Yukon who is who

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Mrs. J. T. “Hattie” Willis (b. ~1845)
	
Mrs. J.T. Willis decided to set out alone for the Yukon in 1895. Her husband suffered from rheumatism, and she vowed not to return until she had a fortune.((“Women as plucky Klondyke pilgrims.” //Los Angeles Herald// (Los Angeles), 8 August 1897. California Digital Newspaper Collection, Vol 26, Number 312. 2018 website:  https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH18970808.2.139&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1)) She travelled in with Joe Ladue, Ellis Turner (a friend of Ladue’s from his home town, and George Mulligan. Ladue had met Mrs. Willis on the steamer //Willipaw,// where she was a stewardess. She joined Ladue’s party at Juneau where she had been working in a laundry. She went first to Circle City where she started a laundry and a bake shop. She went out for the winter and worked as a nurse for the steamship company. She returned in the spring with two dogs and about 750 pounds of supplies, including a sewing machine. She made so little money at the mining camps that she was disheartened. When she heard about the Klondike strike she was among the first to hurry to the new region.((A. C. Harris, //Alaska and the Klondike Gold Fields.// J.R. Jones, 1897: 230-231.)) 

Mrs. Willis travelled to Dawson with a group of cattlemen and then worked for the Alaska Commercial Company as a mess cook. She staked a claim that netted her more than $300,000 although there was some trouble proving her rights. She started a laundry in Dawson and introduced boiled shirts, using very expensive starch. The //Los Angeles Herald// estimated that about seventy-five very respectable women were on their way to the Klondike inspired by the stories of Mrs. Lippy and Mrs. Willis.((“Women as plucky Klondyke pilgrims.” //Los Angeles Herald// (Los Angeles), 8 August 1897. California Digital Newspaper Collection, Vol 26, Number 312. 2018 website:  https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH18970808.2.139&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1))