.
.
George W. Palmer an Alaskan Pioneer
1855-1930
You are welcome to link back to this page, however, do not repost or republish it
without the permission of the author, Coleen Mielke.
coleen_mielke@hotmail.com
G. W. Palmer Store
in Knik (pre-1918)
It is well known that over 200 Midwestern hardship families arrived in the Matanuska Valley as part of President Roosevelt's “New Deal”. What is not as well known is the history behind the towns namesake, George W. Palmer, a rugged, pre-Klondike, Alaskan pioneer. Palmer was the first, permanent, white resident in the Matanuska Valley, settling in Knik in 1894. He was the first private entrepreneur, with a tiny trading post on the Matanuska River in 1898. He built the first warehouse at Ship Creek in 1901 and he was the first person to commercially grow vegetables in the Matanuska Valley in 1900. George Palmer was also the first U. S. Postmaster for Knik, starting in 1904.
Born in Pennsylvania
in 1855, Palmer was the youngest son of Amos C. and Lavina Palmer of Amity,
Pennsylvania. There has been some confusion regarding what year Palmer
actually came to Alaska. Don Irwin’s 1968 (undocumented) claim that Palmer
ran a store for the Alaska Commercial Company (ACC) at Knik from 1875 to
1882 is incorrect; Palmer was not in Alaska that early. The 1900 Federal
Census for Knik recorded that Palmer came to Alaska in May, 1893. Another
source, Orville Herning, who kept a diary of his years in Knik and Wasilla
from 1898 to 1947 (and who was one of Palmer’s contemporaries) confirms that
Palmer came to Alaska around 1893. We can surmise that a combination
of gold fever and the stateside "Panic Depression of 1893" probably brought
Palmer to Alaska.
Palmer's first summer in Alaska, he was part of a small group of men who discovered gold on the Kenai Peninsula. His claim was on a small tributary of Resurrection Creek, later named Palmer Creek. He worked at a variety of trades his first years in Alaska, such as harvesting beach coal, at Point Campbell and Tyonek, which he sold at Knik. He hauled freight, with horses, into the Willow Creek Mining District for the hundreds of prospectors that began pouring into the area in 1898. He bought and sold Dena'ina furs, snd lightered boat freight from the big steamers anchored in the deeper waters of Knik Harbor and brought it to Knik.
Ever the entrepreneur, Palmer built the first privately owned general store in the Matanuska Valley. Exactly what year the store was built is debated, however, it was operating in 1898. It stood on the east side of the Matanuska River near the present day George Palmer Memorial Bridge (the first bridge on the OLD Glenn Highway exiting the town of Palmer). It has been suggested that he chose that location with hopes of intercepting the growing Copper River Ahtna trade before it reached the ACC store at Knik. Jack Tyone, who visited the self service store as a youth, described it as a small, unmanned, log building full of food and clothing packed in tin boxes. The store operated on the honor system and relied on customers leaving payment for items purchased. The Tyone family frequented the store as late as 1910-1915. It is presumed that Palmer operated the Matanuska store and his Knik store simultaneously. Small foundation remnants of the building could still be seen in the early 1960’s.
George Palmer was the
ACC agent at Knik in 1900. When the ACC closed its stores at Knik, Susitna,
Kenai, Kasilof and Seldovia in 1901, it left a huge area of south central
Alaska without local access to commercial food and supplies. Palmer, no
doubt recognizing the opportunity, decided to open his own store at Knik.
He used the original ACC building, but ordered all new merchandise
and opened in the fall of 1901.
The discovery of gold at the end of the 19th century changed Knik from a sleepy trading post to a commercial and transportation hub for south central Alaska. Palmer’s store was a critical re-supply stop for hundreds of prospectors traveling overland from Seward to the Willow Creek, Yentna, Chulitna, Gold Creek, McKinley and Iditarod gold strike areas by foot, dog team and pack horse. Palmer sold dried fish for the dogs and locally harvested wild hay for the horses. To the prospectors, he sold perishable necessities like butter, lard, bacon and fresh moose meat. He also sold luxuries such as moccasins, tobacco, lantern globes, and coal oil. Mail service was another luxury for the homesick gold miners. George Palmer was the unofficial postmaster in Knik as early as 1900 and was officially appointed first U. S. Postmaster of Knik on October 29, 1904. Mail from “home” was almost as important to the trail weary prospectors as their gold which they entrusted Palmer to mail to the bank at Seward.
While Palmer made his
living selling to the non-native population of Knik, he preferred to surround
himself with the Dena’ina. He purchased fox, wolf, otter and lynx pelts
from the them which he sold in Seattle. He bought fish, sheep skins, beaver
skins, smoked-tanned moose hides and caribou hides from the Dena’ina and
sold them to prospectors. He operated various remote mail contracts which
he subcontracted to the Dena’ina.
Palmer was the financial intermediary for the town of Knik. Prospectors hired the Dena’ina to harvest logs, whipsaw lumber, break trail, haul freight and guide. Cash seldom exchanged hands for this work, instead, prospectors set up credit accounts at Palmer’s store which the Dena’ina could charge against. These accounts were reconciled when the prospectors came in from the mines.
In 1898, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) established an agricultural experimental station in Sitka with Dr. C. C. Georgeson in charge. One purpose of the station was to determine what crops could be grown in Alaska. The station sent seeds to a variety of settlements and roadhouses throughout south central Alaska. George Palmer participated in this program by hiring some Dena'ina friends to prepare a garden plot and plant seeds in an empty lot in front of his store. He reported his successes and failures from 1900-1903, in a series of letters, which were published in the USDA Alaska Annual Report. His prolific gardens at Knik grew potatoes, lettuce, rutabagas, kale, radishes, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, and turnips, which he sold to eager, vitamin starved prospectors. In his letters to the USDA, Palmer said, in spite of his inexperience and lack of fertilizer, he was able to grow enough vegetables to last a winter season. He also reported that he had shared the extra seeds with local Natives and suggested that the program provide additional seeds and growing instructions so the Natives could further supplement their diet of wild game.
By 1901, freight destined
for south central Alaska was transported by large ships which anchored
offshore near present day Ship Creek, in an area then known as Knik Harbor
(later referred to as Knik Anchorage). Once anchored, smaller local boats
would transfer freight to various settlements. If no local boats were available
or if there was inclement weather, freight was dropped off on a beach or
left at the most convenient dock, which was usually at Seldovia, Tyonek,
or Sunrise. This meant long dangerous sailing voyages for people trying to
find and retrieve their merchandise. It was common for freight to sit on
a dock for weeks before it was located and retrieved by its rightful owner.
To alleviate this freight storage problem, Palmer built the first warehouse
at the mouth of Ship Creek in 1901. In 1907, he built the first wharf at Knik,
which allowed freight and passengers to be loaded and unloaded more efficiently.
Palmer’s first schooner, the "C. T. Hill", arrived at Knik Harbor June 7, 1913. Leaving his store in the hands of a clerk, Palmer sailed the schooner from Goose Bay to San Francisco, two or three times a summer and brought back merchandise for his store. These buying trips generally took place in May, July and October. In the spring of 1915, Palmer traveled to Seward, by dog sled, where he boarded a steamer to San Francisco to purchase a newer schooner named "The Lucy". Palmer and "The Lucy" arrived at Goose Bay on May 3, 1915. Part of that trips cargo was a $2,000 printing press purchased for Knik’s first newspaper (Cook Inlet Pioneer), funded by Frank Cannon, Dr. Haus, Dr. Leopold David, Orville Herning, Mr. Needham and George Palmer.
Palmer routinely anchored his schooner at Goose Bay while offloading his freight. Occasionally, he had the empty schooner towed to Knik, however, getting any boat to the Knik wharf was complicated. Even coast-wise pilots with (nearly) flat bottomed boats, had to synchronize their route with high tide to avoid getting stuck in Knik Arm’s silty shallows. Anchoring at Goose Bay allowed Palmer to leisurely (and economically) lighter his freight to Knik using his own scow. A fearless boatman, Palmer made routine trips from Knik to Tyonek, Sunrise, Hope and Seldovia, bucking the relentless Turnagain Arm wind and tide, in a small open gas boat.
A hard working man, Palmer’s store always came first until 1906 when he built a saloon and started drinking heavily, a common occurrence in early Knik. During these multi-day drinking binges, he would abuse his wife and neglect his business. In 1908, his drinking problem resulted in the temporary closure of his store because he had not ordered merchandise.
Financial tally sheets, kept by a Willow Creek miner, list merchandise purchased from Palmer’s Knik store in 1901: tin ware 60¢, blanket 75¢, 52 lb. moose meat $5.20, stove $8, leather shirt $3.50, 10 lb. salmon 25¢, 15 gallons cranberries $1.10, 80 lb. potatoes $2.40, horse medicine 25¢, smoke-tanned gloves 50¢, and 85 lb. turnips $2.55. By 1905, Palmer was using the Bank of Seward to finance the merchandise purchases for his store. Loan application papers list Palmer’s collateral as: “My entire stock of merchandise, located at Knik, consisting primarily of dry goods, notions, boots, shoes, hats, caps, hardware, groceries, feed, flour, furs and any other articles kept by me, for sale, in my store and warehouse at Knik”. The interest charged on the loans was 1% per month. Palmer’s 1905 loan of $5,000 was repaid within two months, his 1906 loan of $8,000 was repaid within three months and his 1907 loan of $6,000 was repaid within three months.
Aleksandr Iaroshevich was the visiting Russian Orthodox priest at Knik in the winter of 1894. His journal mentions only two “Americans” living at Knik that winter, one was an ACC agent named A. Creason and the other was a gold miner named George Palmer. Palmer was living with a thirty-five year old, Russian-speaking Dena’ina widow who had three children (Mecda, Ishca and Nicolai). During confession, the woman told Father Iaroshevich she was living with Palmer which resulted in a stern reprimand about her “illicit life”. Upset by the priests intrusion, Palmer cornered the priest and asked him, “What right do you have to interfere in the life of American citizens?” He then punched the priest, twice, in the face. Fearing for his life, the priest immediately left Knik with his sick wife and young children and fled to Tyonek, taking five Dena’ina Indians along to protect his family during the 70+ mile journey. The priests records show that George Palmer took Pelageia Chanilkhiga as his “concubine” on December 19, 1894
Pelageia and daughter Mary and Palmer's biological daughter Annie
Pelageia gave birth to a daughter (not Palmer's child) shortly after moving in with Palmer. The mothers name for the baby girl was Bellia, however, Palmer later re-named the child Mary, most likely after his sister. He and Pelageia had two biological children together, Annie and John Bud. A well respected woman, Pelageia died in 1902 and was given a large funeral at Eska.
Palmer’s second wife is referred to only as “Palmer’s squaw” in the Herning journals. She apparently bore Palmer no children and died at Knik in 1905. Two weeks after her death, Palmer sent his two biological children, as well as his step-daughter Mary, to the Women’s American Baptist Home Mission Society Orphanage on Wood Island near Kodiak. In a letter of introduction, dated February 22, 1905, Palmer wrote, “Of the three children now living with me, I am the father of two. The oldest, Mary by name, was born shortly after the mother came to live with me. She was born April 3, 1895 at 2 o’clock A.M. Annie was born September 11, 1897, 20 minutes past 9 P.M. Bud or John was born September 12, 1900, 6 o’clock A.M.”
Little is known about the fate of George Palmer’s children. The Seward Gateway reported that his step-daughter, Mary, was near death after falling from a streetcar while visiting Palmer on one of his fur selling trips to Seattle in 1908. However, she eventually recovered and was at the Wood Island orphanage in 1912. Annie and John Bud left the Wood Island orphanage in 1910 and started school in Tacoma in 1911. Annie, was married to Raymond Huffman of San Francisco when she died in 1948; her death certificate stated she had lived in California for 30 years. She is buried at Cypress Lawn Cemetery there. In 1918, John Bud registered for the World War I draft at Seldovia. It is not known whether he remained in Alaska., but most reports say he died young.
There are no records regarding Palmer’s two oldest step-children, Micda and Ishca. Palmer’s stepson, Nicolai, beat Talkeetna Stepan to death at Talkeetna Lake in 1917. He also killed Anchorage City Police officer, Harry Cavanaugh, in 1924 and was subsequently killed by Cavanaugh’s deputy, Charlie Watson.
George Palmer (white hat)
A Dena’ina woman named Anastasia was Palmer’s fourth wife. She was born about 1883, probably in Kenai. Palmer’s will lists her as Nestasia, although she was also known as “Kit”. She spoke no English and Palmer’s probate records (1930) refer to her as mentally child-like and unable to care for herself. He provided for Nestasia’s care in his will through an administrator, leaving her $100 a month for the rest of her life, although she received far less due to lawyers.
By 1912, Knik was a thriving
community with a post office, school, three hotels, four stores, pool
hall, two saloons, church, two cafe’s, candy shop, barbershop, doctor,
blacksmith, tin shop, boat shop, assay office, dog kennels, laundry and
a jail. The boom at Knik was doomed to bust when the railroad was
built through south central Alaska in 1916-1917.
In 1916, the small town of Wasilla was born. Originally a railroad construction camp, Wasilla was located where the new railroad tracks intersected the Carle Wagon Road, fifteen miles closer (than Knik) to the Willow Creek mine’s. Wasilla was now transportation central for gold miners and homesteaders alike and Knik turned into a ghost town almost overnight. The majority of Knik residents immediately dismantled their buildings and moved them to Wasilla or Anchorage. Only a few old-timers remained in Knik, one of those that stayed behind was George W. Palmer.
A year later, at 2 A.M.
on May 15, 1918, fire destroyed Palmer’s Knik store and the ten attached
buildings. Only his home and two other buildings survived. He told reporters
that he had plans to rebuild his store with insurance money, but he
never did. Shortly after the fire, Palmer got a visit from a Washington
business man named Elmer Hemrich. Hemrich proposed that he and Palmer
go into business together and build the first major clam cannery on Cook
Inlet.
In the fall of 1919, Palmer and Hemrich acquired financing from the Bank of Alaska and began construction at Snug Harbor on Chisik Island. The cannery hired seasonal Native workers from Tyonek, Iliamna, Seldovia, Kodiak, Ninilchik and Kenai to harvest clams from the beach at Polly Creek and paid them $1.25 for each five-gallon box. The cannery venture was fraught with problems and was not the financial success that Palmer hoped for. In 1921 he sold his half interest in the project to G. P. Halferty’s Pioneer Canneries. Without Palmer’s backing, Elmer Hemrich lost the cannery to foreclosure that same year.
In the fall of 1921, Palmer
and William N. Dawson opened the Dawson and Palmer General Store in Kenai.
Dawson died one year later and Palmer spent the next five years in Probate
Court trying to get full ownership of the store (he finally succeeded in
1927).
In 1916, the first load
of coal was hauled over the new Matanuska branch line from Dick Daugherty’s
coal mine on Moose Creek to the new town of Anchorage. On that railroad
line, eight miles north of the Matanuska Junction and about a mile from Palmer’s
earliest Matanuska store, was an unnamed railroad section house and proposed
post office. In 1917, an Anchorage newspaper contest chose to name the post
office and section house after George Palmer. His adventures as a gold miner,
entrepreneur, boat captain, trapper, postmaster, agriculturist and freighter
genuinely qualified him as a true Alaskan pioneer and ultimately worthy
of being the namesake of the town of Palmer, Alaska.
** The Resurrection Creek tributary, where Palmer discovered gold in 1893 was later named Palmer Creek. Today, if you drive to the town of Hope, you will see PALMER CREEK ROAD that leads back to Palmer Creek.
*** Please respect the amount of research it took to write this article. Do not repost or publish without my permission.
George Palmer's Parents:
Amos C. Palmer born 1808 died 1886 Erie County, Pennsylvania
Lovina (Bau or Barr) Palmer born 1819 died 1873 Erie County, Pennsylvania
George Palmer's siblings:
David Palmer born born 1843-
Walter Palmer born 1844-1907 Civil War 8/8/1862-1030/1863 Army
Co. K 83rd Reg. Penn. Infantry
Mary Palmer born 1849-
Helen Palmer born 1852-1928 Married Fred Carter, both buried in Anchorage,
Alaska
