Ellen Gibson

Ellen Gibson arrived in Dawson in 1898, a year behind her husband Joe. She travelled from San Francisco with their two teenage sons. They had to stop in St. Michael when informed that their tickets were not through to Dawson. The ship’s captain offered free passage to anyone who wanted to return to California, but Ellen and the boys stayed and worked at odd jobs until they had enough money to continue. Ellen had a sewing machine and clothes ringer and when she arrived in Dawson she started taking in laundry. The Montana Steam Laundry came up for sale and she bought it, paying in monthly instillments. Joe was happier in the bars than on his claim and, in the summer of 1902, Ellen left for Fairbanks and they were divorced six years after her departure. Their sons, eighteen and twenty, stayed in Dawson with their father.¹⁾