Bridget Mannion (1865 – 1959)
Bridget Mannion was born in Ireland and came to the USA when she was twenty years old. She worked as a cook in Chicago for Portius B. Weare. In 1892, John J. Healy was establishing the Healy and Wilson trading post in Dyea and he gained Weare’s support for establishing a post at Forty Mile. The new company was called the North American Transportation and Trading Company and Healy named one of the company's sternwheelers after Weare.1)
Bridget Mannion accompanied Healy and his wife Bella to Forty Mile as their servant. They arrived at St. Michael late in the summer of 1892 and, after being frozen in at Nulato, completed the journey in 1893. Bridget married Edward Aylward in 1894. Aylward was an Irishman mining on Napoleon Creek, a tributary of the Fortymile River. He was a rich miner and Bridget travelled outside in 1896 wearing a nugget necklace and bracelet and carrying 150 nuggets from their claim. Anna DeGraf shared a cabin with her on the sea journey. Bridgit was toasted in Seattle before going to Boston and then over to Ireland to visit family. Edward died in 1914 and Bridget remained in Seattle until 1948 when she moved back to Ireland.2)