The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-13
FIRST CHILD OF THE YUKON.

Lucfe France Pierce in Chicago Times
Herald: Certain misguided but enthus-
iasuc journalists have spread a sensation
al report of the recent birth of the first
white child of the Yukon They are
foisting this notoriety on a poor little in
nocent babe, born OF Swedish parents a
fortnight since.
There is another claimant to the honor.
He does not want to divide privileges with
the Swedish infant. He wants his name
to go laundering down the ages alone as
the only and original white child of the
terrible north.
The Swedish babe will probably have to
withdraw: For the rival, who is called
Edward Bean, seems to have a pretty
clear case. He is no longer being carried
around in a nurses arms and fed on
matted milk. He was y years of age on
his last birthday and he is industriously
operating mine somewhere up the river
from Dawson.
This goes to show that Ladue was not
the first man to penetrate the interior and
Joaquin Miller was not the second There
were scattered pioneers and even little
settlements or heroes who had opened UP
the north long before the recent excite
menI. They are the ones to whom the
honor is due. Yet their names have never
been mentioned. The genuine authentic
history of the original whites on the
Yukon has been totally neglected.
g g g
From Juneau come the real facts. The
first couple who ever reached the Yukon
were g man and woman named Bean.
They We're residents of Chicago in 1874
and were married there in that year.
Bean was a trader and he and his wife
started out together to an Alaskan post,
50 miles up the Tananah river, in 1875. In
that year young Bean was born. He owns
the distinction of being the first white
child born on the Yukon or in the whole
interior of Alaska.
The Tananah Indians were treacherous
and unreasonable. Bean, the trader, had
considerable trouble in negotiating any
business with them. They were willing
to barter with him in furs, but they in
sisted that he must accept uncondition-
ally every skin, good or bad, that they
brought to him. Naturally he refused
The Indians would have killed him on
the spot but for one tremendous reason.
Something stood in the way. That some
thing was Beans wife. The Indians were
afraid of her. It is not often that one
little Chicago woman can terrify a whole
band Of SaVageS. But Mrs Bean did She
was a woman of unfiinching courage. She,
who was not afraid of the unconquerable
rigor OF the north, could not be afraid
of band of sneaking and suDerstitious
Indians. 1t w@s her very fearlessness
that made them COVER
g q @
Then she was no novice in the use of
firearms. Her craftsmanship was famous
Her quickness and skill astounded the ma
tive redskins. She had threatened TO shoot
the whole band Single-handed if they
made an attack. Now, if Bean himself
AheiN lletNlS lIldl bilI6cll, II nave been
different proposition. But they were
Just shrewd enough to know that wo-
man s threat means war. So they de-
cided not to confront her. Yet they meant
TO make away with her first and Bean
afterward.
After a council, three medicine men. law
IN ambush, awaiting an opportunity for
murder. They did not have to wait long
Mrs. Bean was not the kind of a woman
to lie concealed in a closet. Without the
slightest warning, she was shot in the
back and fell dead on the spot. Bean es-
capped with his young son and settled with
other whites who had Just reached a point
down the river.
@ g 9
The distinction of being the first white
woman to reach the Yukon from Juneau
by the pass, lake and river route has
been accorded to several different women.
1t belongs emphatically and undeniably
to Mrs. Kate Nelson. known at Dawson
City, Juneau and at Forty Mile as dutch
Kate" She crossed the Chilkoot pass as
early as March, 1883, and is still the best
known woman about the northern dig
gings. Dutch Kate" is not a coward
Then she is an interchangeable worker and
a shrewd and clever thinker. She is said
to be by far the most picturesque charac-
ter in all Alaska
You couldn't talk back to Dutch
Kate when / knew her. said an argo-
naut who had met her. ''She had the
muscle of an OK and the endurance of an
Indian. and she would just as soon land