Men and dogs outside McQuesten and Company trading post, Circle, Alaska, circa 1895

• Other Authors: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Division
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Trading posts > Alaska > Circle; Log buildings > Alaska > Circle; Dogs > Alaska > Circle; Group portraits; McQuesten and Company; Circle (Alaska) > Buildings; structures; etc; Fort Nelson; Harper; McQuesten; Yukon; Athabascan; Mayo; Yukon river; Alaska
• Online Access: http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/alaskawcanada/id/96

On verso of image: Jack McQuesten's Trading Post, 1890's. PH Coll 1154.87 Jack McQuesten was an American, and a miner. With his two partners, Al Mayo and Arthur Harper, he planned to establish several trading posts on the Yukon river. Jack's wife Katherine was one of the first native women to form a bridge between the Native culture and that of the "white man" who came to settle Alaska. Kate was an Athabascan native. As a girl, she attended school at the Russian Mission school in Ikogmiut. This is where, one summer, she met Jack, her husband to be. Jack's partners, Al Mayo and Arthur Harper married soon after their arrival in Alaska. Al Mayo married a Native woman named Margaret, and Arthur Harper married Margaret's cousin Jennie. When Jack met Katherine he still hadn't found a wife. When he met Kate he knew she was the girl for him. Four years after they met, they married. At that time Kate was only 18 and Jack was 42 years old. In 1886 the McQuestens, Mayos, and Harpers established Fort Nelson in Yukon Territory. When the group moved to Forty Mile Kate became famous for her vegetable gardens. Knowing not only her Native tongue but Russian and English as well helped her make many friends. She organized many social events which were well attended. Kate and Jack had a large family of eight children. In 1891 Kate gave birth to the first of her children, Crystal, in a tent outside her home. When Jack died in 1910, Kate began to manage her husband's considerable estate. She moved with two of her daughters to Berkeley where she lived until her death in 1918. [Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/11313/Early_History/Native_Alaskans/katherine.html]