Jonas Peter “John” Hagstrom (1871 - 1941)

John Hagstrom immigrated to Canada from Sweden in 1906. He left behind a wife and five children, with the sixth on the way. He arrived in the Yukon in 1912 and worked on French Gulch, near Dawson. He was at Coffee Creek and went on the Chisana stampede into Alaska. He mined near Ross River but gave it up after ten years and left his mine to Taylor and Drury, who had supported him for years. In 1930 or 1931, John walked from Ross River to Teslin and ended up at a place called Birmingham on the Teslin River. He was remembered as an educated man, although he had little formal training. He had excellent metal manufacturing skills and his metal sled runners lasted more than forty years. The daughter he had never met, and her husband, sent him a ticket back to Sweden but he died before he could use it. He is buried at his home on the Teslin River.¹⁾