The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-01
THE ALASKA HERMIT.
Lonely Poet of Japansky Island
a Violent Maniac.
HIS STRANGE LIFE HISTORY.
Being Taken by His Rich Brothers to an
Asyium-Rescued by an Indian
GIrl-Defense Of the Flag.

On board the steamer Al-Ki, which ar
rived from Sitka yesterday morning, was
Michael Travers, an insane man, who, in
charge of Deputy United States Marshals
Foster and Burne, is being taken to Wash
ington City, where wealthy relatives will
place him in private asylum under pri-
vate medical attendance.
Travers is the hermit of Japansky
island, of whose interesting history the
PosT-INTEbLIGENcEE has already pub
hshed some particulars. He has two
brothers living in Boston, one of whom,
G.. c. Travers, is editor and proprietor of
the Courier, the oldest paper in that city.
James Bartell, a former newspaper man.
who lives at Sitka, came down on the
AI-Ki. and last evening related TO a PosT-
INTELLIGENCE reporter the life of Travers
who is known to nearly every trader and
Indian in Southern Alaska. Said Mr..
Bartell:
Travers was Union soldier, and during the
latter part Of the war; in one of the decisive bat
ties, he was struck in the head by rebel bullet
He never fully recovered from the wound, for
he became subject to severe headaches, and,
though never displaying indications of in
sanity, he was changed man. For several
years succeeding the war he taught school
In one of the Western states. He
found the work monotonous, however,
and went to Boston, the home of his boyhood,
and enlisted in a marine corps, which was as
signed TO duty in Alaskan waters. Arriving in
Alaska. he was loath to return home, and when
his time was up he made his headquarters at
sitka and spent the summer of each year pros
pecting.
Thirteen years ago he took UP claim on ia
pangky island, in Sitka harbor, where he
built hut and cleared a small piece
OF ground and lived alone, subsisting
on what game he could kill and tho
vegetables that he raised In 1880 he left his
island home and went TO Fort Wrsugel in a
canoe. From there he went TO the mountains
In the interior and prospected, but with the
approach OF winter he returned TO Fort Wrangel
and prepared for his embarkatIon to Japansky
island. During heavy gale his canoe upset,
and he would have been drowned had not the
daughter of an Indian chief named Katlahan,
rescued him. Trayers took the girl with him,
and when they arrived at sitka, married her.
The girl kept house for him on Jepansky
island until 1884, when, firing of travelling hfe's
pathway in double harness, Travers sent her
back to her people and he lived alone in his hut.
He ceased his annual prospecting tours and
turned hermit, keeping close to his
island aud never going to Sitka
except in cases of necessity. He
become possessed of the idea that he could write
poetry, and frequently the sitka weekly papers
would print his wild and weird verses. He
stocked his hut with copies of Byron, Shakes
peare, Shelley, Dante, Virgil, Macaulay, Gibbon,
Bancroft and many books by more recent au-
thors, and he frequently said that some day he,
like Byron, would wake up and find himself
famous
A number of years ago, when the marine corps
was removed temporarily from Sitka, the In
dams threatened to storm the town and massa-
ere the Inhabitants. There was great excite
ment, but just as the Indians were preparing for
their bloody work an English man-of-war
steamed into the harbor aud put them to flight
The people OF Sitka were almost wild with Joy and
were about to replace the American flag on the
fort flagstaff with the English colors. Travers
heard OF their intention and went to Sitka.
crowd OF men were around the flagstaff and
were in the act OF lowering the stars and stripes
when Travers, wild with excitement, rushed in
among them and declared he would kill the
first man who touched the flag He then deliv-
cred patriotic speech and the flag was not re-
moved.
In 1885 the American mariners returned to
Sitka aud encroached on Travers' domains,
using part OF Japansky island as a storage
place for their powder. Travers appealed to the
government for damages, aud was promised
$1,000. The money has never bein paid him.
however
Last year his brothers learned OF his pitiable
condition and determined to have him removed
10 Boston and, il possible, cured of his insanity
AT present he is so violent that the guards have
to watch him closely and have had to use the
strait-jacket to keep him from harming him.
self