Alexander Seeley (1878 – 1957)
Alex Seeley was born in Clidesdale Village, Keymer, England. He immigrated to the United States when he was very young and settled in Montana where he worked on a railway. He hiked to Seattle where he was a photographic retoucher. He grubstaked two Klondike stampeders (Townsend and James Wilson) and then decided to head north himself in 1903. He arrived in Whitehorse with only fifteen dollars. He hired on as a mess boy on the sternwheeler Casca. He found work in Dawson at Clarence Kinsey’s photo studio, and then found other jobs such as surveying and express service. He operated a meat market, managed the Principal Hotel (Pearl Harbour), and was a member of the Dawson Fire Department for seven years.1)
Alex Seeley and Mabel Kolkin were married at the Traveller’s Rest at Last Chance Creek in 1913. Mabel had come to Dawson with her mother in 1904. They had two children, Lawrence and Alex Junior.2) Their home was a garden showplace.3)
Gus Johnson, who had purchased the cascade Laundry in 1906, shut down the business when he left town in 1925. Alex Seeley was the next proprietor and he ran the business for another twenty years. The family left Dawson for Whitehorse in 1946.4)
Alex Sr. had an endless supply of jokes and his greatest pleasure was making children laugh.5)