May 16
Ninety years ago today, May 16th, 1935, while rain fell on the tent city in Palmer, the Michigan and Wisconsin contingents of the Matanuska Colony arrived in Seattle. The city had planned two days of picnics and speeches and shows for the visiting “pioneers,” but for many of the weary travelers the chief attraction in Seattle would be hot baths and comfortable beds at the Frye Hotel.
Sketch of families sleeping sitting up
Margaret Miller wrote, at 4:15 PM on May 14th:
“On the train from St. Paul bound for Seattle. Everyone is writing diaries. Left St. Paul at 12:10. We ride in day coaches – not even reclining chairs – and are they ever dirty! We must sleep sitting up I guess. Some families – with tiny babies too – have been on the train since yesterday morning at eleven o’clock. Poor kids are so tired and cross and dirty – but there’s not one, but what will tell you with a gleam of joy in their eyes that ‘We’re going to Alaska!’”
From “Cheechako to Sourdough: Excerpts from a Colonist’s Diary of the Matanuska Colonization Project” by Margaret Miller, in the PMHA Miller collection.
(Margaret wrote several versions of an intended book, but none were published in her lifetime. Her grandson-in-law Ray Bonnell inherited the project and published her story as “A Creek, a Hill, and a Forty” in 2024.)
Clipping of Schaleben describing Higginbotham to the rescue
Colonist Bob Higginbotham became the hero of the train ride for knowing the trick to convert the train seats into makeshift beds.
Clippings from Arville Schaleben “Pioneers Find Way to Sleep in Day Coach,” Milwaukee Journal, May 15th 1935
Photo of Hermons sleeping stretched out
Margaret Miller wrote:
“9:40 – Western time.
I can’t sleep. But as I look around me I can’t help but be impressed with what a bunch of game folks these new neighbors of ours are. We have no sleepers. The men took the seats apart to improvise beds – most of us have no pillows or quilts – and are sleeping in our clothes. But we hear no words of complaint. There are two babies, and two dogs in our car. The babies are sweet. The pups are causing their owners considerable bother. Only half the lights are out. The rest are glaring into upturned sleeping faces. One man showed his ingenuity by buttoning the baby’s bunting over the light above them.
There are two children in the next car, sick with high temperatures. Hope it’s nothing serious. It’s probably just excitement and fatigue and crazy hours for meals.”
Quote from “Cheechako to Sourdough,” PMHA Miller collection
Clippings – measles and mumps
Contagious disease broke out among the children almost as soon as they were all packed together on the train. Measles had also appeared among the Minnesotans aboard the St Mihiel. Decades before vaccines were available, the best tool available was to isolate patients and try to prevent the disease from spreading. Several of the Michigan-Wisconsin families would miss the boat due to quarantine, and come up on the second sailing of the North Star.
Clippings from the Milwaukee Journal, May 15th and 16th 1935
Clipping about reception in Seattle
“We didn’t notice all the hullaballoo when we arrived in
Seattle. We were just happy to be off
the train.
. . .We were so grateful when we finally reached the
hotel. It was so good to get into tubs
and have real baths and fresh clothes.
We were so dirty and so tired.”
Quote from “A Creek, a Hill, and a Forty – Margaret Miller’s
Story,” by Ray Bonnell
Clipping from Arville Schaleben “Alaska Bound Colonists
Welcomed at Seattle,” Milwaukee Journal, May 16th 1935
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“Shake Hands With Waiters” describing scrubbing up, flowers, pride
The colonists were determined to make a good impression in the big city, and not show up looking rumpled and destitute. The eyes of the nation were on them, and they knew it.
Clipping from Arville Schaleben “Officials Beam, Crowds Cheer State Pioneers,” Milwaukee Journal, May 17th 1935