Eugene C. Allen (1868 – 1935)
Gene Allen was born in Oak Park, Illinois. He was a graduate of the University of Kansas and learned the printing trade in the midwest. His brother Pliny was the manager of the Metropolitan Printing Co. in Seattle and he hired Gene as a salesman working on commission. When the Klondike gold rush started, Gene and his friend Zach Hickman persuaded Pliny to back them, and they started for the Klondike in 1897 with printing equipment to begin the Klondike Nugget. Gene's brother George accompanied Hickman and the dogs to manhandle the press and other equipment over the Chilkoot Pass. Eighteen months after arriving, the paper had grossed more than a quarter of a million dollars. Allen opened offices and hired staff in Grand Forks, Skagway, Seattle, and several other places. He also started the Nugget Express delivery service and his dog teams carried small packages between businesses. Competition was stiff and the boom was over before Allen noticed. In the fall of 1899, he deeded the Nugget to his brother George for a dollar and so lost the revenue from this business.1)
Gene Allen’s management of the Nugget newspaper was distinguished by the newspaper’s August 1898 attack of Gold Commissioner Thomas Fawcett that caused Fawcett’s resignation, his bringing suit against the Nugget for libel, and a subsequent inquiry into the charges that completely exonerated him.2)
Gene Allen bought selling mining equipment and brought in twenty-two machines to thaw the frozen ground. He hired scows to move them down to Dawson and freight costs boosted the price per machine from $400 to $1200, especially when the scows were frozen in, and crews came to break them out of the ice. It cost Allen $40,000 to make good on delivery. In February 1900 he lost his credit rating, and the bank called his overdraft. He left his affairs in the hands of a lawyer and he and Bert Finney left for Nome. On 11 July 1903, the Nugget announced that the paper was sold to the Record Publishing Co. The Record was taken over by the Yukon Sun in November 1903 and it too soon stopped publishing. Allen left the north to mine in Idaho and work for the Wallace Press Times. He retired in 1926 and returned to the Seattle area where he founded the Tacoma Sourdough Club. Gene was survived by his widow, two sons and two daughters.3)