Richard Harding Davis (1889-1918)
Richard Davis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1918, he was working on Yukon Gold’s Dredge No. 2.1) He worked for the Yukon Gold Company for several years and then worked on the Yukon River sternwheelers as a deck hand for the fall. This pattern of taking work on a final couple of trips on the steamers was normal for the dredge workers who only made $4.50 an hour. There was always end of the season work on the boats. Davis was crew on the sternwheeler Seattle No. 3 in October 1918. His wife Louise worked for the Cascade Laundry in Dawson and they both were looking forward to leaving before freeze-up.2) They had been married for five years and lived at Grand Forks on Bonanza Creek.3) Richard and Louise drowned when their ship, the Princess Sophia, sank in the Lynn Canal in the fall of 1918.4)