August 24, 2018 Part 2

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL
100 YEARS LATER
by Doug Capra © 2018

August, 24, 2018 Part 2

The Admiral Farragut docked in Seward shortly after six in the morning on Saturday, August 24, 1918. Rockwell and Rocky were among the six passengers listed in the Seward Gateway who disembarked at Seward. Some of the eleven steerage not listed – probably laborers and railroad workers – may also have landed. Smaller vessels would take the eight passengers headed to Anchorage, three for Seldovia and fourteen for Kodiak. Four passengers were round trippers. The vessel unloaded tons of cargo and mail for Seward, and seventy-five tons for Anchorage. Four hours after landing, the Admiral Farragut left port.

Kent registered at the Sexton Hotel where he probably met George Sexton, the owner – and later his daughter, local photographer businesswoman Sylvia Sexton. At thirteen years old, she arrived with her family at Skagway during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. Later they moved to Valdez and by 1903, when Sylvia was eighteen, to the gold rush town of Sunrise near Hope along Cook Inlet, where her father was U.S. Deputy Marshal. The next year she arrived in the infant town of Seward. During all this time and throughout her life, she chronicled Alaska with her photographs. When Kent met her in 1918, she had partnered with John E. Thwaites, another photographer who had worked as a mail clerk aboard the vessel Dora. During all its travels, Thwaites photographed the territory. The two ran a photography business in Seward. Kent couldn’t have found better sources of information anywhere in Alaska. No doubt Kent told them of his plans and began inquiring about a quiet place to locate. They knew the territory and the local area and could offer him much valuable advice.

Rocky recalled their second-floor room at the Sexton Hotel with its looped stove pipe that came up from the lobby’s giant wood-burning stove. From their room the pipe ascended to heat the room above. The stark room had bureau, chair, commode with chamber pot, and a basin with water pitcher. One side of the double bed was higher than the other. That situation plus his father’s tossing and turning made restless nights for the boy, “clinging to the edge to avoid rolling down into Father.”

Kent may have picked up a copy of the Seward Gateway from the day before -- the Aug. 24 edition wouldn’t come out until late afternoon the day he arrived. Yesterday’s headlines would have reminded him that he couldn’t get away from the Great War, even in a small Alaskan frontier town. At least the overcast weather would clear up, though it would be cool with high winds. A new manpower bill was before the U.S. Congress which could raise the draft to an age that would include him. The Seward Home Guard met with the reminder that it was now “work and drill or fight.” The evening he arrived, Seward’s Four Minute Men would meet at the offices of L.V. Ray, a prominent local attorney and politician. Four Minute Men across the country gave brief patriotic speeches at local events. It was common to see them in movie theaters speaking while the reels were changed. The Naval radio station would no longer broadcast steamship arrival times for security reasons. “A singing army cannot be defeated. A singing nation cannot be defeated,” one article asserted. That was why the Council of National Defense urged each state to appoint a musical director to create local Liberty choruses. Such was Seward – a small, patriotic, provincial town in the midst of war – at least that’s how the Seward Gateway reported it. It may have been a déjà vu moment for Kent – would this be Newfoundland all over again?

He found a place to sleep; now they needed to eat. At the Seward Grill, he scanned the menu for a cheap and healthy meal. For two days, the waiter asked whether he wanted soup, coffee, tea, pie, pudding, or any dessert with his meal. Rocky looked to Kent with expectation. Their eyes met as he told the waiter, “No.” They were on a tight budget, but he did make sure his son got milk. “It was two days before I learned,” Kent recalled years later, “that soup, coffee or tea, and pie or pudding – don’t weep, reader – went with the main dish, free!”

The day they arrived, after checking in the hotel and getting something to eat, Rocky and their new friend, Birkhofer, hiked inland several miles searching for a place to settle, but the terrain looked too tame. Between Seward and Moose Pass thirty miles north, he would have found several homesteads, including small farms that supplied Seward with most of its vegetables. "I knew at once that we must choose the seacoast to settle upon," he wrote. Once that decision had been made Kent turned to Thwaites for advice. As a steamer mail clerk, Thwaites knew the coastline. He told of an abandoned fishing camp in along the west shore of Resurrection Bay and another spot at Humpy Cove. Fox Island was occupied by an old Swede who ran a fox farm, he told Kent. Lars Matt Olson also raised angora goats and rabbits. He ran the operation, but it was financed by a local entrepreneur, Thomas W. Hawkins of Brown and Hawkins Store.

Kent assessed the situation. Money was tight. Winter snuck up quickly in Alaska and he needed to prepare. Kent knew he had little time to find a place and settle. “Quick! We must find it,” Kent wrote, “we had no time to lose. So much per day in Seward’s hotel room! So much per meal in Seward’s restaurant!” Thwaites told Kent that local tinsmith, Jacob Graef, planned a picnic and berry-picking party the next day along the coast towards Caines Head. See if you can get invited, Thwaites advised the artist.

Kent purchased two cigars, a cheap and expensive one. He had wanted to buy some whisky, but Alaska had passed a Bone Dry law in 1916 that had become effective on Jan. 1, 1918. Probably with Rocky in tow and the cigars in his pocket, Kent strolled into Jacob Graef's hardware store on Main Street (or as the more presumptuous called it, Broadway) and tried to be sociable. He most likely met Graef’s assistant, Otto Boehm, a German he later befriended. "In the midst of my most charming ingratiating attempts at conversation he {Graef}turned his back and went about his business," Kent later recalled. He tried jokes, but that didn’t work. In desperation, he lit up his cheap cigar and offered to light the expensive one for Graef. The shopkeeper took it, grunted, laid it down on the counter and walked away. For several uncomfortable moments, Kent stood puffing on his cheap cigar. He considered telling the tinsmith where he could put the cigar, but realizing his situation, he held his tongue and stooped to an unaccustomed humility. As he would in later years enthrall audiences on the lecture circuit, he took the platform and orated about Alaska’s beauty and the unique scenic wonders of Resurrection Bay – better than any other town in Alaska, he told Graef. That was just what a Seward business man wanted to hear. To offset his humble stance, Kent may have boasted of his artistic talents, promising that he could help promote the town and the Kenai Peninsula with his paintings. It might help settlement and business. Graef appeared to ignore him. Kent was persistent. He had to explore the bay and find a place to settle quickly before winter set in. Either persuaded by Kent’s oratorio, or annoyed enough to just get rid of the tourist, Graef granted him an invitation. In less than twelve hours, Kent had found a hotel, met people who knew the area, hiked inland to explore, found a place to eat, and gotten an invitation to a picnic with the intention of using that as an excuse to explore the bay – maybe even that island where an old Swede ran a fox farm and goat ranch.

PHOTOS -- Unless otherwise noted, photos are courtesy of the Resurrection Bay Historical Society.

A portion of NOAA Chart 16682 of Resurrection Bay. Courtesy of NOAA

 Downtown Seward looking north. To the left is Brown and Hawkins, and two doors up is

Jacob Graef’s Hardware Store. To the right is the Seward Grill and a bit further up

Urbach’s Clothing Store.

The Alaska Railroad tracks ran beside the bay along the east side of Seward and they

extended out over the water. As Kent and Rockie left the Admiral Farragut, the walked across

a bridge and then up Broadway into the town of Seward.

Kent arrived in Seward at 6 a.m. on August 24^th. The local daily, the Seward Gateway, didn’t come out until late afternoon. If Kent had bought a newspaper, it would have been the August 23^rd edition, the front page of which is shown here.

Sylvia Sexton with her camera. 

  John Edwards Thwaites aboard the SS DORA c. 1910. Thwaites was the mail clerk aboard

this vessel and a professional photographer. This photo is a self-portrait. (Alaska State

Library, Clyda Schott Greely Collection PCA66 #842)

This waterfront pass belonging to Jacob E. Graef. When Kent arrived, the Great War was

coming to an end. The Alaska Railroad was under construction. The workforce was made up

of many immigrants, and anti-German sentiment was high. Passes like this were required to

get access to the steamship and railroad docks.

Dog Races held in Seward in the winter of 1913. Brown and Hawkins General Store is in the

background. Thomas Hawkins financed the fox farm and goat ranch on Fox Island and Lars

Matt Olson managed it.