Excerpts from emails from Sherry Pollard January 2014
Myrl & Harley Page, my grandparents, time in Alaska was on the Yukon, Fairbanks and in Ruby. My mother was about 3-4 years old and it would have been about 1928.
My parents were only children. My mother raised in Ruby and Fairbanks. My father in Fort Yukon and Fairbanks. My mother has reached her 90th birthday.
These are notes I made at my Grandmother's bedside back in 1986... I did not know the fire in Ruby was in 1929 (found that on your website). Myrl said she and a lady pulled a trunk above town during the fire....they couldn't even move it later.
Mae Verhonick, wife of Albert, bought her boys oranges for $1.00 a piece. Myrl remarks they had juice dripping off their elbows and they had no manners about it. Little boy was called Jackie. Harley (my grandfather) cut 350 cord of wood for Albert Verhonic, who ran the NC Co in Ruby. They lost a baby, very pale since it was born and just getting personality when it died. Believe it is buried in the cemetery above the town. My grandfather made a monument for her child (he was a plasterer by trade). She had a stable and horses.. Her husband was freighting out to Long Creek and Poorman mining camp. They made a strike out there, found gold in 'Mary's Hole', but afterwards weren't sure if it had been salted or not. One pan full was $200 worth of gold....can you imagine how much that would be now! Mention is made of 'Buckskin Harry' being the best team driver.
My grandparents stayed at the Roadhouse with Captain and Mrs. Crane at one time...after they arrived the temperature fell to 68 below.....My Grandmother helped her frost cakes while they stayed there. Mrs. Crane was the one that rode through the streets on a white horse!
She mentions a Mrs. Williams off the Yukon that had a pet reindeer and it hauled stuff for them (no mention of husband's name). She had a little greenhouse and there were warm springs underneath the greenhouse that kept it from freezing, and helped heat their place as well.
There is mention of a Jean and Oliver Anderson as being the managers of the NC Company, but I believe it's in Fairbanks....not Ruby. So many things to sort out.
Myrl mentioned a Mrs. Callahan (don't know the spelling). You show O.W. Caliahan. She probably was from the area, because Myrl said she made little boots that would fit on her finger....took hours to turn them inside out. My grandmother did a lot of handwork, so she would have appreciated the work involved. She made the comment if Mrs. Callahan didn't approve of you, she figured that woman wasn't even good enough for a white man.
Said there was about 100 people..drugstore, Clark Hotel, telegraph station, and the main road that went south to Poorman. Bill Growden, operated the telegraph. There was a machine shop. Store called Lavery's with all kinds of hardware. Also Marshall Officer Tom Long...this would be the winter of 1928 and 1929.
Mention is made of a Dr. Frost....he was a quack and the only information he had about doctoring he got out of books is what Myrl said. My grandmother went to him for an abortion....that's how she found out...
They knew bush pilot Noel Wien....but then again everybody knew him!