125 Years of Ministry in the
Chilkat Valley
Friday
-- Sunday, July 21-23, 2006
Photos of Anniversary Celebration
Opening Reception at Sheldon Museum Special Music during Celebration Program
Salmon Bake Picnic at Rainbow Glacier Camp
Dorothelle Fites & Dr. Walter Soboleff Bells of the Sound Concert
(grandaughter of Carrie & Eugene Willard)
One Hundred Twenty Five Years of Ministry
And Continuing into the 21st Century
Introduction
To Bring A Good Message To The Chilkat People
S. Hall Young planned to visit the Chilkat people
To prepare for a mission some day.
John Muir, too, longed to go to the North.
His object; to see Glacier Bay.
They sailed out of Wrangell, fall seventy-nine,
In a six-fathom red cedar canoe.
The Stickeen’s great Chief Towa-att, a new Christian,
Owned the boat, and skippered the crew.
Their etiquette expert was Chief Kadashan,
Who was kin to the Chief at Klukwan.
Sitka Charley was hunter, damp-maker, and cook;
To interpret, they took Stickeen John.
While Muir and Young carried “Boston-Man” food,
The crew took dried salmon and seal.
For a potlatch, they stowed a leaf-tobacco aboard,
Plus sugar and rice for a meal.
Tow-a-att was the steersman—their sail hoisted high—
They went first to Kake, then Angoon.
Then on up to Hoonah. On all of that trip
The guides would repeat, like a tune:
“Oh, yes, these are pretty good Indians,” they’d say,
“But the Chilkats are best –you will see!”
They were anxious to see for themselves, but went first
Where the ice came right down to the sea.
A sunrise in Glacier Bay made them declare
As the beauty grew, mile after mile,
This “most wonderful room in the gallery of God”
Made the difficult trip worth their while.
It was easy to tell who was boss when they stopped
And argued about the tent site,
Because old Tow-a-att stuck the mast in the ground
That’s where they’d camp for the night.
They visited Chilkats and Hoonahs they met—
Young preached where they happened to be—
Then Davidson Glacier’s impressive white fan
Appeared, stretching into the sea.
They landed—the crew unpacked their new clothes—
Cut their hair and got themselves dressed.
Eagle feathers in hats and flag flying high
Muir and Young felt that they looked their best.
On the 4th of November, just after noon,
They saw the first Chilkat lookout.
By “voice telegraph” he would call to the next,
Then, faintly, they’d hear the next shout.
Yendestakyeh folk dressed to receive visitors,
And each came out with a gun.
Soon bullets were falling around the canoe
The visitors wanted to run!
But Tow-a-att knew there were greetings, so said
“We’ll paddle right up to the shore!”
Then, dropping their guns, Chilkats lifted the boat,
Carried it, and the men to the door!
There Chief Donna-wak invited them in
And offered to give them a feast.
What followed was truly a “feast of fat things”
With salmon, potatoes, and grease.
They each had a Hudson’s bay bowl full of food
As each of the courses came by,
What they couldn’t eat was put in a box
That was stowed in their craft beached nearby.
They had salmon with seal-grease, and back fat of deer,
Small Russian potatoes in grease,
Wild rose-hips and berries topped off the meal—
A most satisfactory feast.
Chief Shathitch, the greatest of chiefs in Alaska
Sent word he’d be down from Klukwan.
It took a long while, but they all settled down
With a whole bale of blankets to sit on.
In a bright yellow blanket the big Chief came in
Turned slowly around in his track.
The words “To Chief Shathitch from his friend William Seward”
Was written across his broad back.
Next day Mr. Young preached most of the day,
Helped by Tow-a-att and Kadishan.
Then Muir would talk about brotherhood
And the beautiful, foodful land.
Other times Young had told a new people about
Christ and the good God above,
But never had felt more keenly the joy
Of the message he brought them of love.
Donna-wak, Skundoo-oo and Shathitch took time
To walk with them to the bay
To choose a place for the mission-to-be
On that eventful day.
They went to the place they called Dei-Shu—
Translated, it’s “End of the Trail” –
They promised a preacher and teacher would come
To the Chilkat folks without fail.
Young sent them a teacher the following year-
Sarah Dickinson, wife of a trader.
It wasn’t a lot, but it was a start;
Soon the effort would become greater.
Sheldon Jackson came up with the Willards, and built
A mission-house quite small and neat.
A churchbell arrived; Mrs. Willard believed
That it helped make the mission complete.
In sequence came school, hospital, and “home”,
And each in its turn did its job.
The church still is active, and doing its best
To praise and glorify God.
Elisabeth S. Hakkinen
For Presbytery, Fall 1979
Haines, Alaska
Back to Home PagePhotos of Anniversary Celebration
Opening Reception at Sheldon Museum Special Music during Celebration Program
Salmon Bake Picnic at Rainbow Glacier Camp
Dorothelle Fites & Dr. Walter Soboleff Bells of the Sound Concert
(grandaughter of Carrie & Eugene Willard)
One Hundred Twenty Five Years of Ministry
And Continuing into the 21st Century
Introduction
Jesus Christ
commands all believers to spread the good news of the gospel and to
make disciples of all the tribes, nations, and peoples of the
world. And Jesus gives wide discretion to individual churches in
how they are to go about fulfilling His great commission.
The purpose and mission of the Haines Presbyterian Church is to spread the good news of the gospel through worship and example, both locally and to the far corners of the earth. The Holy Spirit guided us to this purpose and mission in part from the example and witness of those courageous people who came to this valley 125 years ago, in order to spread the gospel to a remote and isolated "far corner of the earth."
Here is the history of those who came before us, and tells their story. We offer this history with the desire that as you learn about the 125 years of ministry in the Chilkat Valley, you will join us as we continue to spread the good news of God's love through Jesus Christ.
If you do not know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, we pray that these historical stories will encourage you to read the greatest story of all which is contained in the Holy Bible. This is the story of God's great love for us and His saving grace. If you are a disciple of Jesus, we pray that this history will inspire you and energize you to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus, as you continue to follow Him.
The story of the mission to the Chilkat area began like this:
About the first of November, 1879, S. Hall Young, pioneer missionary and naturalist John Muir, traveling in a long war-canoe with a crew of Christian Indians from Wrangell, paddled up Chilkat Inlet toward Y’hin-da’stachy near the present airport.
“When we got within long musket-shot of the village,” wrote Young, “we saw the Native men come rushing from their homes with guns in their hands… Then we were greeted by what seemed rather too warm a reception: a shower of bullets falling unpleasantly around us. Muir and I ceased to paddle, but Tow-a-att commanded, “Pull! Pull!” and slowly, amid the dropping bullets, we zig-zagged up the channel toward the village. As we drew near, came the question “Gu-su-wa-eh? Who are you? Whence do you come? What is your business here?” and Stickeen John shouted back in reply, “A great preacher-chief and a great ice-chief are come to bring you a good message!” As our prow touched the sand, here they came…charging down upon us with war-cries, as if they were going to take us prisoner. Then lifting up our canoe with us in it, they rushed up the bank to the chief’s house and set us down at the door.”
The “preacher-chief” was S. Hall Young, and the “ice-chief” was John Muir. They had been companions on the long journey to study, respectively, the Indians and the many glaciers. Dr. Young and John Muir, were feasted at a great banquet, to which the chiefs of the other villages were assembled, and the preaching began. The service lasted from early morning until midnight.
Young was to write later in his autobiography: “I offered them a missionary and teachers and had told them of my intention of building a new Christian town…I asked them to name a place where we could build this new town. They selected this harbor, and I formally took possession of it.”
Thus, the first Christian missionary arrived in the Chilkat country, and the town of Haines and the church had their beginning on the ground known as “Day-shu” – the end of the trail.
The following summer, 1880, Dr. Young commissioned Mrs. Sarah Dickinson, a Christian Tongass Indian woman, as teacher. Her husband, a white man who had no sympathy for mission work, established the trading post in Portage Cove. Mrs. Dickinson brought a supply of schoolbooks and Testaments, and began her school in a building erected by the trading company. Mrs. Willard was to later share, “Mrs. Sarah Dickinson says they came to school in the snow last winter in their bare feet with only a blanket around them.”
The year 1881 saw the mission fully established with the arrival of Rev. Eugene S. Willard with his wife, Caroline and small daughter.
With the Willards arrived the church bell, bearing the inscription CHILKAT MISSION 1881 FOUNDED BY SHELDON JACKSON AND S. HALL YOUNG.
Chiefs Don-a-wok and Shat-e-ritch welcomed the Willards and the children and were happy with the new school house acquired by S. Hall Young. The first teacher: “The Willards were armed with firm faith in addition to their youthful enthusiasm. They brought only a chair, a stand, a stove, and two goats for milk for their own use and the Mission Bell for the ministry. The materials for their house were on the same boat – but so was the intrepid Sheldon Jackson. He had been denied funds from the Mission Board for the Chilkat venture; he had borrowed money on his own signature to provide the Willards with a house. Going the second mile, he stayed to help erect it with his own hands.
Caroline Willard described the mission community in a letter written in August of the same year:
“Besides our own house here there are buildings put up by the trading company, one occupied by them, a trading post, the other purchased by the Mission Board. It is sixteen by thirty feet, of rough and knotty up-and-down boards, with four small windows which cannot be opened, and one small door and so frail I fear it will scarcely stand one good winter storm. We opened the school on Monday August 8 with twenty four pupils.”
Dr. Jackson’s borrowed funds were at last repaid through the efforts of concerned women of the Women’s Executive Committee for Home Missions, and in gratitude he renamed the mission in honor of the secretary, Mrs. F. E. Haines, and the post office was established here in that name; at length the town built up here was to bear the same designation.
The Willards found themselves almost completely isolated in their new home. The trader was not disposed to have any friendly feelings for the missionary and in time enmity rose to such a height that he refused to sell them any goods or even to allow them to bring in their own supplies – he controlled the only boat. Loneliness, hunger and illness made the settlement a difficult place in which to work. After the first exhausting winter they were rescued by steamer and taken to Sitka to recuperate. In her letters, which were published as the book Life in Alaska, Mrs. Willard spoke often of their love for the Native people and their hope to establish a boarding school for the children in Haines.
After an absence of nearly two years, the Willards returned to the Chilkats. Upon arrival “Mr. Willard preached that day on the coming of the Lord, illustrating it by our own return. How had they kept the word we had given them? How should the Savior find them keeping His word?”
The Chilkat people greeted them warmly, even though some did resist the mission efforts. Their work was manifest, however, in the words of Kah-sha, speaking to the minister: “Help me, Yealth-neddy; help me to say this: The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. This light of the world is Jesus, and He will shine into his soul.”
When the Willards returned from Sitka a young teacher, Miss Elizabeth L. “Bessie” Matthews came with them. Mrs. Willard reports, “Miss Matthews opened her school promptly and is doing thorough work. Although this is a busy season and the people are on the move continually, she has had sixty or seventy different pupils, from the baby of a month to the old Indian chief, though we didn’t count the babies. The people are much interested in the new teacher, but it was hard to make them understand about her. They kept asking me over and over where her minister was. Her sweet voice and ready accomplishments on the organ charm the people, and she is fast winning a place among them.” Bessie taught and served as matron of the boarding school.
The work was difficult – yet in those early years a church was organized through Willard’s patient ministry, and a boarding school arose on what would be the site of Haines House.
Meanwhile, Caroline herself learned to speak the Tlingit language along with her daughter Kotzie. This aided in the work. Later Caroline was to write a grammar of the tongue, and draw upon her experiences and her knowledge of Tlingit customs to write a novel, Kindashon’s Wife, based in the Chilkat area.
Mrs. “Kotzie” Willard Huntly, the first white child in the Chilkat country, recorded some of the Willard family experiences. She wrote: It was while we lived in ‘the little brown house’ before the big log Mission was built… Chief Klanot’s daughter died at Fort Wrangell, Mrs. McFarland’s mission school. Our people were very much stirred up over the matter. They said it would require the lives of two white children to make up for the chief’s daughter. My little brother and I were the only white missionary children, so our lives were forfeited for hers, so the council decided. Imagine the prayers offered up at Haines Mission! Then, at the last minute, before dismissing the council, Chief Klanot announced his decision that the execution would not be carried out after all. Phillip (Kindashon), who was Klanot’s nephew hurried out to tell Mother and Father the good news and with them offered
up thanks to the “Chief Unkowa Klen” (the Up Above Chief) for deliverance.”
In 1885 the Willards were moved to Juneau when this threat to the life of the children made it advisable. By this time their earnest missionary effort had brought a small group of Christian Natives to make their homes in the mission area – an attempt to establish the “new Christian town” which Young had promised the Chilkats. The operation of the school was transferred to the U.S. Government at that time.
Haines Bell
In May of 1881, the Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, one of the founders of the Presbyterian Mission in Alaska, ordered two large church bells from a foundry in Troy, New York. One was destined for the Chilkat Mission in what is now Haines. The mission bell was first rung in New Taku Mines, where the City of Juneau is now located. It was the very first Presbyterian bell rung in Alaska. Its tone was described by Caroline Willard, the first pastor’s wife and quite a musician, as “a perfect Presbyterian tone.”
Until 1904 the bell sat in a small tower outside the manse. In 1904 the bell was hoisted into a belfry and there it hung until 1961, when the belfry was removed and the bell was put on blocks in front of the church. The bell fell out of its frame in 1968 and was put into storage in Port Chilkoot. There it stayed until 1970 when it was taken out and installed in front of the present church. On July 18, 2006, the bell will be 125 years old. It is the only part of the original mission still in existence.
In the fall of 1921 a woman, even then past middle age but filled with the heroic spirit of a pioneer missionary, arrived in Haines. In her heart was a love for children and a love for the Heavenly Father who loves all his children. She had been sent to Haines by the Presbyterian Board of National Missions to transform an old abandoned hospital building which had been built by the Presbyterian Mission some years before, into a home for Alaskan foster children. With much work, cleaning and remodeling she did so, and even before she had the home entirely in order, children were being brought to her to be cared for. By 1927 Miss Emma A. Jackson called “Mother Jackson” by the children, was so successful as the first director of Haines House that the old hospital building was overflowing with children and another building, also three stories, was built. Wheeler Hall doubled the capacity of Haines House and through the years many out buildings, barn, silo, recreation hall and even a dairy herd were established. Extensive gardens during the summer provided much of the year around food.
As the mission grew and the activities increased, firm guidance was given by Presbyterian women working as directors under the Board of National Missions with a dedication to God and church that leads the Presbyterian women of today. Of the six directors from 1921 to 1951, only one, Rev. Knudsen was not a woman.
In 1954 there was seen the start of a trend to change Haines House from a home for foster children to a pre-delinquent remedial center. Though at the time in Alaska this seemed to be the largest need, Haines House and the town of Haines were unable to meet the en-suing problems. By 1959 the costs of keeping a qualified staff and
building maintenance cost were high. Word was received from the state that fire protection measures needed costly improvement. A decision must be made. In 1960 the Board of National Missions closed Haines House.
The current Presbyterian Church was built on the foundation of the Wheeler Hall addition to Haines House.
The purpose and mission of the Haines Presbyterian Church is to spread the good news of the gospel through worship and example, both locally and to the far corners of the earth. The Holy Spirit guided us to this purpose and mission in part from the example and witness of those courageous people who came to this valley 125 years ago, in order to spread the gospel to a remote and isolated "far corner of the earth."
Here is the history of those who came before us, and tells their story. We offer this history with the desire that as you learn about the 125 years of ministry in the Chilkat Valley, you will join us as we continue to spread the good news of God's love through Jesus Christ.
If you do not know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, we pray that these historical stories will encourage you to read the greatest story of all which is contained in the Holy Bible. This is the story of God's great love for us and His saving grace. If you are a disciple of Jesus, we pray that this history will inspire you and energize you to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus, as you continue to follow Him.
Beginnings
Long before the earliest recorded white men visited
the Chilkat Valley, the Chilkats, a Tlingit people, had flourishing
villages, a highly developed social system and a sophisticated trading
business established in the area. In 1881 there were four villages,
three on the Chilkat River and one on the Chilkoot River, each with its
own chief or chiefs and medicine-men, each its distinct nobility, and
each its own interests.The story of the mission to the Chilkat area began like this:
About the first of November, 1879, S. Hall Young, pioneer missionary and naturalist John Muir, traveling in a long war-canoe with a crew of Christian Indians from Wrangell, paddled up Chilkat Inlet toward Y’hin-da’stachy near the present airport.
“When we got within long musket-shot of the village,” wrote Young, “we saw the Native men come rushing from their homes with guns in their hands… Then we were greeted by what seemed rather too warm a reception: a shower of bullets falling unpleasantly around us. Muir and I ceased to paddle, but Tow-a-att commanded, “Pull! Pull!” and slowly, amid the dropping bullets, we zig-zagged up the channel toward the village. As we drew near, came the question “Gu-su-wa-eh? Who are you? Whence do you come? What is your business here?” and Stickeen John shouted back in reply, “A great preacher-chief and a great ice-chief are come to bring you a good message!” As our prow touched the sand, here they came…charging down upon us with war-cries, as if they were going to take us prisoner. Then lifting up our canoe with us in it, they rushed up the bank to the chief’s house and set us down at the door.”
The “preacher-chief” was S. Hall Young, and the “ice-chief” was John Muir. They had been companions on the long journey to study, respectively, the Indians and the many glaciers. Dr. Young and John Muir, were feasted at a great banquet, to which the chiefs of the other villages were assembled, and the preaching began. The service lasted from early morning until midnight.
Young was to write later in his autobiography: “I offered them a missionary and teachers and had told them of my intention of building a new Christian town…I asked them to name a place where we could build this new town. They selected this harbor, and I formally took possession of it.”
Thus, the first Christian missionary arrived in the Chilkat country, and the town of Haines and the church had their beginning on the ground known as “Day-shu” – the end of the trail.
The following summer, 1880, Dr. Young commissioned Mrs. Sarah Dickinson, a Christian Tongass Indian woman, as teacher. Her husband, a white man who had no sympathy for mission work, established the trading post in Portage Cove. Mrs. Dickinson brought a supply of schoolbooks and Testaments, and began her school in a building erected by the trading company. Mrs. Willard was to later share, “Mrs. Sarah Dickinson says they came to school in the snow last winter in their bare feet with only a blanket around them.”
The year 1881 saw the mission fully established with the arrival of Rev. Eugene S. Willard with his wife, Caroline and small daughter.
With the Willards arrived the church bell, bearing the inscription CHILKAT MISSION 1881 FOUNDED BY SHELDON JACKSON AND S. HALL YOUNG.
Chiefs Don-a-wok and Shat-e-ritch welcomed the Willards and the children and were happy with the new school house acquired by S. Hall Young. The first teacher: “The Willards were armed with firm faith in addition to their youthful enthusiasm. They brought only a chair, a stand, a stove, and two goats for milk for their own use and the Mission Bell for the ministry. The materials for their house were on the same boat – but so was the intrepid Sheldon Jackson. He had been denied funds from the Mission Board for the Chilkat venture; he had borrowed money on his own signature to provide the Willards with a house. Going the second mile, he stayed to help erect it with his own hands.
Caroline Willard described the mission community in a letter written in August of the same year:
“Besides our own house here there are buildings put up by the trading company, one occupied by them, a trading post, the other purchased by the Mission Board. It is sixteen by thirty feet, of rough and knotty up-and-down boards, with four small windows which cannot be opened, and one small door and so frail I fear it will scarcely stand one good winter storm. We opened the school on Monday August 8 with twenty four pupils.”
Dr. Jackson’s borrowed funds were at last repaid through the efforts of concerned women of the Women’s Executive Committee for Home Missions, and in gratitude he renamed the mission in honor of the secretary, Mrs. F. E. Haines, and the post office was established here in that name; at length the town built up here was to bear the same designation.
The Willards found themselves almost completely isolated in their new home. The trader was not disposed to have any friendly feelings for the missionary and in time enmity rose to such a height that he refused to sell them any goods or even to allow them to bring in their own supplies – he controlled the only boat. Loneliness, hunger and illness made the settlement a difficult place in which to work. After the first exhausting winter they were rescued by steamer and taken to Sitka to recuperate. In her letters, which were published as the book Life in Alaska, Mrs. Willard spoke often of their love for the Native people and their hope to establish a boarding school for the children in Haines.
After an absence of nearly two years, the Willards returned to the Chilkats. Upon arrival “Mr. Willard preached that day on the coming of the Lord, illustrating it by our own return. How had they kept the word we had given them? How should the Savior find them keeping His word?”
The Chilkat people greeted them warmly, even though some did resist the mission efforts. Their work was manifest, however, in the words of Kah-sha, speaking to the minister: “Help me, Yealth-neddy; help me to say this: The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. This light of the world is Jesus, and He will shine into his soul.”
When the Willards returned from Sitka a young teacher, Miss Elizabeth L. “Bessie” Matthews came with them. Mrs. Willard reports, “Miss Matthews opened her school promptly and is doing thorough work. Although this is a busy season and the people are on the move continually, she has had sixty or seventy different pupils, from the baby of a month to the old Indian chief, though we didn’t count the babies. The people are much interested in the new teacher, but it was hard to make them understand about her. They kept asking me over and over where her minister was. Her sweet voice and ready accomplishments on the organ charm the people, and she is fast winning a place among them.” Bessie taught and served as matron of the boarding school.
The work was difficult – yet in those early years a church was organized through Willard’s patient ministry, and a boarding school arose on what would be the site of Haines House.
Meanwhile, Caroline herself learned to speak the Tlingit language along with her daughter Kotzie. This aided in the work. Later Caroline was to write a grammar of the tongue, and draw upon her experiences and her knowledge of Tlingit customs to write a novel, Kindashon’s Wife, based in the Chilkat area.
Mrs. “Kotzie” Willard Huntly, the first white child in the Chilkat country, recorded some of the Willard family experiences. She wrote: It was while we lived in ‘the little brown house’ before the big log Mission was built… Chief Klanot’s daughter died at Fort Wrangell, Mrs. McFarland’s mission school. Our people were very much stirred up over the matter. They said it would require the lives of two white children to make up for the chief’s daughter. My little brother and I were the only white missionary children, so our lives were forfeited for hers, so the council decided. Imagine the prayers offered up at Haines Mission! Then, at the last minute, before dismissing the council, Chief Klanot announced his decision that the execution would not be carried out after all. Phillip (Kindashon), who was Klanot’s nephew hurried out to tell Mother and Father the good news and with them offered
up thanks to the “Chief Unkowa Klen” (the Up Above Chief) for deliverance.”
In 1885 the Willards were moved to Juneau when this threat to the life of the children made it advisable. By this time their earnest missionary effort had brought a small group of Christian Natives to make their homes in the mission area – an attempt to establish the “new Christian town” which Young had promised the Chilkats. The operation of the school was transferred to the U.S. Government at that time.
Haines Bell
In May of 1881, the Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, one of the founders of the Presbyterian Mission in Alaska, ordered two large church bells from a foundry in Troy, New York. One was destined for the Chilkat Mission in what is now Haines. The mission bell was first rung in New Taku Mines, where the City of Juneau is now located. It was the very first Presbyterian bell rung in Alaska. Its tone was described by Caroline Willard, the first pastor’s wife and quite a musician, as “a perfect Presbyterian tone.”
Until 1904 the bell sat in a small tower outside the manse. In 1904 the bell was hoisted into a belfry and there it hung until 1961, when the belfry was removed and the bell was put on blocks in front of the church. The bell fell out of its frame in 1968 and was put into storage in Port Chilkoot. There it stayed until 1970 when it was taken out and installed in front of the present church. On July 18, 2006, the bell will be 125 years old. It is the only part of the original mission still in existence.
Haines
House
In the fall of 1921 a woman, even then past middle age but filled with the heroic spirit of a pioneer missionary, arrived in Haines. In her heart was a love for children and a love for the Heavenly Father who loves all his children. She had been sent to Haines by the Presbyterian Board of National Missions to transform an old abandoned hospital building which had been built by the Presbyterian Mission some years before, into a home for Alaskan foster children. With much work, cleaning and remodeling she did so, and even before she had the home entirely in order, children were being brought to her to be cared for. By 1927 Miss Emma A. Jackson called “Mother Jackson” by the children, was so successful as the first director of Haines House that the old hospital building was overflowing with children and another building, also three stories, was built. Wheeler Hall doubled the capacity of Haines House and through the years many out buildings, barn, silo, recreation hall and even a dairy herd were established. Extensive gardens during the summer provided much of the year around food.
As the mission grew and the activities increased, firm guidance was given by Presbyterian women working as directors under the Board of National Missions with a dedication to God and church that leads the Presbyterian women of today. Of the six directors from 1921 to 1951, only one, Rev. Knudsen was not a woman.
In 1954 there was seen the start of a trend to change Haines House from a home for foster children to a pre-delinquent remedial center. Though at the time in Alaska this seemed to be the largest need, Haines House and the town of Haines were unable to meet the en-suing problems. By 1959 the costs of keeping a qualified staff and
building maintenance cost were high. Word was received from the state that fire protection measures needed costly improvement. A decision must be made. In 1960 the Board of National Missions closed Haines House.
The current Presbyterian Church was built on the foundation of the Wheeler Hall addition to Haines House.
To Bring A Good Message To The Chilkat People
S. Hall Young planned to visit the Chilkat people
To prepare for a mission some day.
John Muir, too, longed to go to the North.
His object; to see Glacier Bay.
They sailed out of Wrangell, fall seventy-nine,
In a six-fathom red cedar canoe.
The Stickeen’s great Chief Towa-att, a new Christian,
Owned the boat, and skippered the crew.
Their etiquette expert was Chief Kadashan,
Who was kin to the Chief at Klukwan.
Sitka Charley was hunter, damp-maker, and cook;
To interpret, they took Stickeen John.
While Muir and Young carried “Boston-Man” food,
The crew took dried salmon and seal.
For a potlatch, they stowed a leaf-tobacco aboard,
Plus sugar and rice for a meal.
Tow-a-att was the steersman—their sail hoisted high—
They went first to Kake, then Angoon.
Then on up to Hoonah. On all of that trip
The guides would repeat, like a tune:
“Oh, yes, these are pretty good Indians,” they’d say,
“But the Chilkats are best –you will see!”
They were anxious to see for themselves, but went first
Where the ice came right down to the sea.
A sunrise in Glacier Bay made them declare
As the beauty grew, mile after mile,
This “most wonderful room in the gallery of God”
Made the difficult trip worth their while.
It was easy to tell who was boss when they stopped
And argued about the tent site,
Because old Tow-a-att stuck the mast in the ground
That’s where they’d camp for the night.
They visited Chilkats and Hoonahs they met—
Young preached where they happened to be—
Then Davidson Glacier’s impressive white fan
Appeared, stretching into the sea.
They landed—the crew unpacked their new clothes—
Cut their hair and got themselves dressed.
Eagle feathers in hats and flag flying high
Muir and Young felt that they looked their best.
On the 4th of November, just after noon,
They saw the first Chilkat lookout.
By “voice telegraph” he would call to the next,
Then, faintly, they’d hear the next shout.
Yendestakyeh folk dressed to receive visitors,
And each came out with a gun.
Soon bullets were falling around the canoe
The visitors wanted to run!
But Tow-a-att knew there were greetings, so said
“We’ll paddle right up to the shore!”
Then, dropping their guns, Chilkats lifted the boat,
Carried it, and the men to the door!
There Chief Donna-wak invited them in
And offered to give them a feast.
What followed was truly a “feast of fat things”
With salmon, potatoes, and grease.
They each had a Hudson’s bay bowl full of food
As each of the courses came by,
What they couldn’t eat was put in a box
That was stowed in their craft beached nearby.
They had salmon with seal-grease, and back fat of deer,
Small Russian potatoes in grease,
Wild rose-hips and berries topped off the meal—
A most satisfactory feast.
Chief Shathitch, the greatest of chiefs in Alaska
Sent word he’d be down from Klukwan.
It took a long while, but they all settled down
With a whole bale of blankets to sit on.
In a bright yellow blanket the big Chief came in
Turned slowly around in his track.
The words “To Chief Shathitch from his friend William Seward”
Was written across his broad back.
Next day Mr. Young preached most of the day,
Helped by Tow-a-att and Kadishan.
Then Muir would talk about brotherhood
And the beautiful, foodful land.
Other times Young had told a new people about
Christ and the good God above,
But never had felt more keenly the joy
Of the message he brought them of love.
Donna-wak, Skundoo-oo and Shathitch took time
To walk with them to the bay
To choose a place for the mission-to-be
On that eventful day.
They went to the place they called Dei-Shu—
Translated, it’s “End of the Trail” –
They promised a preacher and teacher would come
To the Chilkat folks without fail.
Young sent them a teacher the following year-
Sarah Dickinson, wife of a trader.
It wasn’t a lot, but it was a start;
Soon the effort would become greater.
Sheldon Jackson came up with the Willards, and built
A mission-house quite small and neat.
A churchbell arrived; Mrs. Willard believed
That it helped make the mission complete.
In sequence came school, hospital, and “home”,
And each in its turn did its job.
The church still is active, and doing its best
To praise and glorify God.
Elisabeth S. Hakkinen
For Presbytery, Fall 1979
Haines, Alaska
Rev. Eugene Bromley
Rev.
Eugene Bromley served the Haines Presbyterian
Church from 1923-1933. He gave 40 years of his life to the Presbyterian
Church
as a missionary in
But
more than once this man of the cloth ‘gambled.’ The
first time he took a chance on a one-legged card sharp called “Peg Leg
Henry.”
“Peg Leg” swore he wanted $100 to stake him to a doughnut shop in
Mr.
Bromley believes in people, and he believed in “Peg
Leg”. But 10 years passed and it appeared, even to one of Mr. Bromley’s
faith,
that “Peg Leg” had done him wrong. Then, one day when
Forgive me, Parson, he said, for I gambled away the $100. But would the good minister accept 50 acres of choice riverside property near Haines on which “Peg Leg” had hoped to build a resort hotel? Mr. Bromley is a forgiving sort. Yes, he would take the land in repayment of the old debt.
The
land turned out to be valuable beyond Mr. Bromley’s
wildest dreams. And in 1945, true to the spirit of Christian giving,
Mr.
Bromley turned it all over to the Presbytery of Alaska. Today “Peg
Leg’s” land
is the home of
The second time he gambled, Rev. Bromley ended up starting the ministry of the mission boats in Southeast. According to Bromley’s grandson, Kenneth Rice, the good Reverend won the first boat in the ministry, the TORNADO, in a poker game. Apparently, there weren’t many folks in native villages so they enlisted the preacher to fill out the poker table and in the course of that, he won the boat.”
Mr. Bromley would go ashore, walking through the fishing camps and ringing a handbell, inviting one an all to a driftwood worship shelter on the beach. Then be would get the little portable pump organ from the Tornado. Once he slipped on the deck and went overboard. Lacking dry clothing, he put on his nightshirt, putting a raincoat over it, and gave his sermon. It was a pretty good sermon, too, considering.
Bromley established fine rapport with his parishioners. It is customary for Indians near death to pass on their names to younger persons. Thus, Mr. Bromley became Konkata. The honor did more for his image among the natives than a hundred sermons.
And so we see God does move in mysterious ways at times. Wouldn’t it be just like Him to establish ministry through gambling, not once but twice?
