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| Esther Aileen Spaeth 1903 - 1985 (click image to enlarge) Aileen on steps of Spaeth home in Neodesha, Kansas, c 1908-9 Aileen was born September 16, 1903 in Neodesha, Kansas to Lucy (Record) and Albert Lamont Spaeth. She was the youngest of five children, after brothers Joseph, Robert and Mitchell and sister Perie. In 1909, the family moved to Ketchikan, Alaska, where her father was employed as bookkeeper for a prominent merchant, J.R. Heckman & Co. Aileen graduated from Ketchikan High School in 1921, then attended the University of Washington in Seattle, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1925. After teaching high school two years in Glenwood, Washington, she returned to the University of Washington, where she received her masters degree in mathematics, in 1929. She then taught for two years at Chariton Junior College in Chariton, Iowa, then returned to Alaska, in 1932, to teach school in Nome. Shortly after arriving in Nome, Aileen met her future husband, Larry Burrow, who was working as a radio operator at the U.S. Army Signal Corps radio station in Nome. In August, 1933, Larry was transferred to the radio station in Candle, a small village about 120 miles northeast of Nome. After Larry proposed marriage by telegraph, Aileen flew to Candle, where they were married by the U.S. Commissioner on September 3, 1933.
 Aileen traveled on the steamship Humboldt from Seattle to Ketchikan in 1909 (Source: Yukon Archives Images Database)
From Kansas to Ketchikan By Aileen Spaeth Burrow as told to here grandchildren, c. 1970 “Once upon a time” is the way most stories of long ago begin. So that’s the way we’ll begin the tale of the adventures of a little girl named Aileen (spelled with an “A,” not an “E”). She lived in Kansas with her father and mother and three brothers, Joe, Robert, and Mitchell and one sister, Perie, and Aileen was the youngest.
The place where they lived had no hills and mountains, nor lakes, and only rather small rivers, so Aileen (that’s me!) didn’t know anything about such things, nor of the oceans which were one or two thousand miles away.
When I was 5 years old there was a great change in my life. Papa went away one spring to a place called Alaska where his friend Andy Mitchell was working in a bank in Ketchikan. He found a job for my father as bookkeeper for the J. R. Heckman and Co. Department Store. Papa found a house for us to live in and after school was out the rest of us left Kansas on the long trip to Alaska. My older brothers had explained something about the trip to me, but my mental picture was somewhat different from the actual thing. They told me we would have to go a long ways on the train, and that I could visualize easily enough because we lived near some railroad tracks where trains passed every day, and there had been times when we rode a train to visit Grandma and Grandpa Record who lived not far from Neodesha where we lived. The rest of the trip was to be made on a big boat – so big that we would sleep on it and there would be lots of other people. Since my only knowledge of boats was of a small flat-bottomed skiff big enough to hold 3 or 4 people, my picture of a boat as big as they told me about was a very much enlarged skiff – probably abut 100 feet high on the sides, but it didn’t include anything such as cabins or masts, or decks. Early in June our journey began, stopping first at Grandpa Record's, then going to Kansas City where the trip really got under way. We travelled "Tourist Class" and besides all the baggage necessary to carry clothes for the six of us, Mama took along food enough to provide most of our meals, supplementing it with cocoa and fruit bought from vendors who sold such things at stations where the train stopped. It was far too expensive for our whole family to eat in the dining car. Along the route my attention was often drawn to things of interest, and I don’t know whether the others ever realized how dumb (or rather ignorant) I was. I only remember two highlights – we saw “towns” of prairie dogs (that is they were pointed out to me but I never did actually see them, since I hadn’t the least idea what I was supposed to be seeing! The same was true of the excitement when the mountains came into view. Everyone tried very hard to show them to me, until I finally pretended I saw them although I still didn’t know what I was supposed to be seeing.) The train trip finally brought us to Seattle one morning after 3 or 4 days, and we spent that day visiting at someone’s home where there were some other older children. My main recollection of that place was that fresh cherries from a tree by the house were the first sweet cherries we’d ever had and they have been one of my favorite fruits ever since.
Late that afternoon we had to go downtown to the dock where our boat was to sail for Alaska. In the hurly-burly crowds, I was jostled so much that my hat fell off, and before anyone was able to retrieve it, it blew off the dock and fell into the water. It must have been a blow to Mama because she had made it for me – a straw hat with a wide brim and amply ornamented with bright flowers. In those days one always wore a hat, and fortunately the dock wasn’t far from the downtown shops in Seattle, so we hustled to a store where I was provided with a rather simple cloth hat. Secretly, I liked it much better than the lost beauty, which was so ornate and not too comfortable, and I’m sure the cloth hat was more appropriate for an ocean voyage.
I soon learned all about big boats, staterooms and eating in the dining room for every meal. These were included in the price of the tickets. I guess I also proved for the first time that I was not a good sailor because one evening I felt sick so the rest of the family went to dinner without me. When the came back they told me I had missed having cherry pie for dessert, but then they admitted it wasn’t such a treat, because the seeds hadn’t even been removed before the cherries were put in the pie!
Most of the passengers on the boat were school teachers taking vacation trips, and we five were the only children aboard. Mama felt flattered to be told by some of these tourists what a well-behaved group we were. I guess I was kind of cute in those days, being small for my age, and having a head of golden curls, and the captain of the ship made a fuss over me, letting me wear his officer’s cap on at least one occasion. Again I showed my ignorance when he invited me into the pilot house but I refused to go. My brothers would have liked nothing better than to have had such an invitation. They told me that anyone who didn’t do what the captain wanted might have to “walk the plank.” Not even that threat made me change my mind, partly because, again, I didn’t know what it meant.
And finally, we arrived in Ketchikan on a sunny morning on June 29, 1909. Little did I know or care that on that day there was a 9-day-old baby in Riverside Okanogan County, Washington by the name of Lawrence Alexander Burrow.
Slide show Aileen Spaeth
Picnic plans go awry (As described by Aileen in a letter to her brother Mitch at Port Ashton, Evans Island, Prince William Sound, where he was working as the storekeeper at a fish cannery.) Ketchikan, Alaska June 18, 1919 Dear Mitchell: I take my pen in hand to relate to you an experience which befell me on Sunday, June 15, 1919. First, on Saturday evening I was invited, by Mrs. Snow, to go picnicing with them on the following day. She said that they would leave in their put-put at six o’clock, so I set my alarm to awaken me at 5:30 A.M. I awoke in the morning before the alarm did and I arose and shut it off. The weather looked doubtful so I rolled in again. At half past six the telephone rang and I went down to answer it and Mrs. Snow said they would leave in ten minutes. I scrambled into my clothes, gave my hair a lick and a promise, grabbed a hand full of cookies and two oranges which mama made me to take and went down to the float. The others who were going were, Mr. Snow, Mrs. Snow, Helen, Gertrude, Mr. & Mrs. Kirtz and Arthur Moe. We headed down channel and Mr. Snow intended to go to Annette Island but when we reached the end of Pennock the engine refused to go any more. Art Moe rowed us over to a beach just the other side of Saxman, where we landed. The tide was low and the sand was full of clams, so we dug enough to have for dinner and to bring some home. After that we were hungry so we ate although it was only half past ten. After we finished eating Helen and I went down the beach until we came to a little creek which we followed a long ways. It was so shady that we could not get a good picture in most places but we took a few and I think they will turn out good. We were in the woods for a long time and when we got back the others were gone. We looked out and saw that the boat was nearly tipped over. Helen sent me after Mr. Snow and I met him coming on the run for he had seen the boat. He went into the water but just as he took hold of the boat it tipped over. He had thrown out an anchor at the stern and as the tide came in it pulled the boat down. We were in a fix when four fellows off of the [lighthouse tender] Fern came along in a launch and they turned the boat over. We thanked them and asked them to eat with us which they did. Then we had to wait for the tide to go out far enough to get the engine. Helen & Mr. Snow and I went trawling but we didn’t get anything. Ed Parker came along and helped get the engine up and he said if we would wait until about seven he would give us a tow. We started at half past six and rowed slow but we got home long before he did. I waited until Mama & Perie got home from church and then went to bed and slept like a log. Thus ended an eventful day and now this letter ends. With love, Aileen
Steamship Admiral Evans (Source: Pacific Coastal Liners, Gordon Newell, Superior Publishing Co., Seattle, 1959, p. 59)
An excursion from Ketchikan to Sitka and back on the SS Admiral Evans Ketchikan, Alaska Sept. 4, 1919 Dear Mitchell: You have not written to me yet but Mama insists that I write and tell you all about the trip so here goes. I can’t begin to tell you all but I’ll do my best. We left Ketchikan on the S.S. Admiral Evans at 12:30 P.M. Wednesday August 19, 1919. There was a jolly bunch of tourists and we had lots of fun. We got to Wrangell in the evening and it didn’t take us long to go over the town. We stayed there all night and got to Petersburg the next morning. It was about as satisfactory as Wrangell and Miss Brewster said she wouldn’t like to teach at either place. We left Petersburg about 6 P.M. and got into Thane at 4 A.M. It certainly was a beautiful sight to see the stamp mill all lighted up. Everyone got up to see it. We got into Juneau about 7:30 A.M. The boat only stayed until 10:30 so Miss Brewster roused Mr. Henderson because she wanted to see him on business. We didn’t get down till nine and after their business was over we rushed thru the school with him & the superintendent because the half-hour whistle had blown. Then the boat stayed in about an hour longer. We went to several canneries and at Hunter Bay we got aquainted with the Chinese cook who gave us some chop sticks. We got into Sitka about eight Sunday evening. It certainly is a pretty town although is quiet. We walked along the main road for a while and visited the Russian Church before going to bed. The next morning we started out bright and early to take in the sights. The harbor of Sitka is full of small islands which give it a Japaneze effect. The day we were there was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky. First we went to the park and walked up Lover’s Lane. They were painting the totems and they all had scaffolding around them. We were in the park for a long time and when we got back we spent the rest of the morning in the museum. You could spend hours there an never see it all. The first thing in the afternoon we visited the Sheldon Jackson school for the natives. Then we went to the old Russian cemetery where there are hundreds of graves. It was hot and we were tired from walking so much. We had been walking on real dirt roads in the dust. We went on to the experimental station where we ate all the strawberries we wanted. They had lots of vegetables fruits & flowers. We got some phlox and some yellow daisies. After the experimental station we had taken in nearly everything so we went back to the boat and rested until dinner time. We pulled out just as we were eating dinner. But, oh, what an end to a perfect day. Pretty soon we got up and I didn’t even get to my stateroom when my dinner felt a sudden longing for fresh air. Perie & Miss Brewster were feeling pretty low but they claim that they would have held down their dinner if I hadn’t started it. But I am innocent. Nothing else exciting happened on the way home. We hurried thru Petersburg in order to catch the tide in Wrangell Narrows. We got home at 5 A.M. Thursday morning on the ninth day after we left Ketchikan. No one was down to meet us because we weren’t due till the next day. Mama & Kitty had got home about 10:30 the night before. That’s enough for one letter so I’ll tell you about school next time. Just think, I’m nearly sweet sixteen and never been kissed. With love, Aileen
"Miss Brewster at the Sheldon Jackson Memorial" Sitka, August 1919
Aileen travels to Nome In December, 1932, Aileen traveled by ship from Ketchikan to Valdez, then by plane to Nome, with stops at Anchorage, Fairbanks and Koyukuk Station. Following are excerpts of letters she wrote to her mother along the way:
Valdez, Alaska
Dec 1, 1932
Dear Mom: You will probably think the above is the present location of the boat, but it is someplace between here and Seward. This is how it happened. The flier who is to take Mrs. Cameron & me to Nome was here when we arrived and as she was getting off to fly the rest of the way with him, so I decided to get off, too, since it will take less time that way, and if I can get a refund on my railroad ticket it will cost about the same this way. It's all very exciting, as I didn't even think about such a thing until after the 15 minute whistle had blown. You can imagine what a lot of flying around there was getting packed in that time. I got a refund on my boat ticket amounting to about $3. We will fly to Anchorage tomorrow not going to Seward at all, & that won't cost me anything as Ross, the flier, says he has to go that way anyway. From there we'll go to Fairbanks & then to Nome, probably getting there Monday. We had a very pleasant trip on the boat altho I spent all day yesterday in bed. It wasn't rough for the Gulf, but rolled too much for me. I guess it's because we were nearly all Alaskans. The young lady who is also going to Nome is very nice, and we are rooming together tonight. The town is pretty crowded because court is in session, and we had to do some hunting to get rooms.
Anchorage, Alaska December 5, 1932 Dear folks: Well, at last after four days, we have got this far on our journey toward Nome. I could have sent off another letter from Valdez on the Northwestern yesterday, but thought I'd better not, for fear you'd have visions of our getting marooned there for a few weeks. It started to snow at Valdez Thursday evening and didn't let up until Saturday afternoon. It is an awful hole of a place, without even a movie to provide entertainment, so we were getting pretty bored and disgusted with the weather before we got away.... We expect to fly to Fairbanks tomorrow & Nome the next day, and I'll wait to mail this from Fairbanks to let you know we got there safely.
Nordale Hotel Fairbanks, Alaska December 6, 1932 Dear Mom: Of course I forgot, & sealed up the letter I wrote yesterday as soon as I finished it, so now I'll just write another in place of a P.S. We left Anchorage this morning at 11:15 and took just 3 hours to get here. The weather wasn't so fair as yesterday & we didn't get to see Mt. McKinley at all, which was a disappointment to me. The air was pretty bumpy part of the time, but we all got thru safely - it was a good thing because the box we had provided yesterday in case of need, was buried today under most of the baggage.
Nome, Alaska Dec. 12, 1932 Dear Mom: Before I settle down to the business of earning a living again, I think I'll get a letter written, for I may not have time again for a while. Hope the telegram wasn't a shock to you - I know you said not to bother wiring, but after so many delays on the way, & still more before mail will get out again, I thought it might ease your mind to know that at last I was here safely. It was certainly an interesting trip & I enjoy it as much in retrospect as I did in the process. I guess I've given you a pretty detailed account of our trip to Fairbanks which we reached last Tuesday. We left there the next morning with a different pilot, Hans Mirow, who makes his home in Nome. Ruth & I & Mrs. Schwartz (the doctor's wife) were his passengers & what space we didn't have to have was filled with baggage & freight. I think I could have had 20 lbs more & no questions would have been asked. The scenery this time was rather dismal & after we had flown about 2 hours, we got into snow, so Hans flew low & landed at the first convenient place, namely Koyukuk Station. The girls said now I'd see some real Alaska homes as it was just an Indian village & we might have to sleep in the native's houses that night. You can imagine our amazement when we went up to the trader's house to find it electrically lighted & very comfortably furnished. The other girls appreciated it more than I, I guess, because they had spent time in such villages before, but not in such a house. As we had to stay there 4 days we continued to be grateful that Hans had chosen to land there instead of some other place. The trader at whose home we stayed is an Italian with a half-breed wife, but she has gone to school in Seattle, & was very clean, & how she loved to air her knowledge. At dinner the first night the table was set, I'll have you know, with lace tablecloth & very nice cutlery & glass. And for food, there was nothing we asked for that couldn't be provided. Mrs. Vernetti was very willing to let us do most of the cleaning & cooking, & there was plenty to cook. In fact, I never had such varieties of cheese, dishes with mushrooms & chestnuts & such, before. And plenty of garlic. I have also learned to eat salmon strips (dried & smoked strips) just like candy, so I ought to be ready to try seal oil soon. The women on the Yukon make very pretty moose-hide mocassins, both for outdoor & indoor wear, & Ruth & Pat each bought some. I have ordered a pair for house slippers, from Mrs. Vernetti, & if we'd been marooned much longer I think I'd have made them myself. I did a little practice work in beading the last night we were there, & amazed Mrs. Vernetti by doing it much better than the natives do, at the first attempt. For amusement, outside of cooking, cleaning & baby tending (2 little girls, ages 1 & 3 1/2 yrs) we played bridge, pinochle, radio & phonograph, went out & got 3 Xmas Trees to bring to Nome, & had one dog-sled ride, my first. Every morning we'd wait anxiously for weather reports from Nome, & usually they were rain & clouds. Yesterday it looked pretty good at Koyukuk, & Hans got the engine warmed up in anticipation of good reports & when they came in he said "Let's go!" & we didn't waste any time getting started. I guess we slipped in at just the right moment because it has been raining most of today. It would have been just too bad if we'd have had to land before we got here, because most of the snow is gone from the ground, & the ice is covered with water everplace. Hans heaved a big sigh of relief when he got us landed here with nothing worse than some skidding on the icy field.... Ruth & Pat Schwartz have been very nice to me since our arrival yesterday. I had three invitations to dinner, pretty good for the 1st day, I think. I've had two meals here at Schwartz' & am invited for breakfast tomorrow. I guess I'll be taking a couple of rooms at the Pioneer Igloo, where I can do light housekeeping. I'll have to have coal stoves, and the rooms are not especially beautiful, but they cost only $15 a month, & are about all I can get now.
Aileen flew from Fairbanks to Nome aboard this Northern Air Transport Belanca piloted by Hans Mirow, after flying from Valdez to Fairbanks with Vic Ross, owner of Northern Air Transport.
Hans Mirow
Aileen Spaeth. "Last day of school." Nome, 1933.
Aileen's story continues at: | |
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