John W. Clark of Nushagak, Alaska, 1846–1896 U.S
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National Park Service — U.S. Department of the Interior Lake Clark National Park and Preserve Times of and Life The JOHN W. CLARK (1846–1896) was one of the fi rst Euroamerican residents of Alaska, arriving at St. Michael with the Western Union Telegraph Company Russo-American Expedition to build a worldwide telegraph line in 1866. John W. Clark W. John Th e Life and Times of He was a distinguished trader on the Yukon, Kuskokwim and Nushagak Rivers between 1868 and 1896. Clark lived at Nushagak nearly twenty years and was a founder of the world-renowned Bristol Bay commercial salmon fi shing industry. He was an entrepreneurial fur trader and merchant and likely the fi rst English speaking resident of the Bristol Bay region. Clark was a close friend of the Native people of western John W. Clark Alaska and traveled widely about the region by dog sled and baidarka. He married and established a large extended family in western Alaska. Despite having Lake Clark, Lake Clark Pass and Clarks Point named after him, very little is known about Clark’s early life. For the fi rst time, some of Clark’s enigmatic life is of Nushagak, revealed in this biography of a pioneer of nineteenth century western Alaska. September 26, 1891: At Nushagak…there has lived for nearly a score of years a man whose personal qualifi cations for a worldly career, whose reading, breeding, manly characteristics, and genial traits have been a loss to the world for all time. I refer to John W. Clark. His object in devoting himself to such a 1846–1896 Alaska, hermit life has not been material gain, but his peculiar, thoughtful qualities of mind have given him that taste for solitude and the natural grandeur of Alaska which has been displayed by many other brilliant men who have visited that mysterious Territory. —Alfred B. Schanz, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper COVER PHOTOGRAPHS: Alaska, Nushagak, of Watercolor painting of Nushagak village by Henry W. Eliott, circa 1879, with the newly constructed Alaska Commercial Company buildings on the back cover. Eliott reported the Nushagak trading station specialized in reindeer hides and walrus ivory. Courtesy of University of California, Berkeley, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. 1846–189 Front cover portrait of John W. Clark, circa 1887–1888. Courtesy of the Elizabeth Nicholson Butkovich Collection. 6 John B. Branson John B. John B. Branson Th e Life and Times of John W. Clark of Nushagak, Alaska, 1846–1896 U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Lake Clark National Park and Preserve 240 West 5th Avenue, Suite 236 Anchorage, Alaska 99501 As the nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has responsibility for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural and cultural resources. Th is includes fostering the conservation of our land and water resources, protecting our fi sh and wildlife, preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks and historical places, and providing for enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. Th e Cultural Resource Programs of the National Park Service have responsibilities that include stewardship of historic buildings, museum collections, archeological sites, cultural landscapes, oral and written histories, and ethnographic resources. Our mission is to identify, evaluate and preserve the cultural resources of the park areas and to bring an understanding of these resources to the public. Congress has mandated that we preserve these resources because they are important components of our national and personal identity. Research/Resources Management Report NPS/AR/CRR-2012-77 Published by the United States Department of the Interior National Park Service Lake Clark National Park and Preserve Date: 2012 ISBN: 978-0-9796432-6-2 Cover: “Nushagak, Alaska 1879, Nushagak River, Bristol Bay, Alaska, Reindeer and Walrus ivory trading station of the Alaska Commercial Co.,” watercolor by Henry W. Elliott, 17-237, courtesy of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, California. Inset: John W. Clark photographed in San Francisco circa 1887–1888. Photo courtesy of the Elizabeth Nicholson Butkovich Collection, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. Th e Life and Times of John W. Clark of Nushagak, Alaska, 1846–1896 John B. Branson Lake Clark National Park and Preserve 2012 A circa 1880s photograph that belonged to Clark and was annotated, possibly by him: “Eskimo caches or store houses with entrance to a hut.” Salmon hang from the left cache while the center cache has king salmon fi lets, or possibly seal skins, hanging from a drying pole. The column on the hill at Nushagak marks the grave of village founder Fedor Kolmakov. Photo courtesy of the Elizabeth Nicholson Butkovich Collection, U.S. National Park Service. v Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . vii GLOSSARY . x LIST OF MAPS . xiii INTRODUCTION . 1 TIMELINE OF THE LIFE OF JOHN W. CLARK. 5 CHAPTER 1: Obscure Roots. 7 CHAPTER 2: Th e Western Union Telegraph Company Russo-American Expedition, 1866–1867 . 15 CHAPTER 3: Th e Alaska Commercial Company and Trading on the Yukon River, 1868–1874 . 41 CHAPTER 4: Clark Trades on the Kuskokwim River, 1874–1878 . 49 CHAPTER 5: Clark Becomes Ensconced on Nushagak Bay, 1879 . 53 CHAPTER 6: Th e U.S. Signal Service-Smithsonian Years in Nushagak, 1881–1885 . 65 CHAPTER 7: Th e Demise of Charles McKay and His Legacy of Scientifi c Inquiry. 79 CHAPTER 8: Th e Moravian Missionaries Arrive at Nushagak Bay in 1884, and the Dawn of the Bristol Bay Canned Salmon Industry . 93 CHAPTER 9: Clark Marries, and Rival Churches Spar, 1887. 113 CHAPTER 10: Clark and the Bristol Bay Commercial Salmon Industry . 123 CHAPTER 11: Clark and the Wood River Fish Trap . .153 CHAPTER 12: Th e Alaska Commercial Company and Trader Clark . 159 CHAPTER 13: Clark and the Naming of Lake Clark, 1890–1891. 167 CHAPTER 14: Th e Last Years of John W. Clark of Nushagak . .199 vi THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN W. CLARK OF NUSHAGAK, ALASKA, 1846–1896 CHAPTER 15: Clark’s Contribution to Alaska History . .219 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 225 INDEX . 241 vii Acknowledgments LTHOUGH writing is essentially a solitary endeavor, a book such as this relies on the assistance and prior work of many others. I freely Aquote many other writers in order to fully fl esh-out the life and times of John W. Clark; James W. VanStone and John A. Hussey being two of the most important. Th ere are many other people and institutions due my gratitude for helping me every step of the way as I researched and wrote. First to credit are Tim Troll, Executive Director of the Nushagak- Mulchatna/Wood Tikchik Land Trust, with whom the National Park Service has a cooperative agreement to produce a biography of John W. Clark, and Jerry Liboff , expert on Bristol Bay history. Both encouraged me to write about Clark and freely shared their own research with me. Also, I want to thank Hjalmer “Ofi ” Olson, local historian and emeritus CEO of the Bristol Bay Native Corporation, for reading an early draft of the book and sharing his knowledge of Nushagak Bay history. Several Clark descendents gave me encouragement and material help in the form of family lore and the sharing of family photographs. First among those was the late Elizabeth Nicholson Butkovich, the last remain- ing grandchild of Clark at the time of her death on February 27, 2011, and her sons Herman Herrmann, Jr., and Dennis Herrmann. In addition, the late John W. Nicholson supported my research about his grandfather, and his sons William and Hans Nicholson have been very helpful. Robin Samuelsen of Dillingham, John Clark’s great-great grandson, read a draft manuscript and gave me much encouragement. Another direct Clark descendent, a great-great-granddaughter, Georgia Tolbert of Anchorage, who was a history student of mine forty- three years ago at the Bristol Bay High School in Naknek, documented her Th iele families’ kindred ties to Clark for me while he was trader on the lower Kuskokwim River in the 1870s. A debt of gratitude is also due to Jo Antonson, Alaska State Histo- rian, who encouraged me to use the context of Clark’s life in Alaska to sup- plement the paucity of primary source materials. Roz Goodman, a librarian, read the fi rst draft and made important suggestions to improve the book. Kathie Arndt of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, Elmer viii THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN W. CLARK OF NUSHAGAK, ALASKA, 1846–1896 E. Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Andrei Znamenski of the University of Memphis both kindly provided me previ- ously unpublished facts about Clark translated from Russian Orthodox Church records. Ann Fienup-Riordan shared some of her research with me. Ray Hudson read the manuscript and off ered good advice. Ray also put me in contact with San Francisco area researcher Marvin Collins, who gener- ously shared materials he had on Clark and on nineteenth-century Bristol Bay history. Historian Walt Borneman read the manuscript and off ered some constructive advice. John Weise shared his genealogy of the Vasili Orlov family of Nushagak, which signifi cantly adds to the knowledge of the background of many Clark descendents. A special thanks is due to Sharon Prien, li- brarian at the Alaska Resources Library & Information Service (ARLIS), who kept me in books and articles related to nineteenth-century western Alaska history. Kay Shelton, formerly of the Alaska State Historical Library in Juneau and other staff there, helped me improve the manuscript, includ- ing Anastasia Tarmann. Bruce Parham, Director of the Regional Archives at the National Archives and Records Administration Anchorage offi ce; Steve Henrikson, Curator of Collections of the Alaska State Museum; and Aron Crowell, Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Arctic Studies Center in Anchorage, have been of great assistance.