J.W. Weaver in the Klondike: Part 3
This is the final entry in a three-part series of letters and news articles detailing the trip made to the Klondike region in 1898-99 by J.W. Weaver of Waco.
By July 1899, Weaver had left the Klondike and was back home in Waco. This Times-Herald news account printed the day after his return helps round out the tale of the intrepid prospector.
Waco Times-Herald
July 27, 1899
GOLD HUNTER RETURNS HOME
J.W. WEAVER, AFTER HAVING SPENT ALMOST TWO YEARS IN THE KLONDYKE RETURNS HOME
HAD MANY EXPERIENCES
Says He is Satisfied With His Trip and May Return to the Gold Fields.
Many Friends Call.
J.W. Weaver returned from a two-years trip to the gold fields of the Klondyke country yesterday morning at 1 o'clock. Mr. Weaver left Waco February 15, 189(8), for the new El Dorado and he had been there ever since.
The gentleman was very much worried over his long trip, but as soon as some of his friends heard of his return home they could not help driving out to his beautiful cottage on College Heights and welcoming him home. To all such the gold hunter gave a most hearty reception, and simply charmed all with his marvelous experiences while in the gold fields. He is a man of very modest nature and relates his adventures with such a charm that all delight to hear them.
Mr. Weaver, after leaving Waco, went direct to the gold fields, locating about fifty-five miles from Dawson City on one of the tributaries of the Yukon river. He tells of the most unenduring hardships while in the country, and says that most of the time his finger and toe nails were worn off, caused from the constant wear in the digging and the working in the mines. As to the result of his two years' work in the Klondyke, he says he is satisfied and will probably return after spending a few months in the city.
The gold hunter says that he left the mining regions June 10, coming down on the steamboat St. Michael on the Yukon river, to where it empties its waters. During the trip he states that the ice bergs often threatened the ship and it was in the most imminent peril once or twice.
At the mouth of the Yukon the crew took passage on the steamship Roanoke and finally reached Seattle, Washington. He says that on the vessel there was every nationality almost and that there was about two million dollars of money in the crew. On the voyage Mr. Weaver states that a miner, Ben Mattock, from Missouri, sickened and died, and as is the custom when deaths occur on a ship was cast into the ocean. One of the crew wrote the following epitaph and cast it into the sea:
Mr. Weaver left Waco a robust man and comes back showing little loss of weight or health. He is an old miner by trade and stands the work wonderfully well.
On his return home, Mr. Weaver bought at Seattle a number of skins of polar bear and white foxes, and will make good use of them as rugs. He also brought with him a number of small nuggets of gold which he obtained while in the gold field.
He is the son-in-law of Judge J.R. Gerald and his well known in Waco. His many friends will learn of his return with the greatest pleasure and he will be kept busy for some time receiving callers.
No one is more delighted than his wife, who says that when he returns to the gold country she intends to go also.
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Another account printed the same day, this time by a reporter from the Dallas Morning News, seems to indicate that Mrs. Weaver was not as open to a future trip to the Yukon as she appeared to be in the previous article.
Dallas Morning News
July 27, 1899
Home from Klondike
Waco, Tex., July 26 –– At an early hour this morning Mr. J.W. Weaver, one of the argonauts who went from Waco to the Klondike, reached his cottage on [College] Hill and was greeted by his wife and little children, whom he left Feb. 15 last year to go in quest of gold, to the arctic circle.
Mr. Weaver lost his finger and toe nails while engaged in hewing holes in the masses of ice and frozen earth in a climate in which sixty degrees below zero is not regarded as particularly low temperature. His nails are growing out again and he is ruddy with good health, having escaped all the climatic disorders of the high latitude he has dwelt in so long.
The News reporter called at the cottage this morning and found the child rolling over and over on rugs made of skins of Polar bears and white foxes. Mr. Weaver explained that he did not kill the animals himself, but bought them from a party of men who penetrated one degree further than he did toward the north pole. In a mooseskin pouch he brought a neat collection of golden nuggets which the claim he worked yielded him by a dint of labor too hard to think about now it is all over and his wife and babes are around him.
Besides a teacup full of gold dust Mr. Weaver brought a roll of notes paid him for his gold by buyers at Seattle.
He left Dawson June 10, reached Seattle on the 18th instant and was home this morning just before the butcher got to the gate with the beefsteak. Mr. and Mrs. Weaver and the children constitute a very happy household. Mr. Weaver is writing the story of his adventurres, a task for which he is well equipped. When he started out as a miner he gave up a good position of court reporting, to which he will return as Mrs. Weaver says she will not let him start off on another gold expedeition toward the polar regions.
Mr. Weaver sailed from Portland in February, 1898, on the steamship Elder and went up the Skagway river and through White Pass, locating on the Yukon, fifty miles from Dawson, at which point along with his companions, he built a cabin of birch logs and arctic moss.
At Grand Forks James A. Smart, a deputy for the British minister of the interior, collected $10 from every American and licensed them as “free miners” for one year, but they found that they were not entirely free, for another British deputy held them up for $15 more, which is the annual tax levied for placer mining. After paying $10 to be a free miner and $15 for placer mining privileges the miners found that a large share of their earnings goes to the government to satisfy another duty charged for taking out gold in the frozen possessions of her majesty, the queen.
In spite of the heavy duties imposed some of the men made lots of money. When the river thawed out there was a rush for the United States. Mr. Weaver took the steamboat Sovereign and in rounding the great bends of the Yukon he saw, when nearest the north pole, the midnight sun appear and disappear. When he reached St. Michaels he found steamboats by the dozens for sale. They were said to be the property of unsuccessful prospectors who had been up the river without meeting any luck.
Mr. Weaver took passage on the Roanoke along with 500 miners of all nations. The amount of gold on the Roanoke was estimated to be worth $2,000,000. It was in the hands of less than half the passengers, the others having made nothing and a few were returning with their passage paid by the United States government.
One miner, Ben W. Matlock, a Missourian, died and was buried at sea, a victim of the dreadful climate he had braved, hoping to win a fortune for his wife and children. Mr. Weaver gave a vivid description of the midnight funeral and the committing of the body to the deep.
In his cottage in Waco, where he can sit in the dining room and eat peaches from boughs in reach of his arm, with his charming wife and bright, happy boys to comfort him, Mr. Weaver found it easy to talk over the horrors of an arctic winter. He says there is plenty of gold in the Klondike, but he does not advise any but the stoutest of heart and body to attempt to get it except by grub-staking some other fellow who possesses an irresistible bent toward such ventures and one likely to win out.
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In our final news story, written about three weeks after his return home, we find that Weaver has received a large package that is the cause of much interest and admiration in Waco.
Waco Times-Herald
August 15, 1899
POLAR BEAR HIDE
Yesterday J.W. Weaver, who recently returned from the Klondike country, received a polar bear hide that he got while he was in the great northwest. The hide came by way of the Pacific Express company and was on exhibition there for some time. It measures six and one half feet from head to tail, and 8 feet from one foot to the other. The hide is a thing of beauty, and will be used by Mrs. Weaver as a rug.
By July 1899, Weaver had left the Klondike and was back home in Waco. This Times-Herald news account printed the day after his return helps round out the tale of the intrepid prospector.
Waco Times-Herald
July 27, 1899
GOLD HUNTER RETURNS HOME
J.W. WEAVER, AFTER HAVING SPENT ALMOST TWO YEARS IN THE KLONDYKE RETURNS HOME
HAD MANY EXPERIENCES
Says He is Satisfied With His Trip and May Return to the Gold Fields.
Many Friends Call.
J.W. Weaver returned from a two-years trip to the gold fields of the Klondyke country yesterday morning at 1 o'clock. Mr. Weaver left Waco February 15, 189(8), for the new El Dorado and he had been there ever since.
The gentleman was very much worried over his long trip, but as soon as some of his friends heard of his return home they could not help driving out to his beautiful cottage on College Heights and welcoming him home. To all such the gold hunter gave a most hearty reception, and simply charmed all with his marvelous experiences while in the gold fields. He is a man of very modest nature and relates his adventures with such a charm that all delight to hear them.
Mr. Weaver, after leaving Waco, went direct to the gold fields, locating about fifty-five miles from Dawson City on one of the tributaries of the Yukon river. He tells of the most unenduring hardships while in the country, and says that most of the time his finger and toe nails were worn off, caused from the constant wear in the digging and the working in the mines. As to the result of his two years' work in the Klondyke, he says he is satisfied and will probably return after spending a few months in the city.
The gold hunter says that he left the mining regions June 10, coming down on the steamboat St. Michael on the Yukon river, to where it empties its waters. During the trip he states that the ice bergs often threatened the ship and it was in the most imminent peril once or twice.
At the mouth of the Yukon the crew took passage on the steamship Roanoke and finally reached Seattle, Washington. He says that on the vessel there was every nationality almost and that there was about two million dollars of money in the crew. On the voyage Mr. Weaver states that a miner, Ben Mattock, from Missouri, sickened and died, and as is the custom when deaths occur on a ship was cast into the ocean. One of the crew wrote the following epitaph and cast it into the sea:
'Tis midnight -- Across the dark ocean
The boom of the ship's bell is heard.
And out of the darkness in answer
Comes the cry of a wild sea bird.
In a gangway a form once so stalwart
Lies wrapped in a dark winding sheet,
While a pall -- 'tis the flag of his country,
Hides the heavy round shot at his feet.
No more he'll stampede o'er the snow and the ice,
For poor Ben's reached the end of life's trail;
He has crossed the dark threshold whence no man returns,
And his funeral dirge is a gale.
A sob and a tear from his comrade,
A low prayer, then a splash and it's o'er,
While in far off Missouri his children
Mourn a father they'll never see more.
No stone marks the brave miner's resting place;
On his grave no sweet flowers ever bloom,
But God knows the spot where numbers the dead,
In the cold northern ocean's deep gloom.
Mr. Weaver left Waco a robust man and comes back showing little loss of weight or health. He is an old miner by trade and stands the work wonderfully well.
On his return home, Mr. Weaver bought at Seattle a number of skins of polar bear and white foxes, and will make good use of them as rugs. He also brought with him a number of small nuggets of gold which he obtained while in the gold field.
He is the son-in-law of Judge J.R. Gerald and his well known in Waco. His many friends will learn of his return with the greatest pleasure and he will be kept busy for some time receiving callers.
No one is more delighted than his wife, who says that when he returns to the gold country she intends to go also.
-----------------------------------------
Another account printed the same day, this time by a reporter from the Dallas Morning News, seems to indicate that Mrs. Weaver was not as open to a future trip to the Yukon as she appeared to be in the previous article.
Dallas Morning News
July 27, 1899
Home from Klondike
Waco, Tex., July 26 –– At an early hour this morning Mr. J.W. Weaver, one of the argonauts who went from Waco to the Klondike, reached his cottage on [College] Hill and was greeted by his wife and little children, whom he left Feb. 15 last year to go in quest of gold, to the arctic circle.
Mr. Weaver lost his finger and toe nails while engaged in hewing holes in the masses of ice and frozen earth in a climate in which sixty degrees below zero is not regarded as particularly low temperature. His nails are growing out again and he is ruddy with good health, having escaped all the climatic disorders of the high latitude he has dwelt in so long.
The News reporter called at the cottage this morning and found the child rolling over and over on rugs made of skins of Polar bears and white foxes. Mr. Weaver explained that he did not kill the animals himself, but bought them from a party of men who penetrated one degree further than he did toward the north pole. In a mooseskin pouch he brought a neat collection of golden nuggets which the claim he worked yielded him by a dint of labor too hard to think about now it is all over and his wife and babes are around him.
Besides a teacup full of gold dust Mr. Weaver brought a roll of notes paid him for his gold by buyers at Seattle.
He left Dawson June 10, reached Seattle on the 18th instant and was home this morning just before the butcher got to the gate with the beefsteak. Mr. and Mrs. Weaver and the children constitute a very happy household. Mr. Weaver is writing the story of his adventurres, a task for which he is well equipped. When he started out as a miner he gave up a good position of court reporting, to which he will return as Mrs. Weaver says she will not let him start off on another gold expedeition toward the polar regions.
Mr. Weaver sailed from Portland in February, 1898, on the steamship Elder and went up the Skagway river and through White Pass, locating on the Yukon, fifty miles from Dawson, at which point along with his companions, he built a cabin of birch logs and arctic moss.
At Grand Forks James A. Smart, a deputy for the British minister of the interior, collected $10 from every American and licensed them as “free miners” for one year, but they found that they were not entirely free, for another British deputy held them up for $15 more, which is the annual tax levied for placer mining. After paying $10 to be a free miner and $15 for placer mining privileges the miners found that a large share of their earnings goes to the government to satisfy another duty charged for taking out gold in the frozen possessions of her majesty, the queen.
In spite of the heavy duties imposed some of the men made lots of money. When the river thawed out there was a rush for the United States. Mr. Weaver took the steamboat Sovereign and in rounding the great bends of the Yukon he saw, when nearest the north pole, the midnight sun appear and disappear. When he reached St. Michaels he found steamboats by the dozens for sale. They were said to be the property of unsuccessful prospectors who had been up the river without meeting any luck.
Mr. Weaver took passage on the Roanoke along with 500 miners of all nations. The amount of gold on the Roanoke was estimated to be worth $2,000,000. It was in the hands of less than half the passengers, the others having made nothing and a few were returning with their passage paid by the United States government.
One miner, Ben W. Matlock, a Missourian, died and was buried at sea, a victim of the dreadful climate he had braved, hoping to win a fortune for his wife and children. Mr. Weaver gave a vivid description of the midnight funeral and the committing of the body to the deep.
In his cottage in Waco, where he can sit in the dining room and eat peaches from boughs in reach of his arm, with his charming wife and bright, happy boys to comfort him, Mr. Weaver found it easy to talk over the horrors of an arctic winter. He says there is plenty of gold in the Klondike, but he does not advise any but the stoutest of heart and body to attempt to get it except by grub-staking some other fellow who possesses an irresistible bent toward such ventures and one likely to win out.
-----------------------------------------
In our final news story, written about three weeks after his return home, we find that Weaver has received a large package that is the cause of much interest and admiration in Waco.
Waco Times-Herald
August 15, 1899
POLAR BEAR HIDE
Yesterday J.W. Weaver, who recently returned from the Klondike country, received a polar bear hide that he got while he was in the great northwest. The hide came by way of the Pacific Express company and was on exhibition there for some time. It measures six and one half feet from head to tail, and 8 feet from one foot to the other. The hide is a thing of beauty, and will be used by Mrs. Weaver as a rug.
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