Show FIRST CHILD OF THE YUKON Lucle France Pierce in Chicago Times Herald Certain misguided but enthusiastic enthus-iastic journalists have spread a sensational sensation-al report of the recent birth of the first white child of the Yukon They are I foisting this notoriety on a poor little innocent 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 1 the Swedish infant He wants his name j to go thundering down the ages alone as I the only and original white child of the terrible north The Swedish babe will probably have to I withdraw For the rival who is called j I Edward Bean seems to have a pretty I clear case He is no longer being carried I around in a nurses arms and fed on malted milk He was 22 years of age ou his last birthday and he is industriously operating a mine somewhere up the river I from Dawson This goes to show that Ladue was not the first man to penetrate the interior and I Joaquin Miller was not the second There were scattered pioneers and even little I settlements or heroes who had opened up the north long before the recent excitement I excite-ment They are the ones to whom the honor is due Yet their names have never I been mentioned The genuine authentic I I history of the original whites on the Yukon has been totally neglected I o c v < From Juneau come the real facts The I srte couple who ever reached the Yukon I were a man and woman named Bean They were residents of Chicago in 1874 I and were married there in that year I Bean was a trader and he and his wife started out together to an Alaskan post I 50 miles up the Tananah river In post that year young Bean was born He owns I the distinction of being the first white I child born on the Yukon or in the whole interior of Alaska I The Tananah Indians were treacherous and unreasonable Bean the trader had I considerable trouble in negotiating any business with them They were willing wiing to barter with him in furs but they insisted I in-sisted that he must accept unconditionally I ally every skin good or bad that they i brought to him Naturally he refused I The Indians would have killed him on the spot but for one tremendous reason Something stood in the way That something I some-thing was Beans wife The Indians were afraid of her I Is not often that one little Chicago woman can terrify a whole band of savages But Mrs Bean did She was a woman of unflinching courage She who was not afraid of the unconquerable rigor of the north could not be afraid of a band of sneaking and superstitious sUerttous Indians It was her very fearlessness that made them cower > < < Then she was no novice In the use of firearms Her marksmanship was famous Her quickness and skill astounded the na tive redskins She had threatened to shoot the whole band singlehanded jf they made an attack Now if Bean himself had made that threat it might have been a different proposition But they were Just shrewd enough to know that a wo mans threat means war So they decided de-cided not to confront her Yet they meant to make away with her first and Bean afterward After a council three medicine men lay 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 vas shot in the back and fell dead on the spot Bean escaped I es-caped with his young son and settled with other whites who had just reached a point down the river 0 0 The distinction of being the first white woman to reach the Yukon from Juneau br the pass lake and river route has been accorded to several different women I 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 a March lESS and is stijl the best known woman about the northern diggings dig-gings Dutch Kate Is not a coward Then she Is an indefatigable worker and a shrewd and clever thinker She is said to be by far the most picturesque character charac-ter in all Alaska You couldnt tlc back to Dutch Kato when I knew her said an argonaut argo-naut who had met her She had the muscle of an ox and the endurance of an I Indian and she would just as soon land you flat as not And you couldnt trip her up In reckonin you couldnt She was I too goldarned shAfer sh-Afer penetrating Chilkoot in iSiS she reached the river and the following fall she drifted on down the river to St Mi chaels She went down with a gang of miners and cooked for them Later however how-ever they were compelled to evacuate the post on account of a fearful dearth of supplies The miners were fortunate enough to secure passage on one of the revenue cutters bound for San Francisco But since i was contrary to rules to take a woman passenger aboard a government cutter Dutch Kate was left behind She succeeded later In leaving on a whaling whal-ing vessel after suffering privation and torture at the hands of Indians To these two noble women Mrs Edward Ed-ward Bean and Dutch Kate is due solely the merit of facing unknown and undiscovered dangers They were the first real martyrs The women who have gone to the Klondike have traversed 1 wellbeaten path I was Dutch Kate who showed them the way |