Seward daily gateway., 1923-07-30
REV. J.F. CHAPMAN PIONEER OF A|Vv!K
 VISITS IN SEWARD
IN SERVICE IS MISSIONARY ON LOWER YUKON, FOR THIRTY
 THREE YEARS

Rev. John w. Chapman, his wife and daughter, accompanied by Miss B. Lucas, arrived on the steamship Alaska, and spent the Sabbath in Seward, leaving on today's train on his long journey to Anvik, an Episco- pal mission on the Yukon river, some 45 miles above Holy Cross. Rev. Chapman has been stationed at Anvik since 1887, or about 36 years.
 Rev. Chapman is taking in a new sawmill with him to replace the one in use the past quarter of century, a caterpillar tractor, to be used in hauling logs from the timber to the sawmill, and complete highpower, continuous wave, receiving and trans hitting radio set, the latter donation from admirers of his great work on the Yukon.
 Anyik, a community of about I50 Indians and whites, was the first Episcopal mission to be established in Alaska, and owing to it entering the field before contact with the whites destroyed the Indians individuality and morals, it has been one of the most successful. A boarding and day school are maintained at present, with twenty scholars. The buildings are the usual mission equipment of schurch, dwelling houses, boarding schools for girls and boys, hospital, sawmill and carpenter and black smith shops. Capt. John B. Bentley, an officer in the field artillery, over seas, is assisting Rev. Chapman, as artifcer, and Mrs. Bentley is with him. Capt. Bentley has charge of the sawmill and is a capable and re- sourceful man. The assists are Miss Marguerite Bartberger, house mother for the girls, of Calvary church, Pitts burgh; Miss Susan E. Smith of North Carolina, teacher; Miss B. Lucas, and Rev. J. w. Chapman and family
 Rev. Chapman states that the na- tives under his charge are a clean, Christian-like race, who do not know the taste of liquor, and who have in the past thirty-six years radically changed their manner of living. In the old days they lived by hunting and fishing, and dwelt in unsanitary huts and holes in the ground; whereas now they have comfortable, we'll furnished log cabins, and sanitary surroundings. Most of them are provided with good ranges, heaters and gasoline and ker- osene lamps and sewing machine, the women being very adept at sewing. The men have abandoned their ca noes and now use gas boats, at which they are very expert in handling.
 The Indians are very helpful about the mission, being employed in log glng, helping in the sawmill, and to CiCSI buildings duU DOdtS. EnSIlSn IS generally spoken, but at the same time they have not abandoned the use of their original language, which is a type of pure Athabascan, having it's origin in the same stock as that used by all Indians on the Porcupine, Peace, Mackenzie, and Saskatchewan rivers, and on Hudson's Bay, until | the Eskimo tribes are reached on the coast. No explanation can be made | as to how this tribe has a language of the same stock as these far east ern Indians, but Rev. Chapman is the author of several works on Indian languages and ethnology, some of which are accepted as authority.
 The work of the mission this year will consist of replacing the machin- cry in the sawmill, erecting many