Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty came into the Yukon in 1896 and was known to spend his money where he made it. Lady gold diggers made a fortune from Dougherty’s lavish spending habits.1) He was from Kentucky and had a very strong southern accent that gave him a nickname no longer socially acceptable. He owned good mining property. A man bet him that he could not tell one friend of a gold strike and quietly get out of town. Jim and his friend sneaked out of town and the stampede followed.2)

Dougherty owned The Hoffman House, established in Dawson because he was unable to purchase the hotel of the same name in New York. Mary Hitchcock attended an evening event there where a stage at the end of the room held five musicians playing Cavalleria Rusticana as well as she had ever heard it, the violinist being particularly good. Jim was an honest man, surrounded by a dozen satellites, men and women, and he entertained them in the grandest style known to Dawson.3)

In October 1898, a congenial gathering of the clans took place at the Worden with Mr. James Doherty [sic] as master of ceremonies. The company was largely military and semi-military, and they elected Jim to the rank of major without pay, or “Breveted Major,” to honour him. The popular “Jim” was now known as Major Doherty.4)

Dougherty left Dawson for Fairbanks in the early 1900s, and he died there.5) In July 1899, John Stevenson took an interest in Dougherty’s hotel. By November 1899, John W. Stevenson was the sole proprietor and manager of the Hoffman House.6)

1) , 5)
Allan Safarik, ed., The Olive Diary. Surry: Timberline Books, 1998: 202.
2)
Arthur T. Walden, A Dog-Puncher on the Yukon. New York: The Riverside Press Cambridge, 1928: 180.
3)
Mary E. Hitchcock, Two Women in the Klondike. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1899: 141-42.
4)
“Local Brevities.” Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 8 October 1898.
6)
The Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 1 November 1899; “Some Whose Riches Were Not Made In The Mines.” AlaskaWeb.org, 2020 website: http://alaskaweb.org/mining/nonminers.html.