The Story of Sitka Part 3

SOCIAL LIFE

At the top of the kekoor, or the Baranof Hill as it was called in recent years, there stood a building occupied during Russian days as a residence by the chief managers of the Russian American Company. The one known to the residents and visitors of the earlier days of the American occupation was known as the Baranof Castle, although Baranof himself never lived in it. There were three, if not four different buildings which occupied that position. The first to be placed there was built at once upon the founding of the post and is described by Resanof in his letters to the Company as being a very "Unpretentious building, and poorly constructed." Before the close of Baranof's administration, however, according to the account of Captain Golofnin, it was an establishment well built and furnished with some degree of luxury.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Baranof Castle. Built in 1837 for the official residence of the chief managers of the Russian American Company, and occupied from the time of Kuprianof until 1867. It was the headquarters building of the Commanding Officers of the U. S. troops 1867 to 1877, and was destroyed by fire in 1894. The U. S. Agricultural Department building occupies the site at the present time.]

The structure known as the Baranof Castle, which stood on the hill at the time of the transfer to the United States, would seem to be the third building constructed on the site, was completed about 1837,[13]

and was burned to the ground on the morning of March 17th, 1894.

The historic building was the scene of many interesting events, and sheltered many distinguished persons.

The first mistress who presided over the mansion on the kekoor was Madame Yanovski, a daughter of Baranof and the wife of Lieutenant Yanovski, the third chief manager of the Russian American Company.

Lady Wrangell was the first to come from Russia to preside as the First Lady of Sitka, and she was succeeded by Madame Kupreanof, who is said to have crossed Siberia and the Pacific Ocean to accompany her husband to his post. Sir Edward Belcher gives a spirited account of a ball given in his honor, in the castle, which was then, in 1837, just completed. He says: "The evening pa.s.sed most delightfully," although "few could converse with their partners," English being spoken by few at that time in the capital of Russian America.

Princess Maksoutoff, the wife of the last chief manager of the colonies, came from St. Petersburg, but died soon after her arrival, and the stone which marks her grave may be seen on the hill between the two cemeteries, near the site of the upper Blockhouse. Her successor, the second Princess Maksoutoff, young and beautiful, presided with grace and tact over the mansion until the transfer of the territory to the United States. She was one of six Russian ladies present at the ceremonies and is said to have wept when the Russian flag was lowered.

There is a legend of a beautiful princess whose ghost haunted the Castle for many years. The story has been told by many at different times and is one of the romantic tales that cl.u.s.ter around the old metropolis of the fur trading days. Her lover was sent away or killed through the influence of an _ober offitzer_ who sought her hand in marriage.

Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, who wrote so delightfully of Sitka in her journeys in Alaska in 1883, says that, "By tradition the Lady in Black was the daughter of one of the old governors. On her wedding night she disappeared from the ballroom in the midst of the festivities, and after a long search was found dead in one of the small drawing rooms."[14]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Grave of the Princess Maksoutoff.]

The chief managers entertained lavishly, and the dinners in the Castle were events long to be remembered. They were well worthy the representatives of a rich and powerful company, a corporation with a domain that was greater than the realm of many a royal ruler. Into the sumptuously furnished and richly decorated dining-room came the bishop and priests, resplendent in the official robes, the naval officers glittering in their gold laced uniforms, the secretaries, accountants, storekeepers, all in the uniform of the Ministry of Finance, the masters and mates of the s.h.i.+ps in the harbor; the guests in their best apparel; all gathered around the hospitable board of the chief manager. At times a hundred sat at the table and back of them dined the cadets of the naval school. After the dinner came dancing and until morning the gayety went merrily on, for Russian cheer is proverbial, and their hospitality is lavish.

Usually the Captain of the port, the secretaries, three public and two private, two masters in the navy, the commercial agent, two doctors, and the Lutheran clergyman, dined with the chief manager by general invitation, Sir George Simpson tells us. The civilian masters of vessels, accountants, engineers, clerks, and bookkeepers, dined at a club which was organized by Mr. Etolin, and they lived at the old club house a little to the east of the church.

A wedding was an elaborate affair, a bridal cake which figured in many mystic signs, tea, coffee, chocolate and champagne; the ladies attired in muslin dresses, white satin shoes, silk stockings, kid gloves, fans, and other necessary appurtances. After the ceremony of an hour and a half was consummated, the ball was opened by the bride and the highest officer present, and the dancing lasted until three in the morning.

Easter was an event of much hilarity after the close of Lent, which was strictly observed by all. From morning to night everyone ran a gauntlet of kisses; when two persons met, one said, "Christ has risen," while the other replied, "He has risen, indeed," and then followed the salutations. These seemed not to have been distasteful to visitors, although one remarks that most of the dames had been more liberal with other liquids than of pure water. Throughout it all was a continuous peal of bells, for the Russian is fond of bell-ringing. All carried eggs, boiled into stones, and dyed, gilded or painted, which they presented to their friends.

CHAPTER VII

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Sitka, under the Muscovite, existed because of the fur trade, and every energy and interest centered on the gathering of peltries from every available quarter. Sailing s.h.i.+ps moved in and out of the harbor, taken to their moorings or out to sea by the harbor tug; some from Michaelovsk with the beaver and martin from the Yukon, others _en route_ to California or to the Sandwich Islands; the supply s.h.i.+ps from Kronstadt around Cape Horn or returning via Canton and the Cape of Good Hope laden with furs; still others bound for the Kuril Islands or Okhotsk. The steamer "Nikolai" plied along the pa.s.sages of the Alexander Archipelago, exploring the inlets, surveying the bays and rivers, gathering furs, always furs, for that was the reason for their living on this distant sh.o.r.e.[15]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sitka in 1860, Near the Close of the Russian Administration.]

Near the entrance to the Kolosh village was the market where the natives were permitted to trade. There they brought their game and fish, their furs and baskets, to trade for calico and beads, blankets and ammunition.[16] This market was closed by a portcullised door which permitted entrance through the stockaded wall, and was enclosed by a railed yard. Armed guards stood on duty, and at the least dispute in the market, down came the door and they proceeded to punish the delinquents.

The warehouses were stored with thousands on thousands of the richest furs of the Northland; sea-otter, worth today from $800 to $1,000 per skin, and not to be had at any price, were numbered by thousands in the earlier years; sealskins by s.h.i.+ploads, some killed off the harbor, but mainly from the Seal Islands; of land otter, the Hudson's Bay Company paid them two thousand skins each year for the lease of the territory from Portland Ca.n.a.l to Cape Spencer. The martin, the American sable, with its fluffy pelage. Foxes, blue, white, black, silver gray, red and cross, were there by thousands, brought from the Arctic, from the Aleutian Islands, from the Valley of the Yukon; mink, ermine, muskrat, beaver, land otter, pile on pile. Tons of ivory from the walrus herds of Morzhovia and bearskins and wolfskins from Cook Inlet and the Copper River. The right to the fur trade belonged exclusively to the Company by Royal ukase, and any employe who was found attempting to infringe on their rights was arrested and sent to Russia for punishment.[17]

From the top of the Castle, over 100 feet above the sea, a light burned as a beacon to mariners entering the harbor, and this was the first light-house to throw its beams over the waters of this northern ocean.

In the cupola which rose from the roof were four little square cups into which seal oil was poured and wicks burned in grooves rising from them, while back of the flame was a reflector that threw the light far out to sea among the islands.

The stock of goods in the magazines was large and varied. It covered almost every article carried in the general European trade as a necessity, and many of the luxuries--sugar and sealing wax, tobacco, both Virginia and Kirghis, silk and broadcloth, calico and Flemish linen, ravens duck and frieze, ars.h.i.+ns of blankets and poods of yarn; vedras of rum, cognac and gin; b.u.t.ter from the Yakut, from California and from Kodiak; salt beef from Ross Colony, from England and from Kodiak; beaver hats and cotton socks.

In the a.r.s.enal were kept about a thousand muskets, three hundred pistols, two hundred rifles, as well as sabres, cutla.s.ses, etc., while four fire engines provided against loss by conflagration. Some rare weapons were also found there. A saber set with gems valued at 560 rubles; a Persian carbine of a value of 450 rubles; two Persian yatighans, silver mounted; a Damascus saber, and two Persian pistols, silver mounted.

The soldiers' guns were for a great part of French or English workmans.h.i.+p; rockets and false-fire for signalling s.h.i.+ps were made each year.

Tallow for candles was brought from California, moulded at the port and distributed so many candles to each employe according to their presumed needs each month.

Liquors, generally rum, were served by the Company, a drink twice a week, extra allowance being made on difficult work and also for holidays. All kinds of devices were resorted to by individuals in order to get rum, and one author says that a pair of boots for which the makers would demand ten rubles might be secured in barter for a bottle of rum worth three rubles.

The soldiers stationed at the fort when not on duty were employed by the Company and given a special compensation for their labor. Some of the soldiers and hunters by their industry and thrift acc.u.mulated considerable money which the Company held to their account and either paid to them on their discharge or sent home to Russia for them. Others spent their earnings, were continually in debt to the Company, and as their contract provided that they were not to be discharged while in arrears of debt, some of them served the remainder of their lives with no hope of return to Russia.

Around the hill ran a parapet and sentries walked their beat night and day. On the stockade which enclosed the town from the beach at the edge of the "Ranche" to the sh.o.r.e beyond the sawmill, making with the sh.o.r.e line an irregular rectangle, also walked the sentinels on their vigil, for the Thlingit at the gates was at all times an enemy to be feared.

Strict military discipline was maintained at all times. At the foot of the hill were cl.u.s.tered barracks, storehouses, bakeries, warehouses, etc., for the use of the garrison and workmen. The old structure which was used as a bakery, and for shops, was later known as the Sitka Trading Company's building, and has recently been removed. The barracks are at present the jail, and the Russian counting house is today the postoffice of the United States. The fur warehouse stood to the west of the hill and was torn down in 1897-8, while the landing warehouse on the wharf was burned in 1916. These were all built about the time of the inc.u.mbency of Etolin, and that time might be termed the Golden Age of the Colony. s.h.i.+ps were being built, the fur trade was still prosperous, new explorations were being made into the interior of the country, trade was being extended into the Yukon Valley and there was an active interest in all the industries of the settlement. There were men of many trades, engineers, cabinet makers, jewelers, tailors, builders, etc., and an efficient machine shop constructed engines to equip the vessels constructed in the s.h.i.+pyard. Plowshares and spades for the Spanish farmers in California were forged and bells for the Franciscan missions were cast here. The first steam vessel to be built on the sh.o.r.e of the North Pacific Ocean was constructed at Sitka, for, before 1840 the whole of the machinery for a tug of seven horsepower, as well as of two pleasure boats had been constructed here. The steamer "Nikolai" of 70 horsepower was built and equipped with the exception of the boilers which were brought from New York. The s.h.i.+p ways at Sitka was the repairing place for many a vessel in the days of the gold seekers in the valleys of California.

Two sawmills, one near the site of the present mill, the other on Kirenski River, now called Sawmill Creek,[18] cut the lumber for the settlement and for export. Two flouring mills, one in Sitka, the other at the Ozerskoe Redoubt on Globokoe[19] (Deep) Lake, ground the breadstuffs. A tannery furnished the leather for shoes, made from California hides, and also prepared the _lavtaks_ for the bidarkas for the seal and sea-otter hunters. The burrs for the Sitka mill were of the finest French stone but those at the Redoubt were cut from the granite found on the lake sh.o.r.e.[20]

A hospital of forty beds provided for the comfort of the sick, of which Governor Simpson said: "The inst.i.tution in question would do no disgrace to England."

Brickyards were maintained, ice was cut on the lakes and at times s.h.i.+pped to California. The ice-houses were near the outlet of Swan Lake and were of a capacity of 3,000 tons.

One day in the spring of 1852 the American s.h.i.+p "Bacchus" came into Sitka to purchase a cargo of ice. All the ice for San Francisco had to this time been brought in the hold of sailing s.h.i.+ps around Cape Horn from Boston and the idea of getting the supply from Sitka was conceived.

From the Company's icehouses was laden on the s.h.i.+p 250 tons, and this was the beginning of a trade during the year of not less than 1800 tons at an average price of about $25.00 per ton. A Company was organized in San Francisco for carrying on the trade and it was known as "the Ice Company." The ice on the lake was not of sufficient thickness owing to the fact that four degrees below zero is the coldest record ever made in Sitka during a hundred years, consequently the Ice Company later transferred their chief place of operation to Wood Island, near Kodiak.

Cows were kept for milk, and the hay for their provender was cut on the Katleanski Plains on Squashanski Bay.

Sir George Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Honourable, the Hudson's Bay Company, visited Sitka in 1841 and in 1842. He describes the settlement, the natives, and the fur trade, and was entertained at the Castle by Chief Manager Etolin. During his stay he indulged in a Russian steam bath. His humorous description of the details ends with a promise never again to undergo such a castigation. The account of his stay at the Hot Springs is enlivened by a story of how a rosy cheeked Russian damsel, each time she pa.s.sed his chair, made a profound obeisance, which he attributed to his personal attraction until he discovered her doing the same when the chair was empty, and then saw that a saintly ikon occupied a place on the wall directly over it, which dispelled the illusion. Thirteen s.h.i.+ps were in the harbor, and he remarks that the bustle was sufficient to have done credit to a third rate port in the civilized world. Sir George sailed for Okhotsk on the Russian s.h.i.+p "Alexander," then crossed Siberia overland on his return to England from a journey round the earth.

There were eighty cannon mounted in the batteries which commanded the bay or which looked down on the Kolosh village. These cannon were of different make, some being cast in Sitka, others purchased of English or Americans, which were purchased on the s.h.i.+ps on which they were mounted, as on the "Juno" and the "Brutus;" and other ordnance was brought from Kronstadt, Russia, as in 1804 on the "Neva," and in 1820 on the "Borodino."

Teahouses were situated on the little knoll in the center of the town where the public Gardens were located; the museum, and the library offered instruction to the workers who occupied this lonely post halfway round the world from the Russian Fatherland.

There were fourteen chief managers who directed the affairs of the Company at Sitka between the date of the founding in 1804 and the surrender to the United States in 1867.[21]

Many of the officers resided long in the colonies and their record would establish their right to be denominated as "Sourdoughs." Baranof was manager 28 years; Zarembo was rewarded in 1844 for 25 years' service; Krukof, the manager at Unalaska, was rewarded in 1821 for 40 years'

service; Banner remained at Kodiak for at least ten years, and he and his wife both died there; while Kuskof came with Baranof in 1790 and returned to Russia in 1821.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sitka in 1869--During the Time of the Military Occupation.]

CHAPTER VIII

SITKA UNDER UNITED STATES RULE

Then came the day when the Russian was to withdraw from his colonies, and the United States was to occupy them as Alaska. An area as broad as an empire, equal in extent to Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark combined, was to be handed over from the Imperial Ruler of all the Russias to the Republic of the United States, and Sitka, the Capital of the Colonies, was to be the scene of the actual transfer. The statesmans.h.i.+p of Secretary Seward, aided by the eloquence of Sumner, had secured for our country a domain one sixth as large as the whole United States.

October 18th, 1867, Alexei Pestchouroff, the Commissioner of the Tsar, appeared in front of the Baranof castle, and beside him stood Lovell H.