Digital Bob Archive

31 October 1980

JANUARY 16, 1897-Robert Duncan, Jr., superintendent of the Treadwell Gold Mining Company, on behalf of Alfred Beit and Thomas Mein, both of London, has purchased what is now known as the Lane & Hayward property in Gold Creek Valley. It includes 20 lode claims, one of which is the Fuller First, the first lode claim staked in the valley by Joseph Juneau and Richard Harris in 1880. There is also a 30-stamp mill. The price is said to be in the neighborhood of half a million dollars. Mr. Mein was formerly head of the Treadwell Company and now heads the London Exploration Company.

JANUARY 30, 1897-The entire camp is shocked by the shooting death of a deputy U. S. Marshal and the wounding of two other members of a posse during a gun battle last week on Admiralty Island. ?Slim? Birch is now in the jail here awaiting arraignment on a murder charge. The three Birch brothers-William, known as Slim; Robert, and Joseph, known as ?The Kid?-came north early last year and worked during the summer in mines in Silver Bow Basin. In the fall they went to Douglas and opened a saloon and were in trouble with the law on several occasions. Last October 20 there was a fight in which all three brothers participated and during which Hank Osborne lost part of his nose. The three were tried on a charge of mayhem. Slim was convicted of assault and sentenced to six months in jail at Sitka, and The Kid was acquitted. Slim was to have been taken south on a steamer that left here on Sunday, January 10, but the previous evening a gang of masked men held up the guard at the federal jail and released Slim. The entire group escaped by boat and it was only a few days ago that Slim and one or two other men were located in a cabin on Bear Creek, Admiralty Island. When a posse approached the cabin, it was met by gunfire, Deputy Marshal William C. Watts fell with a badly shattered leg and subsequently bled to death before he could be gotten to a doctor. Deputy Marshal Hale and A. J. Bays, a jail guard, were both wounded but will recover. Another posse captured Birch and Hiram Shell near Funter Bay on the west side of the island. They were taken without further shooting.

The Yukon mail, consisting of about 1,000 letters weighing 75 pounds, left Juneau post office on Wednesday evening in charge of Jack Hayes.

Waverly Keeling, treasurer of the Boston & Alaska Gold Mining Company, which has property on Admiralty Island, is a Juneau visitor.