Willie's Gold

I have a GGG Grandfather who had 7 children. My dad came from one of his daughters, Phoebe and my cousin Willie comes from another daughter named Harriet. Willie is actually William Wirt French and he was born in Curve which is a geographical location in  Pearisburg Virginia in 1858. 


In 1897 headlines in all the papers screamed "Gold in Alaska!" "Valdez Glacier — Best Trail!" Gold was being discovered in the Klondike Fields. Willie was intrigued and with his long time friend J. M. Hoagland at his side they set out for Alaska and gold. It was summer in 1898 when they left.Willie had a wife, Rose and 4 children all under the age of 6. He was 5'6" tall, had light brown hair and blue eyes. 

                                                              William Wirt French

On November 2 1898 Willie filed a mining claim above a canyon on Manker Creek. It was listed as claim number 7 and was named Alix. His friend J.M. Hoagland also filed a claim in the same area as claim number 8. They were witness for each other. The rest of the legend goes a little something like this.....

It was the first of March 1899 and the weather seemed to be letting up. Willie decided to cross the Valdez Glacier perhaps to get back to town for more supplies.  A late storm sprung up and caught Willie by surprise. He never made it to town nor back to his cabin. After the storm let up on March 8, his friend Hoagland went looking for him and found him. Willie had frozen to death while crossing the glacier. His dog, a Saint Bernard was curled up around him and barely alive. Hoagland brought the body to town and it was shipped back to his home in Pocahontas. He nursed the dog back to health and returned with the dog to Virginia. 

 Valdez, Alaska in the early 1900's. It shows a pack train associated with prospectors and mining working its way up the side of a snowy slope. One of the amazing things about the picture is that it appears that one man has a bicycle!

I was skeptical when I first saw Willie's death location as Valdez, Cordova Alaska. 

To be honest I thought I had stepped into a Jack London novel when I started researching  all the little bits, pieces and snippets of information across the web. I would love to happen upon a diary of their travels from their first few miles out of Virginia to Hoaglands journey back with the dog. 

View of men standing in cemetery, Valdez, Alaska. From information with photo: (Gravesites)? Marked with names: Adolph Ehrhardt, N.Y., Maximillion Miller, N.Y., August G.H. Schultz, N.Y., Alfred Ellermann, N.Y., [all] died Feb. 28, 1899. W.W. French of Pocahantas, Va., died Mar. 8, 1899. Valdez, Alaska." Photo is property of Cook Inlet Historical Society. 

Meanwhile, a couple of lifetimes later I came upon two enterprising young ladies with a lemonade stand set up in their front yard. I had just gotten in my hot car and was wishing I had brought some water. I gladly paid the fifty cents for the cold pink lemonade and traveled on. If only there had been a couple of enterprising young ladies with an Inn and a coffee shop set up near the Glacier back in 1899. 

Speaking of coffee it is time to start some breakfast.