The San Francisco call., 1897-08-15
A ROMANCE
FROM ALASKA
How DR.. Clarence Dickinson
of Kodiak Won Fame
and a Bride.
Saved the Lives Of Many Sur
vivors From the Schooner
White.
Will Be Married To-Day to Miss
Josephine Block, the Belle
Of Kodiak.

One of the prettiest romances that have
come from Alaska reached happy end
ing in the announcement of the wedding
of DR.. Clarence Dickinson and Miss
Josephine Block, which will take place
this afternoon from the residence of the
bridegroom's s father, Samuel Dickinson, at
Stockton.
A little over two years ago DR.. Dickin-
son, a young graduate of the Cooper
Medical Institute, was sent to Kodiak as
physician for the Alaska Fur Company.
Society is perforce very exclusive in Ko-
diak, for at the time of DR.. Dickinson s
arrival there were only five white ladies
in the settlement. Miss Josephine Block,
beautiful brunette in her seventeenth
year, was the acknowledged belle of Ko-
diak and the young doctor soon sue
combed to her attractions.
Miss Block had admirers many, how
ever, not only on account of her beauty.
but because Of her social standing in the
settlement. She was the daughter of the
manager of the Alaska Fur Company at
Kodiak, ard on her mothers side was con-
nected with one of the best-known Rus
sian ia miles in Alaska.
b
An obscure young graduate OF the Cooper
Medical College, suddenly sprang into
fame. The schooner White was ship
wrecked and the wretched survivors
tramped through miles of ice and snow
before they could reach settlement.
They erected tenn porary shelters of drift.
wood and sometimes slept in the snow.
Part OF the way was over plain Of snow,
right in the teeth of a piercing wind. One
nan sat down for few minutes, and as
his comrades helped him to rise he fell
forward dead. Others fell by the wayside
TO rise no more, one man went insane and
another was frozen so badly that he could
not move.
Finally some of the survivors reached
an Indian village, and a party of las
lans, under the guidance of q Russian
priest, started out to carry relief 10 the
helpless stragglers. Later on the sur
vivors were taken on board the little
schooner Lesno and were taken to Wool
Island, where they were placed under the
care of DR.. Dickinson.
The young doctor was totally unpre-
pared for the advent OF seventeen men,
many OF them horribly frostbitten, with
limbs that needed instant amputation.
He had not the necessary instruments,
neither had he assistants to help in the
surgical operations, Without an instant S
delay, however, he set to work to impro-
wise instruments from KNIVES and other
weapons that were at hand and took off
arms. legs fingers and toes with skill
and tenderness that won him the grati-
tude ana admiration of his unexpected
patients.
One OF the patients, writing home TO his
relations in this city, said: II am getting
the finest treatment in the land. Don't t
worry"
The successful way in which the doctor
carried his patients through the danger,
and his skill in averting operations no t
absolutely necessary, won him words of
praise from physicians twice his years.
When the men from the White came
down to the Sound they made hero of
"our DOCTOR" and to this, day DR.. Clar-
ence Dickinson is the best-known physi-
clan in Alaska.
The way in which her admirer rose to
the emergency in the White disaster was