The Bakery and Shops of the Russians–Later the Sitka Trading Co.’s Building.
The Bakery and Shops of the Russians–Later the Sitka Trading Co.’s Building.
The workmen got out timber from the forest for the building of ships, they cut fuel and burned charcoal in large quantities; kept the buildings in repair and did other duties required on the factory. The work of the gardening was chiefly done by the Aleuts, who were paid a ruble a day for their services.
The Russian Captain Lutke came to Sitka about this time and he tells us that there were many pigs and chickens raised by the inhabitants, and that a pig might be had for 5 to 7 rubles, a hen for 4 to 5 rubles, and eggs at from 3-1/2 to 10 rubles per dozen. The chief drawback to the chicken industry was the presence of the great black ravens that carried away the young chicks and sometimes even the old hens. The ravens were such successful scavengers that they were called the New Archangel police, and he says they even bit the tails off the young pigs, so that all the hogs of the place were tailless.
He mentions the abundance of deer on the islands and also says that mountain sheep were killed by the Aleuts and brought to the fort. He must have confused the sheep with the goats, for the sheep never approach the coast so closely, and he speaks of the wool being used for weaving the blankets for the ceremonial dances of the Kolosh. This would indicate that the animal in question was the mountain goat. A later writer says that 2,700 game animals were brought into Sitka for sale during the winter of 1861-62.
A shipyard was established as soon as the necessary buildings to house the garrison were completed. It occupied a part of the present parade ground near the Russian Barracks and included a portion of the present street. Many vessels were built in the yard during the Russian occupation, the first, being the tender “Avoss,†launched in 1806, followed by the brig “Sitka,†built by an American shipbuilder named Lincoln, and for which he was paid 2,000 rubles as a royalty upon the completion of the ship. A frigate of 320 tons was the largest vessel built before 1819, and at that time construction was discontinued until 1834, when work was resumed and continued until the close of the Russian regime.
The “Politofsky†was one of the last vessels to be built at Sitka, and it was sold by Prince Maksoutoff to H. M. Hutchinson and Abraham Hirsch for $4,000 in 1867. The next year it was sold to Hutchinson, Kohl & Co., and later was sold to a firm that ran it to Puget Sound, and from Alaska to San Francisco. It was built of Alaska cedar timber, thedushnoi derevaor scented wood of the Russians, and was spiked with hand-made copper spikes. It was taken to Alaska in the gold rush of 1898, and found its last resting place, very appropriately, in the land whereit was built, in the harbor of St. Michael, the old Russian port on Bering Sea.
The fear of shipwreck, and of death at sea hung over every soul of the community. The long voyages in uncharted and unlighted waters with sailing ships–more than six months at the shortest from Kronstadt–often three months or more against baffling winds from Okhotsk–the voyages to the redoubts andodinoshkas(detached posts with one man only) of the Bering Sea and of the Gulf of Alaska, to collect the fur catch of the year and bring it to Sitka; the long journey via Canton on the return to Russia–all held many dangers for the sailing ships of those days. The “Phoenix,†the first ship built on the Alaskan shores, foundered with all on board, including the Bishop and his retinue, in 1799, on the return voyage from Okhotsk; the “St. Nicholas†went ashore on the coast of Washington in 1808, and those who survived the waves were held in bondage for years by the savages of that coast.
During the latter part of August, 1812, the ship “Neva†left Okhotsk–contrary winds delayed her in the Sea of Okhotsk–storms beat her back along the Aleutian Islands till it was November before land was sighted in Alaska. The storms damaged the rigging and ship until it was necessary to putinto Voskresenski Harbor (Resurrection Bay) for repairs. She arrived off Sitka about December 1st. After four or five days Mt. Edgecumbe was sighted but a storm drove the ship to sea where she beat about for weeks before again nearing the port. Scurvy afflicted the passengers and crew and added to the general distress. On January 8th, 1813, Mt. Edgecumbe again appeared. In trying to make the harbor the ship grounded on the rocks under the cape on the morning of the 9th and speedily broke to pieces under the terrific pounding of the seas.[8]Some of the people on board reached shore after incredible suffering and hardship.
After several days two of the sailors wandering along the shore met a Kolosh boy and persuaded him to take them to Sitka, where they arrived, cold, exhausted, and almost starving. Boats were at once fitted out by Mr. Baranof, the survivors were rescued, brought to Sitka, and their sufferings relieved. From those on board the ship, 38 had perished, including Kalinin, the commander, Boronovolokof, the intended future chief manager of the Company, and fivewomen passengers. In the cargo was food and clothing, the messages of the year for the exiles, and rich vestments and furnishings for the church that was soon to be built in Sitka, all scattered for miles along the wild coast of Kruzof Island. This was one of the worst disasters of the sea that visited the colony, although many others are part of the records of the time.
It is said that Chief Katlean tore his hair with rage when he learned of the wreck, because he did not find it and destroy the survivors out of revenge for his defeat and expulsion from his home at Sitka.
There are many traditions among the residents of Sitka concerning the wreck of the “Neva.†Among them is that there was a vast treasure of gold for the use of the garrison and the traders. This is erroneous, for there was no gold used in the colonies, the trade being by barter or conducted with scrip, calledassignats, issued by the Company for the purpose. The story of the gold has been so generally believed that serious plans have been made for attempting the salvage of the treasure.
The term of office of Alexander Andreevich Baranof as the chief manager of the Russian American Company came to a close in 1818. He had been 28 years in the colonies,leaving Russia in 1790 for the post of Three Saints on Kodiak Island, which at that time constituted almost the only Russian establishment in America, the other stations being little more than outlying trading posts. He left their dominion an empire in extent, reaching from the Seal Islands in Bering Sea, at the edge of the ice pack of the Arctic, to Fort Ross, among the sunny hills of Golden California. Captain Hagmeister came to relieve him, and in his 72nd year the old chief manager, bent with the weight of years and of long and arduous service, closed his accounts and set sail on the “Kutusof,†one of the Company’s vessels, for his far-off home in Russia.
When the time arrived for Baranof to take his departure from the land he had made his home for so many years, sorrowfully he took his leave of the associates with whom he had so long shared the dangers and hardships of the uncivilized land. Upon being relieved of the duties of his office he first considered building a home at the Ozerskoe Redoubt and spending the remainder of his days in the place he had learned to love. Later he decided to return to his native land and sailed on the “Kutusof†for Kronstadt. A delay at Batavia in the tropics proved too severe for his advanced years. The day after leaving Batavia hedied and was buried at sea in the waters of the Indian Ocean.
Captain Leontius Andreanovich Hagemeister succeeded to the office of chief manager but remained only a short time at Sitka, then sailed for Russia, leaving Captain Simeon Ivanovich Yanovski in charge.
Captain Yanovski became enamored with the beautiful daughter of Baranof, and if you search the old records of the Cathedral of St. Michaels at Sitka you will find the entry as made of the marriage of Simeon Ivanof Yanovski “with the late head governor of the Russian American possessions, Collegiate Adviser and Cavalier Baranof’s daughter Irina, one of Creoles.â€
In 1830, Baron Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangell, scientist and explorer, came to administer the office. He had sailed the frozen ocean along the northern shores of Siberia as an explorer, and Wrangell Island, Wrangell Strait, etc., on the maps of today perpetuate his name.
Under Baron Wrangell, as assistant to the manager, served Adolph Carlovich Etolin, a native of Finland, who came to the colony as an officer on the war sloop “Kamchatka†in 1817, who sailed in the service of the Company to nearly every port from the Seal Islands of Bering Sea to Chile, who madeseveral voyages around the world, and who was made chief manager in 1840. In 1846 he returned to Russia to accept the trust of Commercial Counsellor in the head office of the Company in St. Petersburg.
About fourteen miles to the southwest, across the bay and facing Edgecumbe, with a beautiful view of the peak and islands, is the Hot Springs, well known for their medicinal properties by the natives before the advent of the Russians, and frequently resorted to by both as a panacea for many ills. In the Place of Islands(Chasti Ostrova)is reputed to be a spring with a sour taste, while almost within the limits of the town of Sitka, Dr. Scheffer, a German physician who made a sojourn in the place about 1815, claimed to have found a medical spring whose waters were equal to some of the famed watering places of Germany.
Most of the Sitkan Kolosh kept aloof from the Russian settlement after the establishment of the new fort on Chatham Strait, near the entrance of Peril Strait. All the kwans, the Khootznoos, the Hoonahs, the Chilkats, the Auks, Stikines, Kakes and others, joined with the Sitkas in the hatred of the Russians. Parties going out from the fort at Sitka for hunting expeditions, for cutting of wood, for traveling to the Hot Springs, had to be on their guard and with arms at hand prepared to fight at a moment’s notice.[9]Small groups were often cut off and murdered. As it was impossible to decide which of the many kwans did the act, and as there were those in each kwan who were peaceable, with whom it was desired to keep the peace, revenge against any village was inadvisable. Even as late as the date of the lease to the Hudson's Bay Co. the Russian ships that sailed among the islands to trade with the Koloshwere compelled to act with the strictest caution. Only a few natives were admitted on board at a time, the trading was done in a space near the stern, and was conducted under the muzzles of loaded cannon concealed in the fore part of the ship.[10]The conditions were thus until 1821, when the Sitkas were invited to reoccupy the site of the old village and to live in what is now known as the “Ranche,†under the guns of the redoubt.
The Thlingit nation is a strange, warlike, shrewd people, physically strong and enduring, and possessed of many excellent qualities. Hunters and fishermen by nature and training, they are skillful boatmen, and in those days they built wonderfully beautiful canoes of the red cedar, some of them large enough to carry sixty men at the paddles. Each spring more than a thousand men gathered together in Sitka Bay, coming from the different villages, to fish for herring at the spawning time, when those fish run in countless myriads in those waters. Hemlock boughs were placed in the water, and on them the herring roe collected until they were encrusted with the eggs which were then stripped off and dried for future use.
The “Rancheâ€â€“Looking north from the top of the Baranof Castle.The Steamer at the left is the “Coquitlam,†noted for her participation in pelagic sealingand she was under seizure by the U. S. Government.
The “Rancheâ€â€“Looking north from the top of the Baranof Castle.The Steamer at the left is the “Coquitlam,†noted for her participation in pelagic sealingand she was under seizure by the U. S. Government.
In 1807 there were over 2,000 hostile natives gathered in the harbor at the herring season and they threatened an attack on the settlement. Kuskof, the most trusted and able lieutenant of Baranof, was in charge, and it put his wisdom and watchfulness to the test to avert disaster. The strictest discipline was maintained. The tribesmen waited outside day after day, hoping for news of some relaxation of the precautions of the defenders to be brought to them by the women of the tribe who were married to the Russian promishleniki (hunters). Day and night the sentinels paced the beats on the stockade and along the waterfront, till, weary of waiting, the Kolosh finally dispersed to their homes.
In the great tribal houses several families lived, sometimes as many as fifty or sixty persons. Over the door of the house was painted the family totem, for the Sitkas did not raise the house totem in a pole in front as did many of the kwans of the Thlingits, and as the Hydahs do. In these houses were held the potlatches, or gift parties, which were made by the wealthy chiefs.
The potlatches were of different kinds, although all partook of the nature of a feasting or merrymaking and were distinguished by the giving of gifts. In the ordinary visiting potlatches, or in the berry potlatches, the visitors came in their canoes with whichthey formed a line off shore opposite the houses, put planks from one canoe to another and on these planks danced the tribal dance. Those on shore danced the welcome dance and invited the guests ashore. Then the visitors disembarked and each family became the guest of their kinsmen of their totem or they went to the guesthouse of the kwan. All the people of the same totem are supposed to be blood relations, so all those of the wolf totem go to theGooch-heat, or the dwelling blazoned by the rude heraldry with the wolf rampant. In the great social potlatches a wealthy chief invites his friends from many villages and entertains them for a week or more with dancing and feasting and makes presents varied and valuable, from Hudson’s Bay blankets to bolts of calico or of flannel, and in primitive days, copper tows,[11]Chilkat blankets, and even slaves were handed over with a lavish hospitality.
On special occasions in the olden time, with great ceremony the visitors landed at a distance from the village, drew their canoes ashore and proceeded to the village dressed in festive garments adorned with sealion heads or other strange headdresses, in whichthey danced the rare and picturesque “Beach Dance,†in acknowledgement to the Spirit of the Sea for the bountiful supply of salmon and herring of the past season–for the native American is a thankful being and omits not to show it when occasion offers to acknowledge it to the Giver of all good and perfect gifts.
During the earlier years of the colony the Kolosh were implacable enemies. War parties of young men constantly haunted the islands of the bay, lying in wait for any unwary hunter or fisherman from the fort. Later, when they were settled under the walls of the fort they became more tractable, for their homes and families were commanded by the guns of the fortress, but on the least provocation the savagery in their blood would boil, from their great tribal houses they issued forth, faces blackened to the semblance of devils, war masks grinning, and the howling mob shouted defiance at their neighbor over the stockade. Many a bloody tragedy was enacted in the “Ranche†for their code was primitive, “an eye for an eye,†and a life for a life.
Feuds raged between the different totemic families. About 1853 a party of Wrangell Indians (Stikines) visited Sitka, and whilebeing entertained in the guest-house were murdered and their bodies piled into a canoe which was then paddled to Japonski Island. On striking the shore it was so heavily laden with the bodies of the dead that tradition says the canoe split from end to end. It is said that the bones of the dead are still to be seen in the undergrowth along the shore. In retaliation, about 1855, the Wrangell Kolosh made an attack on the Hot Springs settlement, burned the buildings, stripped the inhabitants of property and clothing and left them to make their way over the mountains around the head of Silver Bay to Sitka, where they arrived more dead than alive from hunger and exhaustion. This feud was not settled until 1918, when a peace treaty was consummated between the kwans on Armistice Day, a coincidence which is much made of by the tribesmen.
The Kolosh were as firm believers in witchcraft as any of the more civilized nations. They resorted to their shamans (ekhts) or medicine men in case of illness. If his weird incantations failed to relieve the sufferer, his resort was that the victim was bewitched and some poor unfortunate paid the penalty by enduring the most fiendish torture.
One March day in 1855 a commotion arose in the Kolosh village. A sentry caughtan Indian who was stealing and punished him, for which the tribe called for vengeance. Some rushed to the stockade and began to cut away the palisades. Other forced their way into the Koloshian Church through the outer door. From this vantage point they fired on the garrison and in return the batteries of the fort blazed back with solid shot and shrapnel. For two hours the fight continued, when the Kolosh gave up all hope of success, and ceased the battle. The Russian loss in killed and wounded was 20 men, while the Kolosh loss was estimated at 60. This was the last attempt of the natives to destroy the Russian stronghold.
At times during the later days of the colony the Kolosh were employed as seamen and as workers in the ice trade by the Russians and thus they occupied a place in the industrial life. Etolin was the most successful in conciliating them of any of the chief managers, and he at one time held a fur fair at Sitka to which peltry was brought from far and near, modeled somewhat upon the idea of the great fur mart of Nizhni Novgorod. Most of them, however, hunted and fished, lived in their tribal houses, carved their canoes, wove their baskets, and practiced their witchcraft, while their civilizedneighbors gathered the furs and built ships.
Under the walls of the fort, in the old tribal houses of the Kolosh which had not been destroyed, lived the Aleuts. Properly speaking the name belongs to the natives of the Aleutian Islands, but the term was also applied to the natives of Kodiak Island and the surrounding islets. These speak a different language from the true Aleuts, but otherwise resemble them closely. During the hunting season they scoured the seas in their skin bidarkas, in the pursuit of fur animals. In winter many of them remained at Sitka instead of returning to their homes. Their time was spent in idleness, spending the summer’s earnings in the pleasures and vices of the white man. One who saw them in their kazhims, as their dwellings were often called, describes them: “Morally, the Aleut is not bloodthirsty. He delights in simple rejoicings and will play you a game of chess with walrus ivory pieces–a duck for a pawn and a penguin for a king–with the greatest of good humor. Even when squabbles arrive the argument is carried on in poetry to the accompaniment of dancing, and one would be inclined to prefer the Aleut angry to the Aleut amiable, did he not know he also dances when festive and when religious.
“Among them the social duty of visiting has its drawbacks. Several families live together in the kazhims, and during one’s visit they all lie around in every conceivable posture, jolly and genial, naked and unashamed. The fumes of the blubber oil lamps and stoves, the stores of raw meat, the many naked bodies, well smeared with grease and scented with primitive unguents, combine to make an atmosphere difficult to tolerate and not easy to describe. Yet, if you will, you may enjoy the warmest hospitality, and have heaped upon you the most assiduous attentions.â€
It was not until 1816 that a priest arrived at Sitka, and in that year the first entry is made in the church records under the name of Alexander Sokolof. A church was built at the south of the street, which was then called the Governor’s Walk, almost opposite the present cathedral. A monument marks the spot where the altar stood, and a cross marks the site of a grave, said to be that of a priest. Tradition also tells that there are two graves there, and assigns the other one to the daughter of Baron Wrangell, the chief manager of the Company at one time.[12]
Cathedral of St. Michael
Cathedral of St. Michael
The present cathedral of St. Michael, which is the central point of historic interest, in the center of the town at Lincoln Street, was dedicated November 20, 1848. It fronts on a small court and with its green painted spire surmounted by the Greek Cross is so typically Russian that it might readily be believed to have been transplanted from old Russia. The chime of bells, a gift from the Church at Moscow, would be worthy of any shrine. The building is in the form of a cross, has three sanctuaries and three altars. The larger and central sanctuary is that of theArchistrategosMichael. In the center is an elevated platform, the episcopalCathedra, and it is separated from the main body of the church by a partition called theIkonastas, which is ornamented with twelveikons, or holy paintings, covered by plates of silver inrepoussework in the true Russian style of art, and through the Royal Gates the priest appears. The silver in the ikons is valued at over $6,000. The ikon of St. Michael is said to have been in the wreck of the “Neva,†and was rescued after being cast up by the sea. Another is a gift of the monks of the monastery of Solovetsk; another was brought by Bishop Innocentius (Veniaminof) from Petropavlovsk. The ikon of the Resurrection is painted on a board from a tree in Hebron, was consecrated in Bethlehem, and bears the autograph signature of the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The chapel at the right is dedicated in the name of St. John the Precursor and Prince Alexander Nevsky.
The chapel at the left is in honor of Our Lady of Kazan. In it is a painting of a Madonna and Child from which the beautiful Byzantine face looks down with a sweet radiance.
The vestments and sacred vessels are rich and elegant. The white Easter vestment is of cloth of silver and the cloth of gold for high feast days was the personal gift of Alexander Andreevich Baranof, the great Russian who established the colony. The belfry clock is said to be the work of the hands of Veniaminof. The priest in richly brocaded vestments holds the services, and a choir of boys chant the chorus with a melody that would be the envy of many a far more pretentious edifice. The worshipers stand during the services, the clouds of incense rise toward the rounded dome, then one by one the worshipers pass and kiss the jeweled cross in the hand of the priest. Father Metropolski presided over the church for many years, and Father Sergius is one of the best known in recent years.
The Madonna.
The Madonna.
There were two other churches during Russian days, one, a Lutheran, built during Etolin’s time, which stood near the site of the first church, and is said to have contained a small but very excellent pipe organ, brought from Germany. The other church stood near the blockhouse on the hill, was on the line of the stockade, and had two doors, one inside the fortification, the other outside and used as an entrance by the natives. It was known as the Koloshian Church, and its site is marked by a monument. Both these buildings long ago fell into ruin and were removed.
The Russian religion was closely associated with the Government, so in the colonies the official charter of the Company compelled them to provide well for the church and the priests according to the standard of the times, and the work was carried on with zeal and fortitude by the missionaries who came from the monasteries of the old Russian cities.
Of all the missionaries who came to Russian America, the greatest was Ivan Veniaminof. Father John he is often called in the old records, a wonderful man, broad of mind and of body, combining the qualities that inspire awe and reverence with a gentleness of word and deed that made him beloved wherever he was known. His zapiski, or letters, are among the best authorities extant which remain from those years on Alaskan matters, and they were written home to Russia during his stay in the Aleutian Islands and at Sitka. He came to Sitka after a ten-year stay at Unalaska, remained there for five years working for the church and teachingin the schools, then returned to Moscow and was consecrated as bishop of the new diocese. He again arrived in Sitka in 1842, and made a tour of all the churches in the colonies, traveling by sailing ship to every settlement, then went home to Russia where he became Metropolite of Moscow.
The schools of Sitka, under the Russian regime, were well maintained, and many of the mechanics, clerks, pilots, and men of other trades were educated there. Kadin, who drew the charts for Tebenkof’s Atlas of Alaska from the surveys made by the Russian Navigators; Tarantief, who engraved the maps on copper-plate at Sitka; and many of the shipmasters and accountants in the employ of the Company, were the product of the educational institutions of Sitka. In the time of the greatest prosperity there were five schools. The church school was advanced to the grade of a seminary in 1849 and there were taught navigation, mathematics, astronomy, bookkeeping, and other branches of learning. Some of the best pupils, both Russian and Creole, were sent to St. Petersburg for more advanced instruction. Chief Manager Etolin was the especial patron of education, and made many improvements in the system. Under the auspices of Madame Etolin, who was a native of Helsingfors andwas educated in the schools of that city, a school was opened and maintained by the Company for the girls of the colony. After the transfer to the United States of the Territory the teachers returned to Russia and the schools were closed.
At the top of the kekoor, or the Baranof Hill as it was called in recent years, there stood a building occupied during Russian days as a residence by the chief managers of the Russian American Company. The one known to the residents and visitors of the earlier days of the American occupation was known as the Baranof Castle, although Baranof himself never lived in it. There were three, if not four different buildings which occupied that position. The first to be placed there was built at once upon the founding of the post and is described by Resanof in his letters to the Company as being a very “Unpretentious building, and poorly constructed.†Before the close of Baranof’s administration, however, according to the account of Captain Golofnin, it was an establishment well built and furnished with some degree of luxury.
The Baranof Castle.Built in 1837 for the official residence of the chief managers of theRussian American Company, and occupied from the time of Kuprianofuntil 1867. It was the headquarters building of the Commanding Officersof the U. S. troops 1867 to 1877, and was destroyed by fire in 1894.The U. S. Agricultural Department building occupies the site at the present time.
The Baranof Castle.Built in 1837 for the official residence of the chief managers of theRussian American Company, and occupied from the time of Kuprianofuntil 1867. It was the headquarters building of the Commanding Officersof the U. S. troops 1867 to 1877, and was destroyed by fire in 1894.The U. S. Agricultural Department building occupies the site at the present time.
The structure known as the Baranof Castle, which stood on the hill at the time of the transfer to the United States, would seem to be the third building constructed on the site, was completed about 1837,[13]and was burned to the ground on the morning of March 17th, 1894.
The historic building was the scene of many interesting events, and sheltered many distinguished persons.
The first mistress who presided over the mansion on the kekoor was Madame Yanovski, a daughter of Baranof and the wife of Lieutenant Yanovski, the third chief manager of the Russian American Company.
Lady Wrangell was the first to come from Russia to preside as the First Lady of Sitka, and she was succeeded by Madame Kupreanof, who is said to have crossed Siberia and the Pacific Ocean to accompany her husband to his post. Sir Edward Belcher gives a spirited account of a ball given in his honor, in the castle, which was then, in 1837, just completed. He says: “The evening passed most delightfully,†although “few could converse with their partners,†English being spoken by few at that time in the capital of Russian America.
Princess Maksoutoff, the wife of the last chief manager of the colonies, came fromSt. Petersburg, but died soon after her arrival, and the stone which marks her grave may be seen on the hill between the two cemeteries, near the site of the upper Blockhouse. Her successor, the second Princess Maksoutoff, young and beautiful, presided with grace and tact over the mansion until the transfer of the territory to the United States. She was one of six Russian ladies present at the ceremonies and is said to have wept when the Russian flag was lowered.
There is a legend of a beautiful princess whose ghost haunted the Castle for many years. The story has been told by many at different times and is one of the romantic tales that cluster around the old metropolis of the fur trading days. Her lover was sent away or killed through the influence of anober offitzerwho sought her hand in marriage. Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, who wrote so delightfully of Sitka in her journeys in Alaska in 1883, says that, “By tradition the Lady in Black was the daughter of one of the old governors. On her wedding night she disappeared from the ballroom in the midst of the festivities, and after a long search was found dead in one of the small drawing rooms.â€[14]
The Grave of the Princess Maksoutoff.
The Grave of the Princess Maksoutoff.
The chief managers entertained lavishly, and the dinners in the Castle were events long to be remembered. They were well worthy the representatives of a rich and powerful company, a corporation with a domain that was greater than the realm of many a royal ruler. Into the sumptuously furnished and richly decorated dining-room came the bishop and priests, resplendent in the official robes, the naval officers glittering in their gold laced uniforms, the secretaries, accountants, storekeepers, all in the uniform of the Ministry of Finance, the masters and mates of the ships in the harbor; the guests in their best apparel; all gathered around the hospitable board of the chief manager. At times a hundred sat at the table and back of them dined the cadets of the naval school. After the dinner came dancing and until morning the gayety went merrily on, for Russian cheer is proverbial, and their hospitality is lavish.
Usually the Captain of the port, the secretaries, three public and two private, two masters in the navy, the commercial agent, two doctors, and the Lutheran clergyman, dined with the chief manager by general invitation, Sir George Simpson tells us. The civilian masters of vessels, accountants, engineers, clerks, and bookkeepers, dined at a club which was organized by Mr. Etolin, and they lived at the old club house a little to the east of the church.
A wedding was an elaborate affair, a bridal cake which figured in many mystic signs, tea, coffee, chocolate and champagne; the ladies attired in muslin dresses, white satin shoes, silk stockings, kid gloves, fans, and other necessary appurtances. After the ceremony of an hour and a half was consummated, the ball was opened by the bride and the highest officer present, and the dancing lasted until three in the morning.
Easter was an event of much hilarity after the close of Lent, which was strictly observed by all. From morning to night everyone ran a gauntlet of kisses; when two persons met, one said, “Christ has risen,†while the other replied, “He has risen, indeed,†and then followed the salutations. These seemed not to have been distasteful to visitors, although one remarks that most ofthe dames had been more liberal with other liquids than of pure water. Throughout it all was a continuous peal of bells, for the Russian is fond of bell-ringing. All carried eggs, boiled into stones, and dyed, gilded or painted, which they presented to their friends.
Sitka, under the Muscovite, existed because of the fur trade, and every energy and interest centered on the gathering of peltries from every available quarter. Sailing ships moved in and out of the harbor, taken to their moorings or out to sea by the harbor tug; some from Michaelovsk with the beaver and martin from the Yukon, othersen routeto California or to the Sandwich Islands; the supply ships from Kronstadt around Cape Horn or returning via Canton and the Cape of Good Hope laden with furs; still others bound for the Kuril Islands or Okhotsk. The steamer “Nikolai†plied along the passages of the Alexander Archipelago, exploring the inlets, surveying the bays and rivers, gathering furs, always furs, for that was the reason for their living on this distant shore.[15]
Sitka in 1860, Near the Close of the Russian Administration.
Sitka in 1860, Near the Close of the Russian Administration.
Near the entrance to the Kolosh village was the market where the natives were permitted to trade. There they brought their game and fish, their furs and baskets, to trade for calico and beads, blankets and ammunition.[16]This market was closed by a portcullised door which permitted entrance through the stockaded wall, and was enclosed by a railed yard. Armed guards stood on duty, and at the least dispute in the market, down came the door and they proceeded to punish the delinquents.
The warehouses were stored with thousands on thousands of the richest furs of the Northland; sea-otter, worth today from $800 to $1,000 per skin, and not to be had at any price, were numbered by thousands in the earlier years; sealskins by shiploads, some killed off the harbor, but mainly from the Seal Islands; of land otter, the Hudson’s Bay Company paid them two thousand skins each year for the lease of the territory from Portland Canal to Cape Spencer. The martin, the American sable, with its fluffy pelage. Foxes, blue, white, black, silver gray, red and cross, were there by thousands, brought fromthe Arctic, from the Aleutian Islands, from the Valley of the Yukon; mink, ermine, muskrat, beaver, land otter, pile on pile. Tons of ivory from the walrus herds of Morzhovia and bearskins and wolfskins from Cook Inlet and the Copper River. The right to the fur trade belonged exclusively to the Company by Royal ukase, and any employe who was found attempting to infringe on their rights was arrested and sent to Russia for punishment.[17]
From the top of the Castle, over 100 feet above the sea, a light burned as a beacon to mariners entering the harbor, and this was the first light-house to throw its beams over the waters of this northern ocean. In the cupola which rose from the roof were four little square cups into which seal oil was poured and wicks burned in grooves rising from them, while back of the flame was a reflector that threw the light far out to sea among the islands.
The stock of goods in the magazines was large and varied. It covered almost every article carried in the general European trade as a necessity, and many of the luxuries–sugar and sealing wax, tobacco, both Virginiaand Kirghis, silk and broadcloth, calico and Flemish linen, ravens duck and frieze, arshins of blankets and poods of yarn; vedras of rum, cognac and gin; butter from the Yakut, from California and from Kodiak; salt beef from Ross Colony, from England and from Kodiak; beaver hats and cotton socks.
In the arsenal were kept about a thousand muskets, three hundred pistols, two hundred rifles, as well as sabres, cutlasses, etc., while four fire engines provided against loss by conflagration. Some rare weapons were also found there. A saber set with gems valued at 560 rubles; a Persian carbine of a value of 450 rubles; two Persian yatighans, silver mounted; a Damascus saber, and two Persian pistols, silver mounted.
The soldiers’ guns were for a great part of French or English workmanship; rockets and false-fire for signalling ships were made each year.
Tallow for candles was brought from California, moulded at the port and distributed so many candles to each employe according to their presumed needs each month.
Liquors, generally rum, were served by the Company, a drink twice a week, extra allowance being made on difficult work and also for holidays. All kinds of devices were resorted to by individuals in order to get rum,and one author says that a pair of boots for which the makers would demand ten rubles might be secured in barter for a bottle of rum worth three rubles.
The soldiers stationed at the fort when not on duty were employed by the Company and given a special compensation for their labor. Some of the soldiers and hunters by their industry and thrift accumulated considerable money which the Company held to their account and either paid to them on their discharge or sent home to Russia for them. Others spent their earnings, were continually in debt to the Company, and as their contract provided that they were not to be discharged while in arrears of debt, some of them served the remainder of their lives with no hope of return to Russia.
Around the hill ran a parapet and sentries walked their beat night and day. On the stockade which enclosed the town from the beach at the edge of the “Ranche†to the shore beyond the sawmill, making with the shore line an irregular rectangle, also walked the sentinels on their vigil, for the Thlingit at the gates was at all times an enemy to be feared. Strict military discipline was maintained at all times. At the foot of the hill were clustered barracks, storehouses, bakeries, warehouses, etc., for the use of the garrisonand workmen. The old structure which was used as a bakery, and for shops, was later known as the Sitka Trading Company’s building, and has recently been removed. The barracks are at present the jail, and the Russian counting house is today the postoffice of the United States. The fur warehouse stood to the west of the hill and was torn down in 1897-8, while the landing warehouse on the wharf was burned in 1916. These were all built about the time of the incumbency of Etolin, and that time might be termed the Golden Age of the Colony. Ships were being built, the fur trade was still prosperous, new explorations were being made into the interior of the country, trade was being extended into the Yukon Valley and there was an active interest in all the industries of the settlement. There were men of many trades, engineers, cabinet makers, jewelers, tailors, builders, etc., and an efficient machine shop constructed engines to equip the vessels constructed in the shipyard. Plowshares and spades for the Spanish farmers in California were forged and bells for the Franciscan missions were cast here. The first steam vessel to be built on the shore of the North Pacific Ocean was constructed at Sitka, for, before 1840 the whole of the machinery for a tug of seven horsepower, as well as of two pleasure boatshad been constructed here. The steamer “Nikolai†of 70 horsepower was built and equipped with the exception of the boilers which were brought from New York. The ship ways at Sitka was the repairing place for many a vessel in the days of the gold seekers in the valleys of California.
Two sawmills, one near the site of the present mill, the other on Kirenski River, now called Sawmill Creek,[18]cut the lumber for the settlement and for export. Two flouring mills, one in Sitka, the other at the Ozerskoe Redoubt on Globokoe[19](Deep) Lake, ground the breadstuffs. A tannery furnished the leather for shoes, made from California hides, and also prepared thelavtaksfor the bidarkas for the seal and sea-otter hunters. The burrs for the Sitka mill were of the finest French stone but those at the Redoubt were cut from the granite found on the lake shore.[20]
A hospital of forty beds provided for the comfort of the sick, of which Governor Simpson said: “The institution in question would do no disgrace to England.â€
Brickyards were maintained, ice was cut on the lakes and at times shipped to California. The ice-houses were near the outlet of Swan Lake and were of a capacity of 3,000 tons.
One day in the spring of 1852 the American ship “Bacchus†came into Sitka to purchase a cargo of ice. All the ice for San Francisco had to this time been brought in the hold of sailing ships around Cape Horn from Boston and the idea of getting the supply from Sitka was conceived. From the Company’s icehouses was laden on the ship 250 tons, and this was the beginning of a trade during the year of not less than 1800 tons at an average price of about $25.00 per ton. A Company was organized in San Francisco for carrying on the trade and it was known as “the Ice Company.†The ice on the lake was not of sufficient thickness owing to the fact that four degrees below zero is the coldest record ever made in Sitka during a hundred years, consequently the Ice Company later transferred their chief place of operation to Wood Island, near Kodiak.
Cows were kept for milk, and the hay for their provender was cut on the Katleanski Plains on Squashanski Bay.
Sir George Simpson, Governor-in-Chiefof the Honourable, the Hudson’s Bay Company, visited Sitka in 1841 and in 1842. He describes the settlement, the natives, and the fur trade, and was entertained at the Castle by Chief Manager Etolin. During his stay he indulged in a Russian steam bath. His humorous description of the details ends with a promise never again to undergo such a castigation. The account of his stay at the Hot Springs is enlivened by a story of how a rosy cheeked Russian damsel, each time she passed his chair, made a profound obeisance, which he attributed to his personal attraction until he discovered her doing the same when the chair was empty, and then saw that a saintly ikon occupied a place on the wall directly over it, which dispelled the illusion. Thirteen ships were in the harbor, and he remarks that the bustle was sufficient to have done credit to a third rate port in the civilized world. Sir George sailed for Okhotsk on the Russian ship “Alexander,†then crossed Siberia overland on his return to England from a journey round the earth.
There were eighty cannon mounted in the batteries which commanded the bay or which looked down on the Kolosh village. These cannon were of different make, some being cast in Sitka, others purchased of English or Americans, which were purchased onthe ships on which they were mounted, as on the “Juno†and the “Brutus;†and other ordnance was brought from Kronstadt, Russia, as in 1804 on the “Neva,†and in 1820 on the “Borodino.â€
Teahouses were situated on the little knoll in the center of the town where the public Gardens were located; the museum, and the library offered instruction to the workers who occupied this lonely post halfway round the world from the Russian Fatherland.
There were fourteen chief managers who directed the affairs of the Company at Sitka between the date of the founding in 1804 and the surrender to the United States in 1867.[21]
Many of the officers resided long in the colonies and their record would establish their right to be denominated as “Sourdoughs.†Baranof was manager 28 years; Zarembo was rewarded in 1844 for 25 years’ service;Krukof, the manager at Unalaska, was rewarded in 1821 for 40 years’ service; Banner remained at Kodiak for at least ten years, and he and his wife both died there; while Kuskof came with Baranof in 1790 and returned to Russia in 1821.