John Jerome Healy (1840 - 1908)
John J. Healy was born in County Cork, Ireland during the famine years. His father, Thomas, immigrated to America in the mid-1850s when Johnny was thirteen and the family lived in Brooklyn. Johnny enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1857 or '58 and was sent to Fort Leavenworth on the Missouri River before the soldiers marched to Utah. Healy was discharged in 1860 and joined forty emigrants led by Herman Beebe going to Oregon. Healy went alone from Dalles to Portland where he spent the winter of 1860/61. In the spring, Healy and some others set off to find gold at Oro Fino and the Salmon River. Next, he went to Gold Creek, Montana, and then headed back east for a family visit in 1862. He married Mary Frances Wilson in September 1963, and they had eight children together. The Healys travelled to Fort Benton in the spring of 1864 and John travelled to Edmonton and spent some time in the goldfields of Virginia City and Helena, returning in 1865. 1)
In 1869, Healy and Alfred B. Hamilton established whiskey-trading posts near present-day Lethbridge, Alberta. The first post was named after Hamilton, the second post was called Fort Whoop-Up. Healy sold the post to Dave Akers in 1876. At various times, Healy was the sheriff of Chouteau County in Montana, a newspaper editor, and a businessman in Fort Benton, Montana. 2)
Healy first saw Juneau in January 1886. A Chilkat man, Johnson, owned a schooner but could not get a licence without severing his tribal ties. He sold his schooner, the Charley, to Healy and taught him how to sail and read a chart. Captain Healy earned money by transporting miners between Juneau and Dyea, on what was then known as the Yukon Portage. 3) He hired a sea captain, and George Carmack served as second mate. 4) A trader named Edgar Wilson had established a trading post at Dyea and needed a partner with some capitol. Healy got N. A. Fuller to advance the funds and later returned the favour in Dawson. 5)
In 1887, Healy had tried to turn the Chilkoot Pass trail into a toll road. Clanot [Klanott], a chief of the Chilkoot tribe, asked the American authorities to clarify his people's rights over the Trail. Clanot was killed during a battle over packing rights in 1888. The battle took place in front of the Healy and Wilson store at Dyea. The Chilkoots threatened to burn down the store because Healy had refused the chief the refuge which may have spared his life. 6)
Healy was a widower when he met widow Bella Finley, and they married. Bella joined him at Dyea where she cooked and minded the store. 7) Healy was a partner in the Healy and Wilson trading post at Dyea for six years. 8) Healy then decided to challenge the monopoly of the Alaska Commercial Co. (ACCo) at Forty Mile. He talked Portus B. Weare into backing him for $50,000 and he introduced Healy to the meat-packing family of John Cudahy. They named the new company North American Transportation and Trading Co. (NAT&T) and Seattle became their outside headquarters. 9) Healy owned one-fifth of the NAT&T, Portus B. Weare, one-fifth, Michael Cudahy, one-fifth, and the Corn Exchange Bank of Chicago owned one-fifth. Healy was elected General Manager, Eli Weare, President, and Charles H. Hamilton was Assistant Manager. 10)
Healy and company took 300 tons of supplies and the building materials to St. Michael for a sternwheeler called the Portus B. Weare and a log building as headquarters there. The Weare left for upriver in the latter part of September and was frozen in for the winter at Nulato. The steamer continued on in 1893 and established a trading post at Fort Cudahy, on the Yukon River and across the Fortymile River from the town of Forty Mile. In the summer of 1894 Healy took another stock of supplies in via St. Michael. Healy came out in the fall of 1894 for the first time and went to Chicago to purchase supplies. He established a post at Circle City in 1895 and the post at St. Michael was enlarged. 11)
Captain Healy had a strong character and was known to be vindictive. He had an intense dislike for his opposition Jack McQuesten and refused to sell to any of Jack’s customers. When the NAT&T had canned milk in oversupply, and the AC Co. had none, Healy refused a man some milk. McQuesten had given the man his outfit and, as he had no money and Jack knew Healy would not give credit to one of McQuesten’s customers, had also given him money to buy the milk. These and other stories got around the camp and it was bad for Healy’s trade. The Weare brothers were sent to Forty Mile to supervise Healy. When Circle City became the impost camp, Healy left Eli Weare in Forty Mile and went to Circle where he had the freedom to act as he would. P. B. Weare, president of the company, sent in Captain Dixon and to smooth Healy’s feelings, told him that Dixon could relieve him of his river problems. When the steamer P. B. Weare was iced-in at Circle in the winter of 1896, Healy tried to discredit him by charging him with stealing the ship’s store to give to a “poisonous octoroon woman of the town.” Dixon called him a liar, and they started a fight. Healy’s men held Dixon while Healy struck him. Healy fired Dixon who sued him for his three-year contract. An Oregon court gave Dixon the verdict for the whole amount. 12)
Eli E. Weare took merchandise into Alaska in 1896 and the NAT&T’s second boat, the John J. Healy was built that year. In 1897 a third boat was built, the C.H. Hamilton, and stations opened at Weare and Rampart in Alaska. Two 200-guest hotels were built at St. Michael as well as large warehouses and docks. In 1897 four new boats were contracted - John Cudahy, T.C. Power, J.C. Barr and Klondike. In early summer 1897 Eli Gage was looking after the NAT&T operation in Dawson, Eli Weare was at Forty Mile, and Healy was in Circle. Eli Gage left Dawson that summer and Healy moved to Dawson. 13)
When Healy arrived in Dawson in June 1897, he found all available lumber was being used by the Alaska Commercial Co. (ACCo.) as they built their new headquarters. Healy moved his sawmill from Fort Cudahy in July and set up the Klondike Mill Co. By 1898, Healy’s mill was located on an island at the mouth of the Klondike River, and he had dammed a finger of the river to create a log pond. 14)
In the fall of 1897 there was widespread alarm in Dawson at the lack of food available for the winter. The ACCo. announced that it would only fill orders placed before September 1. Healy still expected his boats to get through and reassured customers. The ACCo. accepted help from the NWMP and barricaded their warehouse but Healy declined the offer. The Bella brought only a light cargo as the boat was relieved of supplies at Circle by gunpoint. Constantine, Fawcett and Customs collector D.W. Davis posted notices urging all who could to leave immediately. Speeches were held and agents of all the trading companies, except Healy, urged an exodus. Healy was closer to being correct than his critics. 15)
The ocean ship the S.S. Roanoke was purchased in the spring of 1898 for the Seattle-St. Michael run. Healy came out in the fall of 1898 and arranged for merchandise to be shipped to Dawson in 1899. 16)
Healy opened a cafe north of the NAT&T building in Dawson in 1898. He named it Regina after his sister and daughter. Healy's son T. C. left for Nome, but Healy stayed in Dawson for a full year before he also moved on. He resigned his position with the company, and left Dawson in June 1900. 17)
Healy was not well liked in the Yukon, and the Klondike Nugget newspaper was especially critical. After his departure the Nugget reported that Captain Healy was a shrewd man in many ways in that he was interested in gratifying the shareholders of his company. It went on to say that the lack of competition in the country gave him full scope for his genius without advising him by diminishing sales that he was overstepping the bounds of public toleration. That the company had seen fit to recall him at a time when his company should be doing the most immense business of its history was an indication of something wrong. Competing companies opened up their stock of goods and the company was suddenly brought to a realization of their manager’s unpopularity by their immense stock of goods piled up on the sidewalks due to the lack of room in their crowded warehouses. Still the captain had the consolation of leaving here a wealthy man as many of his mining speculations proved successful. There were no departing cheers for the captain. 18) Most of the mining claims belonged to the NAT&T. Healy fell into misfortune. His sons spent his money, and one got into trouble in Nome and died. Healy died a pauper in New York. 19)