Valdez daily prospector., 1917-11-21
CHARLES. E. l, HAND
 PASSES AWAY
widely Known Citizen of Valdez Fails to Survive After Anger-
 ing ItlDess

Charles A. Hand, chief deputy clerk of the district court at Valdez, died this morning at 2 o'clock in the home of H. F. suessdorf. The end had been feared for several days by his intimate friends but came sooner then expect cd. He never recovered from a sur gical operation in September. Friends who called on him yesterday found him cheerful and able to talk as us- ual, though very weak. He sat up part of the time. Late in the evening his mind wandered as he talked to Henry Suessdorf and shortly before mid night he fell into the sleep from which he never wakened.
 In December 1916 MT. Hand under went an operation for appendicitis in Portland. From this he seemed to recover and during the past summer his health seemed normal, though he sometimes mentioned that he had been told that another slight opera tion might be necessary. On Septem- Der g last he entered the local hospital for an operation which was performed a day or two later. From this he rallied slowly but late in Oc- tober he conditions had improved so that he expected soon to be back at his work when an attack of rheuma- tism laid him up again. This caused him great pain and confined him again to his bed and from that time he gradually weakened. Two weeks ago he was carried into Henry Suess- dorf's private rooms in the Copper Block where he remained to the end. Mrs. H. R. Miller has been nursing him.
 Though 62 years of age and of frail physique, MT. Hand possessed extraordinary nerve and patience and he made a noble fight for life. It is doubtful whether he suspected to the last moment of consciousness that he was suffering his final illness. He friends practically gave up several days ago though hoping against hope to the last.
 Charles A. Hand was borin in 1855 at Friedrichshafen, grand duchy ot Baden, Germany, one the northern shore of Lake Constance. He came to the United States in 1871. He was induced to come lergely because of privations to which his district was subjected in the Franco-Prussian war, although 1t was German. This made him all his life extremely hostile to Prussian Junkerdom.
 Arriving in America MT. Hand liv- ed short time in Northern New York then went to California, where he worked on the survey of the Southern Pacific in and around Los Angeles. He then worked on the Denver & Rio Grande when it was built through Colorado and Utah in the eighties, From there he went to Idaho, where he lived until the Klondike stampede. He was county assessor of Boise county, and was an executive clerk in the office of Gov. Frank Steunen- burg of Idaho. .
 In 1897 MT. Hand went to Dawson and in 1900 to Nome. He came to Val deg in 1902 and for ten years con- ducted a cafe. When the town was prosperous he prospered with 1t. but in the periodical dull times which all Alaska towns pass through he always lost money because he was too kind- hearted to refuse credit to anybody. The unpaid accounts Oh his books would astonish the community by their total. When he finally closed his business in . period of depression sev- eral years ago he told friend that he had to do 1t because he was not collecting enough to pay his own gro cery and meat bills. Yet he had good patronage and his statement was . revelation to the man who heard 1t.
 On July i, 1918 MT. Hand became deputy clerk of the district court and hald the position until his death. In