Yukon who is who

Charles Wilber Adams (1875 - 1963)

Charles Adams was born in Hanover, Ontario.¹⁾ He was on his way home from business school in Illinois to the family farm in 1897 when he heard about the Klondike stampede. The next spring, he and two partners headed north. They explored the Stewart River to the mouth of the McQuesten and then carried on to Dawson. Adams left the Yukon and then returned to Dawson with backing from his brother George. He bought a claim on Gold Hill and a hillside claim on Trail [Gulch] and became a successful miner. He travelled to Nome on the little steamer Charles H. Hamilton during the stampede. Adams arrived at St. Michael in July 1900 and purchased the steamer Lavelle Young with partners Tom Bruce and George Crummy.²⁾ Howard Adams, Charlie’s nephew, was also a part owner.³⁾ None of them knew anything about steamboats. They hired a captain and pilot, a first mate, and two engineers, and the owners worked as crew. The sale price was $20,000 and the investors put down $10,000 with Adams putting up most of the money. Bruce had $1,500 and Crummy had $800. Standard passenger fare upriver to Dawson was $125 and freight moved at $100 a ton.⁴⁾

E.T. Barnette engaged the Lavelle Young to carry supplies up the Tanana River to Tanana Crossing (Tanacross).⁵⁾ Barnette wanted to establish a trading post 400 miles up the river but the Lavelle Young ran aground about seven miles up the Chena River and Adams refused to go further. This became the future site of Fairbanks, Alaska.⁶⁾

In April 1900, Adams bought the larger sternwheeler Oil City from the Standard Oil Company for $7,500. It was laid up in the Andreafsky River, about 128 miles up the Yukon River from St. Michael. Adams hired a man to go out to Seattle and have a large barge built and contracted with another company to freight a load of hay and oats to St. Michael. He hired two engineers, a fireman, a mate, cook and a waiter, and they made their way down to the steamer after navigation opened. They took three weeks to get the boat ready for service and started for St. Michael after William Moore delivered a pilot that Adams had hired in Dawson. The hay and oat arrived but the barge was delayed, so Adams had to get the Alaska Commercial Co. to freight what the Oil City could not handle. Charles Adams was met in Dawson by his brother George who had a half interest in the boat. He wanted out of the business, so Charles gave him his half interest in the gold mine and took the boat in return.⁷⁾

Adams had a load of freight and passengers for Fairbanks next but the wheel shaft broke in the Tanana River. The steamer Cudahy took all the passengers which cost quite a lot and, after temporary repairs, they dropped the freight at Chena, about 10 miles below Fairbanks. The new barge was lost in the Gulf of Alaska so the next trip up from St. Michael Charles had to give 400 tons to other companies. The Oil City could carry only about 100 tons. They had to cache the hay above Fort Yukon to make it back up the river. Bert Dickey of the Dominion Commercial Co. and Billy Clark of Mersereau & Clark approached Charles to buy an interest in the Oil City. The boat had a broken shaft and “a broken owner” so Charles sold them a half interest for $6,000. There were three men in the Dominion Commercial Co. Mr. Daub barged the goods from Whitehorse and a Mr. Schockenback recovered the goods in Dawson and had freighters take them out to the creeks where Dickey sold them to the miners. The firm of Mersereau & Clark had just two partners; Andy Mersereau who ran the goods down from Whitehorse and Clark who sold them in Dawson. Charles stayed aboard the Oil City all winter and, in the spring, had a crew come in from Seattle with Captain De Pue and John Trout, Chief Engineer. They had some trouble but made it through the season and tied up at Chena for the winter of 1905/06. Two trips from St. Michael went well in the next season but then the water dropped, and the barges could not get up to Fairbanks. Captain Langley was tied up at Chena with the Wilber Crimmons so they bought it and a small barge and were able to get both steamers and barges up to Chena to winter in a slough four miles below the mouth. They built two barges, one for each steamer at the foot of Lake Laberge. The crews came in for the 1907 season and they left for St. Michael at the start of a successful season. They put up the boats and barges in the slough below Chena and the Alaska Commercial Co. bought them for a good price.⁸⁾

Adams worked on many boats and finally took the test and got his masters papers in 1909. ⁹⁾ He was the manager of the Minneapolis in 1911. He registered for enlistment in the First World War in Alaska and returned north in 1918. That year he worked for the Barringtons on the Julia B and filed a work application with the British Yukon Navigation Company. In 1923 he was the master of the steamer Alaska.¹⁰⁾

Adams was the first captain of the Nenana, built for the Alaska Railroad in 1934. He served as her master until 1940 when he was succeeded by his nephew Captain Howard Adams.¹¹⁾ Charles Adams moved to Los Angeles in 1947.¹²⁾