Children of the Gold Rush
Children
were few and precious in the Gold Rush settlements. Author Edith Tyrell,
in her memoirs of Dawson, tells of a miner who became angry with her husband
for some unknown reason, and when pressed to explain, replied, "You walked
by my cabin today: you had a little child by the hand, and you didn't
come in. It's years since I've heard a child speak or felt a little hand
in mine." When the man grasped their daughter's hand, tears rolled down
his cheeks, he left her a prize nugget as a gift. The child was overwhelmed
with gifts during their short stay in the Yukon. Even more rare were the
births of children. One of the main attractions of the 1900 Fourth of
July parade in Nome was the decorated carriage that held the first white
children born there. Tyrell also related the story of the three Klondike
miners who discovered a dying woman with a new born baby in a deserted
cabin on Christmas Eve. The young father returned shortly with a doctor
but collapsed when he found his wife had died. The miners were charged
with bringing the baby to the safety of their settlement on Eldorado Creek,
and finding an experienced woman to tend the little tyke, whom they christened
Edna Eldorado. Any settlement that had more than a few children somehow
managed to provide a school. There were often more children than expected.
In 1900 the school in Nome had nearly 50 students even though residents
of the community only expected eight or ten; in 1896 Circle City had an
enrollment of 36 when hardly a dozen were anticipated. There were no textbooks
available in Circle so the children used stray pages from novels, scraps
of newspaper, bibles and anything that had words on it.
Back
to index of stories.
Used with
permission.
Gold Rush Centennial Task Force, State of Alaska.
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