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Joseph A. Segbers
Joseph A. Segbers was the manager of the North American Transportation & Trading Klondike Mill Co. in 1901.1)
Segbers and his associates in the Northern Lumber, Machinery and Fuel company started construction of a new mill on 14 May 1903. The mill was on an island in the Klondike River, opposite the bluff above Dawson. A rough plank joined the island to the mainland on the first day of construction but washed away that night. At noon on the 15th, five men from the construction site were seen in a sinking canoe between the bluff and the island. Despite the heroic efforts of men on the shore, including R.A. Fax, three men drowned: William Baily, Haggland and John Frank. Baily was Segbers’ brother-in-law. George Mero, of McLennan & Mero contractors, and Edward Whitely survived.2) Segbers and John R. Howard established the Northern Lumber Co. on Klondike Garden Island in 1903, upriver from Klondike Island and Dawson. They milled construction grade lumber for housing and mining.3) In 1903, Segbers was the manager of the Klondike City Bridge Co. and the Klondike Mill.4)
Segbers was mining in 1907/08.5) In 1909/10, he was the proprietor of the Fairview Hotel in Dawson. In 1911/12, he was the owner and proprietor of the Yukonia Hotel.6) The Yukonia was on Queen Street and First Avenue. The hotel advertised steam heat and had a grill room attached.7) Rebecca B. Segbers, Joseph’s wife, ran the Yukonia Hotel with her husband. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star in Livermore, California. She drowned when the Princess Sophia sank in the Lynn Canal in the fall of 1918. Her body was sent to Livermore where she is buried.8)
By 1909, the O’Brien Brewing and Malting Company was in trouble as Dawson was experiencing a severe decline in population. The company took over the Red Feather Saloon to cut out the middleman. William O’Brien sold out his holdings in the brewery to Joseph Segbers in 1915.9) Segbers appointed F. Vinnicomb to manage the company. The sale of alcohol was suspended in the territory in 1919.10) The last meeting of the shareholders was held in 1919. In 1933 the production line was dismantled and shipped to Fairbanks.11)
In May 1939, the Yukonia Hotel was being rebuilt under the supervision of proprietor Jos. Segbers, onetime millwright, and pioneer carpenter Ben Porter.12)