Albert James Goddard (1864 – 1958)

Albert Goddard was born in Muscatine County, Ohio. He went to Seattle in 1888 with his brother and founded the Pacific Iron Works, the only foundry and machine shop in Seattle. In 1892, he was elected to the city council and served for eight years. In 1894, he was elected to the legislature. He was president of the Pacific Iron Works; A.J. Goddard & Co., Bankers; North Side State Bank; Consumers Publishing Co.; and General Manager of the Upper Yukon Co. The Upper Yukon Company owned two Yukon River steamers: the A.J. Goddard and the F.H. Kilbourne.1)

The Goddard and the Kilbourne were steel/iron/wood sternwheelers built in 1898 at Lake Bennett by James H. Calvert for the Upper Yukon Company Ltd. The frames for the boats were cut in San Francisco in 1897 and landed with Capt. Goddard in Dyea in 1897 together with the sawmill parts. The pieces were shipped over the Chilkoot Pass by pack train and aerial tram to Bennett and assembled there. A.J. Goddard brought the Goddard to Dawson from upstream on June 21, 1898. The trip took four days and twenty-one hours from Bennett. It was the first of the common carriers to arrive in Dawson from upstream in 1898.2)

The A. J. Goddard landed at the foot of Fourth Street where a crowd was awaiting. She carried eleven passengers and their outfits and a crew of eight men. She made the run of the canyon and the Thirty-Mile River without incident. She brought down some mail and some late papers and expected to carry mail back out. The Oakley sisters were among the passengers; A. J. Goddard, Capt. Smith and a crew of eight.3)

The A. J. Goddard was sold to Henry Alexander Munn and the Canadian Development Company on 21 October 1898. It foundered at Goddard's Point near the foot of Lake Laberge on that date.4) Back in Seattle, Goddard was elected to the city council in 1908 and continued to serve for ten years. He erected many apartment houses and residences in the city. He was the first president of the Order of Alaska and Yukon Pioneers and became their historian.5)

1) , 5)
Alaska Weekly (Seattle), 25 October 1929 in Ed. Ferrell, Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, 1850-1950. Juneau: Heritage Books Inc., 1994: 120-121.
2) , 4)
Edward L. Affleck, A Century of Paddlewheelers in the Pacific Northwest, the Yukon and Alaska. Vancouver: Alexander Nicolls Press. 2000: 70.
3)
“Another Up-river steamer: Successful and speedy run of the new A. J. Goddard.” Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 23 June 1898.