Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-02-04
A SUBSTANTIAL
STAFF OF LIFE.
A KLONDikE WOMAN MAKING A
FORTUNE IN BREAD.

FORTUNE IN BREAD.
She Has Pioneered 1t in Half a
Dozen States and Stands the
Hardships Like a Man'-Owns
a Claim Worth a Quarter Mil.
lion.
| hn'onS interesting narro+;-a. -olat-
ed by those who returned from Klon-
dixie on the Corona, a short time ago,
is that of the experience Of Mrs. j. r..
Wills, who left the Sound country
three years ago with the avowed pur-
pose Of obtaining fortune in Alaska.
Mrs. Wills is we'll known to nearly !
all our older residents. About IL or
20 years ago she kept restaurant on
Main street, between Second and
Third, near the old Pacific House.
She is woman of indefatigible energy,
and no one who knows her is sur
prised that she should be one of For
tunes favorites, for she does not await
the smiles of the captious goddess but
supplicates for her good graces on first
acquaintance.
With ready market for bread at 81
loaf, and biscuits at two.bits each,
the ordinary housewife, of a specula-
tive turn of mind, would be content !;
but not so with Mrs. J. T. Wills, the
pioneer woman gold hunter of the
Klondike. But Mrs. Wills is not an
ordinary woman. She has been in the
pioneering business all her life, and
has at last made great success of it
to the tune of $256,OOO or more. She
hoo " business at Dawson City that is
yielding her an income of 5000 ur
$1,000 year, and she is still holding
down claim in the Klondike that the
tempting offer of $25O,OOO did not in
duce her to part with. She has gone
through no end of hardships, and was
one of the first of the few who made
the dash from Circle City to the Klon.
dixie at the first news of the great
strike, and she stood the journey like
a man." Two years sojourn in Alaska
had seasoned" her to rigors of the
climate and hardships of travel and
camp life. She was born on q farm in
Iowa, and has pioneered it in New
Mexico, Colorado, Washington, Ore
gon and Alaska. She went first to St.
Michaels, and obtained employment
as a cook. She earned good wages,
and being an excellent cook, soon be-
came favorite. She heard so many
stories of life on the Yukon she soon
concluded that the Simon pure pio-
neer life of Alaska was to be found
only up the Yukon. Much to the re-
gret of the boarders Mrs. Wills re-
signed her position as head of the Gu
linary department in the boarding
house at st. Michaels, and took pass
age on the river boat to Circle City.
She took with her the regulation camp
outfit, and soon pitched her tent at
Circle City.
What to do was the next question.
After few days of investigation Mrs.
Wills concluded that she would set up
in business for herself. The very next
morning the Circle City bakery took
rank among the flourishing institu-
tions of the then chief city of the land
of the midnight sun. In her camp
outfit she had sheet iron camp stove
and two baking pans. The two pans
were all that the oven would hold, and
for that reason her "bakings" were
limited to two loaves at "batch."
But a ready market was found for her
bread at so cents loaf. The miners
soon learned that Mrs. Wills could
double discount them when it came to
a matter of baking bread, and before
the week was over the demand for
Wills loaves was such that the price
went up to IS cents, and few days
later 81, and there it stuck for the sea-
son. BY working fourteen hours a
day she conld turn out twenty-four
loaves, and in the meantime while the
oven was doing its share of the work
Mrs. Wills filled in the time washing,
ironing and mending. Buttons were
sewed on at two bits button and
double price for patches. She had the
honor of introducing the first "biled"
shirt seen in all the Yukon country.
A miner by the name of Wilson had
made strike, and feeling flush the
desire for things of the civilized world
came over him irresistibly. He con-
suited Mrs. Wills, and in consideration
of Wilson furnishing the material
along with $40 worth of dust the con-
tract was closed, and three days later
Wilson appeared in white starched
shirt. Meantime the bakery had not
stopped for minute, but nearly every
thing else did in Circle City, to recover
from the shock. Mrs. Wills did every
thing in her power to encourage the
wearing of starched shirts. But they
did not become the rage to any extent
that season. A starched shirt without
woman's care is no shirt at all, and
Mrs. Wills charged six bits each for
shirts washed and ironcd, and if she
could have induced twenty or more
men to wear "stiff9' front shirts her in.