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| Ruth Matson's Story of 1962 Visit With Pioneer Margaret Taggart. |
Ruth Matson's orginal working account of Gustavus visit with Margaret Taggart (Ruff). Documents 1914 arrival of 3 Honeymooning couples--Bill & Margaret Taggart,Verne & Janie Henry, John "Jack" & Bernice "Blanche" Davis. Great depictions of early life at Strawberry Pt.
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Earliest Settlers of Gustavus
Many years ago, in the year of 1914, Jack Davis and his friend an Old Sea Captain, were visiting, discussing this and that. The Sea Captain made a remark that if he could ever do it, there was one spot of land, just North of Icy Straits, in Alaska where he would like to take up land as a homestead and make it his home when he retired. To him it looked like a lovely paradise on earth.
They talked of this place, known locally as Strawberry Point. Jack had just fallen into some money and was looking for a way to invest1 it. The more he thought of this place, the Old Sea Captain had described, the more he liked the idea of taking up the land and getting a couple o his pals, and homesteading it and starting their own little empire there.
He contacted two of his friends, Bill Taggart and Verne Henry and told them of his dream. He had money enough for horses, equipment and to keep them going for a time. How about the three of them going in together on the project?
They were delighted with the plan. Taggart was married, his bride of one month, Margaret, was in Seattle. Jack Davis was engagedto Blanche, a girl in Minnesota and Verne Henry was engaged to Janey,
a young lady in Seattle. And so, it was arranged that Verne Henry and Bill Taggart would stay out at Strawberry Point and set up a camp to use for the summer and by fall they would have the first cabin
ready for the three couples to live in until they could get the two other cabins ready for the other two couples to live in.
Meantime, Jack Davis would go back to Minneapolis where he would marry Blanche, his fiancée, then they would go to Seattle where Margaret and Janey would join them then the four of them would proceed to Juneau. In Juneau they would be met by Bill Taggart and Verne Henry.
"Well, the first thing we had to do, then in Juneau was to get Janey married to Verne Henry,” Margaret told me as she related the story. There was a little log church about the place in Juneau where the Old Juneau Hotel now stands and that was where the wedding was held. Now to get supplies, then on out to their new home at Strawberry Point.
When they got down to the dock to load on their supplies, their small boat was gone, and there was no sign of it. Eventually they got a seine boat to take them and their supplies out to their projected home at Strawberry Point.
When they had arrived the boys, eager to show Jack their progress hurried ashore leaving the girls on the boat. Extending out into Icy Straits here, there is a great mud flat. As the girls watched the boys receding in the distance, one of the girls became panicky and the tears begin to stream down her face.
"Now, if anyone calls this a paradise, I can tell you that I have another name for it!" she cried.
Margaret, though she was the youngest of the three, she had been married one month longer than any of the others and she felt the responsibility for the new settlement rested largely on her shoulders so she tried to reassure the unhappy girl, but not with too much success.
Finally the boys returned to the boat and unloaded the supplies and took the girls and all up to the camp they had made up Salmon River. They found it really beautiful and Janey, now with smiles began to look forward happily, to their new adventure.
The first project was to build a large log cabin, which could house the three couples that first winter, then after that, each of the young couples would choose the land they wanted for their homestead and get their cabins built on their own land, so they could prove up on their homesteads. Meantime they had their camp on the banks of the River.
The cabins they build that summer and fall was really a log house with a large kitchen, dining room and living room area, with three small, rooms so each couple could have the privacy of a room apiece. It was really a lovely log house, not a cabin, and it was still standing until just a very few years ago and Margaret told me that they had a happy winter in it.
On Saturday nights, they would all dress up in their best finery and the girls would even put the then popular beauty marks on their cheeks, they would all pop corn and play some game of cards popular with the group and have a happy time.
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| Ruth Matson's Story of 1962 Visit With Pioneer Margaret Taggart. |
Ruth Matson's orginal working account of Gustavus visit with Margaret Taggart (Ruff). Documents 1914 arrival of 3 Honeymooning couples--Bill & Margaret Taggart,Verne & Janie Henry, John "Jack" & Bernice "Blanche" Davis. Great depictions of early life at Strawberry Pt.
|
Earliest Settlers of Gustavus
Many years ago, in the year of 1914, Jack Davis and his friend an Old Sea Captain, were visiting, discussing this and that. The Sea Captain made a remark that if he could ever do it, there was one spot of land, just North of Icy Straits, in Alaska where he would like to take up land as a homestead and make it his home when he retired. To him it looked like a lovely paradise on earth.
They talked of this place, known locally as Strawberry Point. Jack had just fallen into some money and was looking for a way to invest1 it. The more he thought of this place, the Old Sea Captain had described, the more he liked the idea of taking up the land and getting a couple o his pals, and homesteading it and starting their own little empire there.
He contacted two of his friends, Bill Taggart and Verne Henry and told them of his dream. He had money enough for horses, equipment and to keep them going for a time. How about the three of them going in together on the project?
They were delighted with the plan. Taggart was married, his bride of one month, Margaret, was in Seattle. Jack Davis was engagedto Blanche, a girl in Minnesota and Verne Henry was engaged to Janey,
a young lady in Seattle. And so, it was arranged that Verne Henry and Bill Taggart would stay out at Strawberry Point and set up a camp to use for the summer and by fall they would have the first cabin
ready for the three couples to live in until they could get the two other cabins ready for the other two couples to live in.
Meantime, Jack Davis would go back to Minneapolis where he would marry Blanche, his fiancée, then they would go to Seattle where Margaret and Janey would join them then the four of them would proceed to Juneau. In Juneau they would be met by Bill Taggart and Verne Henry.
"Well, the first thing we had to do, then in Juneau was to get Janey married to Verne Henry,” Margaret told me as she related the story. There was a little log church about the place in Juneau where the Old Juneau Hotel now stands and that was where the wedding was held. Now to get supplies, then on out to their new home at Strawberry Point.
When they got down to the dock to load on their supplies, their small boat was gone, and there was no sign of it. Eventually they got a seine boat to take them and their supplies out to their projected home at Strawberry Point.
When they had arrived the boys, eager to show Jack their progress hurried ashore leaving the girls on the boat. Extending out into Icy Straits here, there is a great mud flat. As the girls watched the boys receding in the distance, one of the girls became panicky and the tears begin to stream down her face.
"Now, if anyone calls this a paradise, I can tell you that I have another name for it!" she cried.
Margaret, though she was the youngest of the three, she had been married one month longer than any of the others and she felt the responsibility for the new settlement rested largely on her shoulders so she tried to reassure the unhappy girl, but not with too much success.
Finally the boys returned to the boat and unloaded the supplies and took the girls and all up to the camp they had made up Salmon River. They found it really beautiful and Janey, now with smiles began to look forward happily, to their new adventure.
The first project was to build a large log cabin, which could house the three couples that first winter, then after that, each of the young couples would choose the land they wanted for their homestead and get their cabins built on their own land, so they could prove up on their homesteads. Meantime they had their camp on the banks of the River.
The cabins they build that summer and fall was really a log house with a large kitchen, dining room and living room area, with three small, rooms so each couple could have the privacy of a room apiece. It was really a lovely log house, not a cabin, and it was still standing until just a very few years ago and Margaret told me that they had a happy winter in it.
On Saturday nights, they would all dress up in their best finery and the girls would even put the then popular beauty marks on their cheeks, they would all pop corn and play some game of cards popular with the group and have a happy time.
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