsk on the Russian
ship "Alexander," then crossed Siberia over
land on his return to England from a journey
round the earth.
There were eighty cannon mounted in
the batteries which commanded the bay or
which looked down on the Kolosh village.
These cannon were of different make, some
being cast in Sitka, others purchased of Eng
lish or Americans, which were purchased on
[74]

THE STORY OF SITKA
the ships on which they were mounted, as on
the "Juno" and the "Brutus;" and other
ordnance was brought from Kronstadt,
Russia, as in 1804 on the "Neva," and in 1820
on the "Borodino."
Teahouses were situated on the little
knoll in the center of the town where the
public Gardens were located; the museum,
and the library offered instruction to the
workers who occupied this lonely post halfway
round the world from the Russian Fatherland.
There were fourteen chief managers
who directed the affairs of the Company at
Sitka between the date of the founding in 1804
and the surrender to the United States in
1867.* Many of the officers resided long in the
colonies and their record would establish their
right to be denominated as "Sourdoughs."
Baranof was manager 28 years ; Zarembo was
rewarded in 1844 for 25 years' service;

* Their names and dates of holding office are as follows :
Alexander Andreevich Baranof, 1790 to January 11, 1818.
Leonti Andreanvich Hagemeister, Jan. 11, 1818. to Oct. 24, 1818.
Semen Ivanovich Yanovski, Oct. 24, 1818, to Sept. 15, 1820.
Matvei Ivanovich Muravlef, Sept. 15, 1820, to Oct. 14, 1825.
Peter Egorovich Chistiakof, Oct. 14, 1825, to June 1st, 1830.
Baron Ferdinand Von Wrangel, June 1st, 1830, to Oct. 29, 1835.
Ivan Antonovich Kupreanof, Oct. 29, 1835, to May 25, 1840.
Adolf Karlovich Etolin, May 25, 1840, to July 9, 1845.
Michael Dmitrevich Tebenkof, July 9, 1845, to Oct. 14, 1850.
Nikolai Yakovlevich Rosenberg, Oct. 14, 1850, to March 31, 1853.
Alexander Ilich Rudakof, March 31, 1853, to April 22, 1854.
Stephen Vasili Voevodski, April 22, 1854, to June 22, 1859.
Ivan Vasilivich Funihelm, June 22, 1859, to Dec. 2, 1863.
Prince Dmitri Maksoutof, Dec. 2, 1863, to Oct. 18, 1867.

[75]

THE STORY OF SITKA
Krukof, the manager at Unalaska, was re
warded in 1821 for 40 years' service; Banner
remained at Kodiak for at least ten years, and
he and his wife both died there ; while Kuskof
came with Baranof in 1790 and returned to
Russia in 1821.

[76]

.is,

CfcXX— ;<

x f .X b „ •_ JtefeW

:¦ --' %sS '''. --'i-

; .;-:*".: ...-¦ ---

Sitka iu 1869 — During' tlie Time of tlie Military Occupation.

CHAPTER VIII

SITKA UNDER UNITED STATES RULE
Then came the day when the Russian
was to withdraw from his colonies, and the
United States was to occupy them as Alaska.
An area as broad as an empire, equal in ex
tent to Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Den
mark combined, was to be handed over from
the Imperial Ruler of all the Russians to the
Republic of the United States, and Sitka, the
Capital of the Colonies, was to be the scene
of the actual transfer. The statesmanship of
Secretary Seward, aided by the eloquence of
Sumner, had secured for our country a domain
one sixth as large as the whole United States.
October 18th, 1867, Alexei Pestchouroff,
the Commissioner of the Tsar, appeared in
front of the Baranof castle, and beside him
stood Lovell H. Rousseau, the Commissioner
for the United States, who was to receive the
Territory. The Russian soldiery Were drawn up
along the terrace which ran around the Baran-
[77]

THE STORY OP SITKA
of Hill, and next to them were the men of the
United States Infantry.* The ensign of
Russia was lowered, the flag of the United
States raised to the accompaniment of the
salutes from the batteries and of the guns of
the ships in the harbor.f The few words of
the ceremony of transfer were spoken, and
Alaska became a possession of the United
States. Most Qf the Russian residents went back
to their native land as soon as they were able
to do so, but some remained to cast their lot
in the land that had so long been their home.t
Among those who remained are the Kashavar-
offs, the Kostromitinoffs, the Bolshanins, the

* The Russian soldiery were dressed in a dark uniform, trimmed
with red. with glazed caps. The United States troops appeared in
the usual full dress.
Of American ladies, six were present : the wives of General Davis,
Colonel Weeks, Capt. Wood, and Rev. Mr. Rainier, of the "John L.
Stevens," the wife of Mr. Dodge, Collector of the Port, and the wife
of Captain MacDougall,- of the "Jamestown." Six Russian ladies were
also present : the Princess Maksoutoff, the wife and daughter of
Vice-Governor GardslshofE, and three who names I do not know. H.
Ex. Doc. No. 177, 40tb Cong. 2nd Sess., p. 72.
t On the lowering of the Russian ensign it caught in the halyards
and a sailor was sent aloft to release it He tore it loose and flung
it down on the bayonets of tbe Russian soldiery.
1 On December 14, 1867. the Russian ship "Czaritza," sailed for
Russia, via London, with 168 passengers. January 1, 1868, the
Russian ship "Cyane" cleared for Novgorod, Asia, with 69 soldiers of
the garrison on board. November 30, 1868, the Russian ship "Winged
Arrow," went to Kronstadt, but there is no record of the passengers.
April 24th, 1868, tbe American steamer "Alexander" took special
clearance for Nikolofski, Asia, to touch at all the posts along the
Alaskan coasts to close up the business of the Russian American
Company. Customs Records of Alaska, Record of Clearances.
The ship "Winged Arrow" sailed on December 8th, 1868, for
St. Petei-sburg. taking over 300 persons. Seattle Intelligencer, January
11, 1 869. This is the same voyage as the one above under the clearance
of November 30th.

[78]

THE STORY OF SITKA
Shutzoffs, and others, whose descendants now
live in Alaska.
The commanding officer of the American
troops, Gen. Jeff C. Davis, made his head
quarters in the building on the hill that had
been so long the residence of the Russian
officers. TheAmerican soldiers were quartered
in the barracks of the Siberian Battalion, and
the sentries of the United States walked the
beats of the Russian guards. Sitka gradually
adjusted itself to the new conditions, to the
crowds of adventurers who thronged its streets
seeking a profit in speculations in lands and
furs. They were doomed to disappointment,
for the titles to lands were withheld and the
fur trade was overdone, so most of the newly
arrived drifted away as they came. Distin
guished visitors came and were entertained in
the old castle where the Commandant dis
pensed hospitality. Lady Franklin, the
widow of the famous Arctic explorer, was
once a guest at the mansion on the kekoor, and
Secretary Seward was entertained there in
1869 when he visited the land he added to the
possessions of the United States.
While the military garrison were con
tent with their conditions and were not
troubled with the affairs of the world at large,
the civil population wished for the law and
authority of other communities, and set them-
[79]

THE STORY OP SITKA
selves to remedy the omission of the Govern
ment in far-off Washington so far as was
possible to do, for there was no provision for
an organization of civil government in the
community. They organized a municipal
association, drafted ordinances, elected coun
cilmen, collected revenue for improving the
Governor's Walk, changed the name to
Lincoln Street, and in December opened a
school. After five years the civil population
declined until the revenue was insufficient
to maintain the expense, the organization
was abandoned, with it passed the school, and
the first attempt at self-government closed.
Then followed dark days for Sitka.*
Military rules for the garrison and no law or
protection for the people. Soldiers from
the fort are said to have robbed the church
of its ornaments, tearing the covers from
the richly bound Bible of the Cathedral. The
offenders were apprehended, but there being
no civil law all the punishment meted out
was to be drummed out of the service and
sent to the States on an army transport. The
stolen property was hidden under the old
hospital building and was discovered by

If we may believe the current reports of the time, the military
occupation of Sitka was anything but a happy time for the civil in
habitants, especially the Russians who remained. See Colyer's Report,
Ex. Doc. H. R. 41st Cong. 2nd Ses., p. 1030; Seattle Intelligencer,
December 14th, 1868; The Victoria Colonist, et al.

[80]

THE STORY OF SITKA
some boys and nearly all was restored to the
church. On New Year's Day, 1869, Colcheka,
a noted chief of the Chilkats who was visit
ing Sitka, was entertained by General Davis
at the eastle on the hill. The liquid refresh
ments serve to him by the General raised his
spirits and his pride of race. After it was
over he descended the long flight of steps
leading from the Commandant's quarters
and strode across the parade ground with
the dignity becoming to the hereditary chief
of the Chilkats, the proudest kwan of the
Thlingits. For some reason he crossed the
part reserved for officers, was challenged by
the sentry, and, not heeding, when he reached
the stockade gate was kicked by the sentry
stationed there. He was furious.
"Me, Colcheka, Chief of the Chilkats,
kicked!" He turned in a rage, seized the musket
of the sentry, wrenched it from bis hands,
then carried it to his house in the Ranche.
The guard was turned out for his arrest
and a skirmish ensued in which the guard
was worsted and retreated to the barracks.
The Sitkas were neutral. The Chilkats were
too few in number to fight the troops, so next
day Colcheka surrendered, was kept in the
guardhouse for a few days and then released.
[81]

THE STORY OP SITKA
Meantime orders that no Indians be per
mitted to leave the Ranche were issued which
were revoked upon Colcheka 's surrender.
Through some mistake in revoking the orders
the sentries were not notified. A canoe load
of Indians left the Ranche to get wood. The
sentries fired on the canoe and killed two of
the occupants, a Chilkat and a Kake. It was
an unfortunate mistake. Those shots rang
from Lynn Canal to Kuiu Island and the
echoes vibrated for more than twenty years.
By listening intently one might yet hear the
vibrations. Two white men died and three
Indian villages burned directl}-" as a result, but
it happened in places distant from Sitka, and,
as they say, it is another story.
On a June day of 1877 the troops of
the United States army embarked on a ship
for the States and sailed away from Sitka.
The buildings and property were left in
charge of the Collector of Customs, who, with
the Postmaster, constituted the only officials
in the Territory. The presence of the mili
tary had guaranteed safety from attack by
the Indians to the people of the town, and
the officers had been a pleasant addition to
the social life ; with their departure both were
lost. The animosity of the Thlingits had been
kindled by many wrongs, some real and
[82]

THE STORY OF SITKA
others fancied. They saw in the new order
of things an opportunity to recompense
themselves for past grievances. All the old
stories of the killing of their countrymen
by the troops, the burning of old Kake and
other villages, the loss of five Keeksitties,
in the Schooner "San Diego" in Bering Sea
and other tales were rehearsed and were used
to stir the lust for vengeance. The Keeksittis,
under the leadership of Katlean, openly ad
vocated sacking the town, killing the men and
making slaves of the women.
"The government does not care for the
country. They have abandoned it. It belongs
to us, anyway; why not take the town and do
as we wish with it?" said Katlean.
The Kokwantons, under Annahootz, their
chief, opposed the outrage. For months there
was danger of an outbreak. Insult after
insult was placed upon the citizens. The
stockade was cut down and carried away by
the Indians. Every male inhabitant was
armed and expecting a call to battle at any
time. A man was killed at the Hot Springs
by a Keeksitty. The murderer was arrested
through the assistance of the Kokwantons
under Annahootz.* The Keeksitties assem-

• Annahootz, the friend of the whites, married his 13th wife.
Afterward becoming blind and decrepit he starved himself to death.
See Sitka Alaskan, February 6, 1890.
Katlean still lives at Sitka and may often be seen on the streets
of the town.

[83]

THE STORY OF SITKA
bled to rescue the criminal, but the citizens of
the town rallied for defense, the Kokwantons
joined them and the- murderer was safely
placed on board the Steamer "California"
and taken to Portland for trial where he was
afterward hanged.
On the same boat went an appeal for
assistance, directed to the United States
Government, but it fell on deaf ears. Another
petition was sent to Victoria, B. C, and was
needed. Captain A. Holmes A 'Court, of H.
M. S. "Osprey," at once set out for Sitka,
arrived on March 1st, 1879, anchored opposite
the Ranche and trained his guns for immedi
ate use. The danger was averted. Captain
A 'Court remained until the arrival of the
U. S. S. "Alaska," on April 3rd, then de
parted for Esquimault with the blessings of
the grateful people of Sitka.
On June 14th into the harbor came the
U. S. S. "Jamestown." Her Commander,
Captain L. A. Beardslee, assumed control
of affairs in the community and administered
them in a manner which brought credit on
his name. He found everything at the lowest
ebb ; every woman and child who could leave,
had gone to escape the danger of Indian mas
sacre ; witchcraft prevailed among the natives
and anarchy among the whites. He took a
[84]

THE STORY OF SITKA
census* upon his arrival, and the result was
325 people, exclusive of the Creole popula
tion. He appointed an Indian police; estab
lished more sanitary conditions in the
"Ranche," numbered the houses, and com
pelled the attendance of the Indian children
at the Mission School.
• A school was opened in the old Russian
barracks building on April 17, 1878, by Rev.
John G. Brady and Miss Fannie E. Kellogg,
of the Presbyterian Mission, which was later
followed by the present Sheldon Jackson
Mission School. George Kostromitinoff,
afterward known as Pather Sergius, was the
interpreter. The opening of the school was
a great event for Sitka and nearly everyone
in the town attended. Annahootz, the friend
ly Kokwantan war chief, made a speech.
Mr. Cohen, the brewer, hunted up another
interpreter to assist. Hymns were sung and
the events were auspicious. The Indians

* The population of Sitka in 1818 was: Russian, 190; Creoles,
72 ; Aleuts, 173 of males, and female 185 ; of Russian and Creole,
total, 620. Materialui, pt. 3, p. 20.
January 1, 1825, there were : Russians, 309 ; Creoles, 58 ; Aleuts,
33. Total, 400, Ib. p. 52.
In April, 1880, citizens by birth, 92 ; citizens by naturalization,
123 ; citizens by treaty, 229. Total, 444. Beardslee's Report, 47th
Cong. Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 71, p. 34. In this census are many names
well known in Alaska, by the "Old Timers," as : A. T. Whitford, John
G. Brady, N. A. Fuller, M. Travis, Edward DeGroff, S. Sessions, R.
Willoughby, M. P. Berry, A. Cohen, Miss P. Cohen, Miss H. Cohen,
Ed. Bean, D. Ackerman, A. Milletleh, P. T. Corcoran, L. Caplln, Pierre
Erussard, Ed. Doyle, George E. Pilz, Nicholas Haley, John McKenna,
Reub Albertson, John Olds and others.

[85]

THE STORY OP SITKA
stole in one at a time, some with their
faces blackened, all in blankets, but
they squatted by the wall and listened atten
tively. The school was continued until De
cember, when it was given up, but in the
spring of 1880 Miss Olinda Austin, from
New York City, reopened it on April 5th,
in one of the rooms of the guardhouse, with
an attendance of 103 children. The school
thus established was the beginning of the
present Sheldon Jackson Training School.
The support of the naval officers at the station
was such that the missionary teacher was
moved to say: "It is not often that the
Government sends out a missionary, but
they have sent one in this young commander
and his lieutenant, Mr. F. M. Symonds," in
referring to Captain Glass, who succeeded
Captain Beardslee.
Some form of local government giving
the residents a right to regulate their civil
affairs was favored by the Commander, who
had not even a code under which to act. A
meeting was called, ordinances were drafted,
a magistrate and councilmen elected for a
town government. But all were not agreed
upon these acts and opposition arose against
it from the very inception of the movement.
One of the traders of the town, Caplin, said :
"De Captain may go to  wid his tarn
[86]

THE STORY OP SITKA
government; I'll bay no daxes." And from
Silver Bay where he was mining, Geo. E.
Pilz sent in a protest against the proceeding.
The dealers who traded molasses to the
Indians, from which the villianous liquor
called "hoochinoo" or "Hooch," was distilled,
objected to the ordinances restricting the
trade. Finally an English miner named Roy
was shot by his partner, "Scotty," and the
inability of the self-made government to try
the offender brought a crisis. The next day
a notice appeared stating the organization
had been dissolved, and the second attempt
at self-government by the people in Alaska
passed into oblivion.
Scotty was sent to Oregon for trial and
was discharged because of lack of a law to
punish a man for assault with a dangerous
weapon in Alaska.
But the dawn of a better day was at
hand, Alaska's darkest hours were past, and
morning was breaking. The rule of the Navy
Department continued until 1884, then, al
though the warships still remained in Alaskan
waters, by Act of Congress of May 17th, a
form of civil government was granted, and
the official Capital was placed at Sitka. The
terror of the Indian outbreaks was past;
schools were in reach, for the same act pro-
[87]

THE STORY OF SITKA
vided for the establishment of a system of
public education, and the Code of Oregon
was adopted as the law of the land.*
Then some of the life of the former
years returned to the beautiful village by
the sea; there were pleasant parties among
the residents, the Governor held receptions,
the officers of the warships added to the social
life, many a gay ball was celebrated on the
top floor of the court house, and for more
than twenty years it was the Capital of
Alaska.f With the influx of the Americans pros
pecting began, for in the vast wild mountains
of Baranof and Chicagof Islands there is a
wealth of mineral stored in the ledges.
The Russians had attempted to find the
mineral of the mountains, and in 1848 a Mr.
Doroshin, a mining engineer, had been sent
* Governors of Alaska who made their residence at Sitka :
John H. Kinkead, of Nevada, appointed July 4, 1884.
Alfred P. Swineford, of Michigan, appointed May 8, 1885.
Lyman E. Knapp, of Vermont, appointed April 12, 1889.
.Tames Sheakley, of Alaska, appointed June 28, 1893.
John G. Brady, of Alaska, appointed June 23, 1897.
t "The United States District Court, established by the Act of
May 17th, 1884, was formerly organized on the 4th day of November
of that year in a room set apart for the use of the court in the old
barracks building at Sitka, the following officers being preseot : Ward
McAllister, Jr., Judge ; Andrew T. Lewis, Clerk of the Court ; Munson
C. Hillyer, U. S. Marshal ; Edward W. Haskett, District Attorney.
"On the same day John F. McLean, an officer connected with the
signal service, and Major M. P. Berry, a veteran of the Civil and
Mexican wars, were admitted to the bar, as well as District Attorney
Haskett. These three gentlemen comprised the Alaska Bar of At
torneys until June 20th, 1885, when Mr. John G. Heid was added to
the roll and in the month of October, 1885. Willoughby Clark, John
F. Maloney, R. D. Crittenden, and John G. Brady were admitted."
Alaska Bar Association and Sketch of the Judiciary, by Arthur K.
Delaney.
[88]

THE STORY OF SITKA
out from St. Petersburg to search for mineral
wealth in the colonies. He was not success
ful enough to make it of profit to them, al
though he found coal on Cook Inlet, gold on
the Kenai Peninsula, earth promising to
bear diamonds near Kootznahoo, and copper
was known to be on the Myednooskie, or
Copper, River.
Discharged soldiers of the garrison were
the first to take to the hills with pick and
shovel Nicholas Haley, an old-time pros
pector of Arizona, who came with the troops
to Sitka, was one of the most energetic and
daring of these. Year after year, with pick
and shovel, with rifle and blankets, Nicholas
attacked the rugged mountains. Rich speci
mens were brought in and yielded enough
when brayed in a mortar to keep him in a
grubstake, but it takes capital to develop a
hard rock mine and capital was wary. So
Nicholas toiled on year after year, keeping
up his assessments and living on hopes until
at last he passed over the Great Divide to a
Better Diggings.
Others tried it. In 1878 a mining com
pany was organized at Sitka, but there was
not yet a law under which a claim could be
legally taken. Ledges were found, small mills
were placed on the ground at the Stewart
Mine, the Lucky Chance and elsewhere, and
[89]

THE STORY OP SITKA
later great fakes were promoted at the Pande
Basin and elsewhere. But it was years after
that when two Indian boys, hunting on
Chicagof Island, lay down to drink at a
stream, and, behold, in the shimmering water
was white rock with yellow, glittering parti
cles dancing in the clear stream. With the
fear it was but fools gold they took speci
mens and marked the place where they were
found. When they reached Sitka they sub
mitted these samples to Judge DeGroff, and
to Professor Kelly of the Sheldon Jackson
School. It was pronounced to be gold, pure
shining, yellow gold, and richer than the
most sanguine had hoped for. After much
labor and many disappointments the ledge
was located from which the float came, and
today that mine, the Chicagof it is called,
is known as the richest and best paying mine
in the United States in proportion to the
money invested, and more than one fortune
has been taken out of the tunnels in the
mountain. Off the shores of the continent, reaching
far off to the westward almost to the shores
of Asia are vast fishing grounds, perhaps the
greatest in the world. A great submarine
plateau stretches along shore, past the Aleu
tian Islands and into Bering Sea. There are
estimated to be forty thousand square miles
[90]

THE STORY OP SITKA
of cod and halibut banks that are known to
the surveys. The fisheries of Gloucester and
Cape Cod fade into insignificance and the
famous Newfoundland Banks are but small
in comparison. Sitka goes back the farthest in historic
memory of any city of the Northwest. When
Lewis and Clarke came to the mouth of the
Columbia River she was looking out over
the Pacific from her stockaded walls and
Resanof was sailing to search for locations
for new colonies. When Astoria was founded
she was placing her outpost on the Russian
River in California. Before San Francisco
was a city she sent her bidarkas to take the
sea-otter from under the very noses of the
Padres in their missions. Here the civiliza
tion of the East met the progress of the West,
the Orient and the Occident met here and
met without bloodshed. Sitka, with her
wealth of fisheries in the waters at her doors,
with her wealth of mineral in the ledges at
her back, with the wealth of forest on the
mountain slopes around her, is in the same
latitude as Edinburgh, Scotland. The time
is coming when she will have population,
and wealth; beauty she already has. What
more is wanted for the happiness of her
people? Only energy, perseverance, and
thrift, and those will be forthcoming.
[91]

CHAPTER IX
WHAT TO SEE
Approaching Sitka by the usual steamer
route from the north at a distance of six miles
the site of Old Sitka is passed. It lies to
the left of the steamer track, in a small bay,
and is marked by a native house which is
visible from the ship. From near this place,
looking to the westward, the first sight of
Mount Edgecumbe is to be had between the
islands. On approaching the town the ship goes
through a narrow channel between Japonski
Island at the right and the townsite at the
left. Near the middle of the channel a rock
is marked by a buoy and along the shore is
the native village, or "Ranche," with a slop
ing beach upon which in former days the
canoes were drawn up. The paths by which
they were brought from the water may be
seen, marked by the rocks being thrown to
each side from the track.
On Japonski Island is the U. S. Naval
Coaling Station and the U. S. wireless
telegraph. The magnetic observatory of the
[92]

4&mrjm

Sitka — East on Lincoln Street — the Governor's Walk of the Russians.

THE STORY OF SITKA
Russians was situated there. The name means
Japan Island and is given because Resanof
designated it as the place to keep captive
Japanese whom he expected to capture
through his expedition against the lower Kuril
Islands in 1806.
The dock at which the ship lands is in
the same location as the one used by the
Russians, but it has been extended to deeper
water. The timbers of the old hulk once used
by tiie Russians as a landing stage may still
be seen in the water at low tide. On the
dock was the landing warehouse of the
Russians, a log structure with a passage
through the center. It was burned in 1916.
Leaving the wharf and going eastward along
Lincoln Street, at the side are the booths or
tents of the native merchants, kept by the
women from the village, a veritable arcade
of little markets, and each of the vendors is
as interested as though she occupied a seat
on the famous Rialto Bridge to sell the wares
of ancient Venice. The picturesque, dark-
skinned Thlingit women sit at the doors of
their little tents hour after hour, offering
the strangely carved totems, the beautiful
baskets of spruce roots woven in mystic
designs, the beaded moccasins, etc., products
of their industry during the long winter
when the tourist boats do not call at the Sitka
[93]

THE STORY OF SITKA
wharves. Passing up the street to the east
from the landing — at the right is the U. S.
cable office, occupying the site of the old
Russian fur warehouse. Next is the three-
story building used for courthouse and jail,
formerly the Russian Barracks where the
Siberian Battalion was quartered. This is one
of the most prominent of the old buildings
which remain. In front of this is the stair
way leading to the top of the hill on which
is situated the building of the Agricultural
Department, on the site of the former resi
dence of the chief manager of the Russian
American Company. Around this hill were
the batteries of the Russians, commanding
the Kolosh village and the harbor. The for
mer building was often called the Governor's
Mansion, or the Baranof Castle, was built
about 1837 and was destroyed by fire in 1894.
The hill commands a fine view of the harbor
and the surrounding islands. The present
structure is the headquarters of the Alaska
division of the Agricultural Department.
Opposite the stairway to the hill is the way
leading to the "Ranche;" the open square
was the former parade ground of the Army,
and later of the IT. S. Marines from the Man-
of-War which was stationed here. East of
the old barracks building is the former count
ing house of the Company, now occupied as
[94]

Interior of Cathedral of St. Michael.

THE STORY OP SITKA
the U. S. Postoffice, and during the time
when Sitka was the Capital of the Territory
it was used by the United States for a Cus
toms office, and by the Governor as an office.
Going east on Lincoln Street, the next large
building at the right was the old bakery and
shops of the Company, later commonly known
as the Sitka Trading Company Building,
having been occupied by that company for
many years. Beyond this on the same side
of the street at a short distance is a small
building, standing back from the walk, sur
mounted by a Greek cross, which marks the
site of the first church built in Sitka, in 1817.
Next to this lot is the one formerly occupied
by the Lutheran Church, built in the time
of Etolin, and in which the first church
service was held by Chaplain Rainier of
the U. S. Army, after the American occupa
tion. Across the street is the Cathedral of St.
Michael, the headquarters of the Greek
Orthodox Church in Alaska. In the Terri
tory are claimed to be ten thousand com
municants of that faith and from Sitka the
management of affairs is conducted. The
church is in the form of a cross and is sur
mounted by the Greek cross. The interior
is richly decorated after the usual custom
of the Russian churches. Candlesticks of
[95]

THE STORY OP SITKA
massive design stand at either side of the
doors of the inner sanctuary. The building,
with its dome, is distinctive, and is a good
example of Russian church architecture.*
Continuing east along Lincoln Street
a short distance beyond the Cathedral a
vacant space on the right marks the spot
formerly occupied by the clubhouse, built
by Etolin for a home for the clerks, naviga
tors, and other employes of the Company —
opposite it was situated the foundry and
machine shops, while a little farther to the
east stood the sawmills, at the mouth of
the outlet to Swan Lake. Along this stream
was the eastern boundary of the stockade
of the Russian fort, with a blockhouse near
the point of the lower end of the lake. East
of this stockade were the kitchen gardens,
but all traces of them have long since vanish
ed. Continuing along the street following
the shore, the Bishop's house is passed on
the left, where the Russian school is taught,
and a short distance beyond is the house of
the Episcopal Bishop of the diocese, Rev.
Bishop P. T. Rowe. Still farther to the east
is the Sheldon Jackson School, the Presby
terian Mission School, consisting of a group
of buildings, the first of which was completed
* The first church in Alaska was built at Kodiak (Paulovski) ln
1795, the next at Unalaska soon after, and the third at Sitka in 1817.
[96]

THE STORY OF SITKA
in 1880, under the superintendence of Rev.
Alonzo Austin, and others have been added
from time to time until the present fine
establishment has resulted. An octagonal
structure shelters the Sheldon Jackson
Museum, a fine collection of native work of
many kinds, gathered from all parts of
Alaska by the first superintendent of native
schools for the Territory. A small paper is
published by the mission, the Verstovian, and
is printed by the native students of the insti
tution. Opposite the mission, at the edge of the
curving beach, a large, flat-topped rock lies
at the side of the way, called, the Blarney
Stone. On this it is said that Baranof often
sat, during the last year of his residence here,
and looked out through the vistas between
the island to the broad Pacific. What were
the thoughts of the brave, strong, strange,
old man as he sat here will never be known,
but it is sure that there was much of sadness
for him in those days.
Beyond the Mission is the famous Indian
River Road, a continuation of the Governor's
Walk of the Russians, and often called the
Lover's Lane. It winds along the shore of
the sea, through the Park, with here and
there an opening in the forest where there
are splendid examples of Hydah carvings
[97]

THE STORY OF SITKA
in the tall totems placed in well chosen spots.
These totem poles were taken to the St. Louis
Fair in 1904, as a part of the Alaska Exhibit,
and afterward returned to this park. One
of the most interesting is the house totem
of Chief Son-i-hat, of Kasaan, accompanied
by the four supporting columns of the ancient
tribal house.
From the rustic bridge on the Indian
River there are enticing paths leading along
the stream and toward Mt. Verstovia, which
towers above the bay to the height of 3,216
feet. Along the river, known as the Kolosh
Ryeka, by the Russians, the winding paths
are bordered with huge Sitka spruces and
giant cedars, with the space thickly filled with
a dense growth of shrubbery, among which
is prominent the Devil's Club (panax horrid-
us), with its beautifully palmated leaves and
its cruel spines concealed underneath. This
shrub was formerly used by the natives as
an instrument of torture in their witchcraft.
In the depths of the forest the earth is
covered with a carpet of ferns and mosses,
and the trunks of fallen trees of former years
may be seen with other trees of from two to
three feet in diameter growing on their
prostrate bodies.
Returning toward the town, at the Mis
sion the Davis Road turns toward the north.
[98]

THE STORY OF SITKA
It was built by the Army during their occu
pation, in the process of their securing wood
from the forest, and named for General Jeff
C. Davis, the Commander of the post. Follow
ing it the Military Cemetery is reached at
the distance of about three-eighths of a mile.
Here are some interesting monuments, among
them being that of Gouverneur Morris, a de-
scendent of the famous financier of the Revo
lution. A stone marks the resting place of
a lieutenant of the U. S. Army, around whose
memory lingers stories of a duel with a
brother officer in a solitary spot along Indian
River, over a Russian beauty of Sitka.
Turning aside from Lincoln Street at
the Mission, or at the street next westward,
a walk of a quarter of a mile leads to the
experiment farm of the Agricultural Depart
ment of the United States. There may be
seen many products, including apples and
strawberries of an excellent quality. Of the
latter is a variety originated by Prof. George-
son through hybridizing the cultivated berries
with the wild native berry which grows
luxuriantly at many places in Alaska.
On reaching the Cathedral a street turns
northward along which one finds, at the right,
on the little knoll in the town, among the
scattered spruce trees, the spot where for
merly stood the tea houses of the Russians.
[99]

THE STORY OF SITKA
They were in the center of the public gardens
which covered the knoll and were approached
by beautifully bordered walks. Farther
along, on the left of the walk, is the remain
ing Russian blockhouse, the last of three
which formerly stood on the line of the stock
ade that protected the town from the Kolosh.
A little back of the blockhouse is the grave
of the Princess Maksoutoff, marked with a
marble slab lying on the raised mound above
her resting place. At the end of the walk is
the modern Russian cemetery, with its forest
of Greek crosses, and in the center, at the
highest point, is a platform from which is
had an excellent view of the harbor, islands,
Mt. Edgecumbe, and of the lake and town.
Returning as far as the site of the tea
gardens, then going westward toward the
water, at the right is an enclosure in which
there is a small building marking the site
of the Koloshian Church, or the Church of
the Resurrection, as it is called in the church
records. This was the building occupied by
the natives in 1855 when they made an attack
upon the town. It was on the line of the
stockade which formerly ran from the water
front at the end of the "Ranche," east to the
lake, then back to the water at the sawmill.
On the line of the stockade were three block
houses, the church being between the first
[100]

Russian Blockhouse.

THE STORY OF SITKA
and second of these. Surrounding the site
of the church are a number of graves, and
among them are some interesting monuments
dating back to the Russian days, for this is
the older of the two cemeteries.
Going down to the entrance to the native
town, or "Ranche," there is choice of two
streets, one in front of the houses along the
water front, the other at the rear. The one
at the front is preferable. The houses are
built of lumber and in general are constructed
by the native workmen, who have been in
structed at the mission school, at which there
is an excellent manual training department.
The great tribal houses of former days have
long since disappeared. The older houses
were named by the natives much as were
the inns of old England; the Gooch-haet, or
wolf house ; the Tahn-haet, or sea-lion house ;
the Kahse-haet, or cow house, and others,
named for different animals. The Kahse-haet
was named from the head of a cow being
brought there from a wreck off the coast in
wliich the animal was drowned. Formerly
there were many canoes along the water
front — as many as 150 at a time being often
seen, but now their place is occupied by gas
boats — generally built by the owners and the
engines installed by them. The loss in the
picturesque is partly compensated by the gain
U01]

THE STORY OF SITKA
in utility, but the native canoe was a wonder of
marine architecture, cut from a single log and
shaped with fire and adzed into elegant lines.
An occasional specimen is sometimes yet to be
seen on the beach or carefully covered from
the weather in some sheltered and secluded
cove. There were no great house totem poles
in front of the houses as there are at
Wrangefll, Kasaan and elsewhere. There
were some mortuary columns near the grave
houses which formerly stood on the ridge
back of the village, but these have long been
covered by the dense undergrowth which
sprang up in recent years.
In this village have lived some interest
ing and strong characters. Annahootz and
Katlean both figured boldly in the history
of the town, and Sitka Jack was noted for
his great potlatch held in 1877, when he gave
a housewarming at which he presented to his
visitors over 500 blankets, not to mention the
hoochinoo and whiskey which flowed liberally
for all. He beggared himself by the feast,
but his reputation was established above
reproach for the rest of life. Princess Tom
was another celebrity, whose fame was
founded on her wealth which was estimated
at ten thousand dollars, and which was ac
quired by skill in basket making and shrewd-
[102]

THE STORY OF SITKA
ness in dealing in native manufactures on
which she was a connoisseur — going out to
the villages in her long canoe to gather the
stock of baskets, bracelets, carved dishes,
masks, dance hats, etc., which she disposed
of to advantage upon her return to Sitka.
Chief Tlan Tech was one of the prominent
citizens and frequently might have been seen
on the street in his frock coat, tall hat, with
cane and kid gloves, cutting quite a dash. His
English vocabulary was very limited and he
was accustomed for many years to fly the
Russian flag over his canoe when he went
out to a neighboring village for a potlatch.
Some of the silversmiths were skilled
workmen. Sitka Jack, and Kooska, and
Hydah Jake, all fashioned bracelets, spoons,
and other articles, carved with totemic
design of delicate beauty and line of propor
tion, made from silver coins which they
melted down.
Some of the shamans of the olden time
acquired great influence and made life miser
able for their fellow-citizens by the practice
of witchcraft. One of the most obnoxious
of these, called Skondoo, was captured and
his shock of matted hair, which, like that
of Samson, was supposed to be the seat , of
his power, was shorn by the commander of
the U. S. S. "Pinta," and in addition he was
[103]

THE STORY OF SITKA
thoroughly scrubbed with soap and brush,
perhaps for the first time in his existence.
Even to this day there are instances of
the weird belief in the villages at Hootznahoo
or at Klukwan. Not many years ago an
Indian girl was rescued by the whites from a
damp hole under a house where she had been
confined to die of cold and starvation by the
order of the shaman, or Ekht, as the Thlingit
calls him.
Among the island and the inlet dented
shores surrounding the town are many in
teresting places forming an opportunity for
delightful excursions. The most desirable
of these are :
Mount Edgecumbe, 3467 ft.— Taking a
launch from Sitka the trip may be made to
Crab Bay, or to the landing behind the island
of St. Lazaria on which is a populous bird
rookery, and the ascent of the mountain is
possible to be made in a day. Perhaps better
that two days be taken to the trip, however.
The first to go to the top was Lisianski in
1804. Prom the summit of the mountain an
unusually beautiful panorama is to be had
of island-studded bay, and mountain ridges
capped with glaciers on one side, while on
the other spreads the expanse of the broad
Pacific. Old Sitka, and Katlaanski Bay. — By
[104]

THE STORY OF SITKA
launch the site of the Russian settlement of
1799-1802 may be reached and from that
point a continuation of the excursion may
be made to the head of Nesquashanski Bay,
where the meadows are situated from which
the Russians procured their provender for
the cattle kept at the post. In the streams
entering the bay may be seen, during the
season of the salmon run, the strange spectacle
of the brown bears in the role of fishermen,
scooping salmon from the waters with their
paws, if good fortune attend. This journey
may be made in a day.
Silver Bay. — A veritable Norwegian
fjord transplanted to Alaska — with pictur
esque waterfalls plunging into its waters, deep
glacial valleys entering at right angles with
Yosemite-like cliffs bordering them, the
Scottish bluebells clinging to the dripping
rocks which beetle overhead, Kalampy's Slide
around which hangs a tale, the Stewart mine,
etc. — about ten miles to the head of the bay,
where a fine waterfall plunges from the
mountainside. The Redoubt and the Globokoe Lake. —
Southwest from Sitka about ten miles was
the location of the fishery of the Russians
from which for more than sixty years they
drew their stores of krasnia ruiba (the red
salmon), which provided so important a part
[105]

THE STORY OF SITKA
of their subsistence. Here in the rocky wall
which divided Globokoe, or Deep Lake, from
the sea, and over which the outlet flowed,
channels were blasted, forming reservoirs,
and in these channels were placed sapors,
or fences, which made traps into which
the sahnon swam and lay in the clear
cold pools until they were removed for use.
Here also was one of the Russian flouring
mills, where they ground the wheat brought
from California, or from the farms of the
Hudson's Bay Company at Nisqually or on
the Columbia. The Sitka Hot Springs. — About four
miles farther to the southwest than the Re
doubt, is situated the Sitka Hot Springs,
possessing valuable medicinal qualities, and
used for more than a century as a health
resort. Here Dr. Goddard has established
a sanitarium in the midst of a veritable
nature lover's paradise, the forest behind,
and the island-studded sea in front, with
game in the deep woods and fish in the sea,
all to be had for the taking.
Many other interesting and beautiful
places may be visited. Lisianski Bay, Deep
Bay, Herring Bay with the gorge of Saw
mill Creek and the chain of lakes, Blue Lake,
and others lying adjacent, are among the
important ones. [106]

THE STORY OF SITKA
Mt. Verstovia. — The ascent of this moun
tain comprises one of the most interesting
excursions about the town. The trail leaves
the shore of Jamestown Bay at the point where
the trough of the watering place of the ' ' James
town," came to the beach. This place may be
reached by boat or on foot through the Park
by the mouth of Indian River. The ascent
snould be under the guidance of one familiar
with the route, for it is not plainly marked
and none but an experienced woodsman can
find the way alone. It leads through a forest,
the first 800 or 1,000 feet through dense under
growth under the trees, the mosses and ferns
forming a veritable carpet; above that the
woods are more open — at about 2,500 feet the
forest ceases. It is called Kosters Trail. The
first eminence or shoulder of the mountain is
near the timber line and is often spoken of as
the Mountain of the Cross, while above it
towers the Arrowhead, or the summit of
Verstovia, otherwise called at times Popoff
Mountain, or the Ponce, to a height of 3,216
feet, nearly a Russian verst, and from this it
derives its name. From the top an expanse
of island-studded waters stretch toward the
sea. Eastward crest after crest of glacier-
capped peaks rise for a hundred miles, north
ward the lofty summits of Mt. Crillon and Mt.
Fairweather may be seen at an elevation of
[107]

THE STORY OF SITKA
over 15,000 feet, equal in height to the highest
Alp of Switzerland. Around the base of the
Arrowhead, in July and August, are found a
myriad of wild flowers, carpeting the earth —
violets, daises, cyclamen, and a multitude of
others. These are the nearer points which may be
visited, but more extended journeys full of
new and varied interest, to Sergius Narrows
and Peril Straits or to the Place of Islands
and the Chicagof Mine to the northward, and
to Redfish Bay to the southward, may be made.

[108]

A. Battery No. 1.
B. Battery No. 2. Vralaskian Battery.
C. Blockhouse No. 1.
D. Blockhouse No. 2.
E. Blockhouse No. 3,
1. Warehouse.
2. Shop and Store.
3. Subsistence Storehouse.
4. Tannery for Furs.
6. Barracks, three stories.

MAP OF SITKA — OCTOBER, 1867

9. Wash and Bath House.
11, 12. 13, 14, 15, 22, and 23
16. School Building.
18. Market for Indians.
19. Lime Kiln.
20. Unfinished Barracks.
25. Bakery, Joinery, etc.
61. Officers' Lodgings, two stories.
66. Laundry.
74. Sawmill.
75. Tannery.
76. Unfinished Bath House.

Dock Yard and Buildings.

77.
00.
102.
103.
116, 118.121.
122.
123.

120.

Water Flour Mill.
Aleutian Dwellings.
Bishop's House, two stories.
Hospital, two stories.
117. Arbors on Public Gardens
Powder Magazine.
School Building (or Indians.
Observatory on Japonski Island
C^rS TiCZlZT' Garde"' H°tbedS' etc"
Hurhan0d%?oUleSUBriCdge°n (K°l0SWan ChUrCh)'

3 9002 00813 8894

oo .fe