THE BIRTH OF ALASKA AS THE FORTY-NINTH STATE IN THE UNION
Told In Dramatic Story
Of Bob and Vide Bartlett
By THOMAS A. SNAPP
Times Staff Writer
Come readers, join me for what
is the most interesting story I have
heard since coming to Alaska. It’s
the story of Alaska’s senior Senator
Bob Bartlett and Mrs. Bartlett, but
more than that, it is the story of
the birth of the 49th state.
The story was given to Tundra
Times through an exclusive inter
view with Mrs. Bartlett recently
in Juneau.
The parents of both Bob and Vide
Bartlett were miners in Dawson
shortly after the turn of the cen
1 tury.
In those days if prospective par
ents had money enough, the wife
went outside to have a child. Bob’s
parents did and he was born in
Seattle. Vide's parents didn't have
the money so she was born in Daw
son.
Later both the families moved to
Fairbanks and the two grew up to
gether. They went to elementary
and high school there and fell in
love.
After high school, Bob went to
the University of Washington where
he took a straight academic course;
Vide went to the University of
Southern California and took an
academic course and teacher train
ing.
Vide returned to Alaska and be
came a teacher at Wrangell; Bob
returned to Fairbanks where he be
came a reporter on the Fairbanks
News-Miner.
in those days, the News-Miner
Was a four-page paper and Bob did
most of the writing. Forbes L.
Baker, now a state representative,
| ran the linotype machine.
In 1930, Bob and Vide decided to
get married. In those days of chiv
l airy, it was the fad not to be mar
I ried in one’s own hometown but
E to slip off secretly to a nearby town
«t for the wedding.
The Joe Crossons had gone to Ne
nana to get hitched but Bob and
Vide chose Valdez. When Bob left
the paper on leave, Bernie Stone,
the editor, gave him a note to de
liver to George Sullivan at Valdez.
On August 14, 1930, Bob and Vide
were married in a simple wedding
In the Episcopal Church there.
Father Kippenbrock, now living in
Baltimore, Md„ performed the cere
mony.
"Tony and Dorothy Dimond stood
up for us,” said Mrs. Bartlett.
Bob was so shaken up on the
wedding night that for dinner he
drank tea instead’ of coffee. He us
ually was a big coffee hound.
After the wedding, the pair started
back to Fairbanks in a beat-up
wreck of a car, a Paige.
“We began to have one flat tire
after another, 14 in all,” Mrs. Bart
lett said, “and we had the last one
on top of Donnelly Dome, which I
believe is the coldest place in
Alaska.”
They spent the night there until
in the wee morning hours when
some hunters came by and sold them
a tire, and they proceeded back to
Fairbanks to announce their mar
riage.
Forty miles from Fairbanks, how
ever they were met by a large del
egation to congratulate them.
“Everybody and everybody’s broth
er was there,” Vide said. “The note
Bob had delivered had asked for
full particulars about our wedding
and it was printed in the Fairbanks
paper before we got back.”
Since he was married, Bob felt
he ought to have a raise in pay so
he asked Bemie Stone, the editor
of the paper, for one.
Stone agreed that he ought to
have a raise and the next day put
his name on the masthead, '‘Asso
ciate Editor." But no raise was
forthcoming.
“My mother in Los Angeles didn’t
help matters—she threw us for a
terrible loss,” Vide said.
Her mother was worried that she
would feel the cold in Fairbanks
and felt she needed a fur coat.
“We wired her and asked how
much a fur coat would cost, and
promptly she sent one, C.O.D. for
$200!”
“Well, we didn't have $200 or any
part of it. We didn't know whether
or not we should send it back or
what.”
“Bob went to see a banker who
was known never to have made an
easy loan. Dick Wood, president
of theJFirst National Bank.”
“People would say his kindest
eye was his glass eye.”
“Anyway Dick talked with Bob
and said, ‘‘Tell you what I am go
ing to do. I will loan you the $2fC®
and you can pay it back at $20 a
month.’ ”
$20 was an awfully lot of money.
Bob was making only about $200 a
month and take out 10 per cent and
you can see it wasn't easy.”
Mrs. Bartlett says that first year
was probably the hardest year they
have had. “We ate more beans and
hamburger than we ever have be
fore or since,” she said.
They lived in a little building
cn Front Street in Fairbanks that is
now been remodeled into a restau
rant.
Soon Bob became the Alaska cor
respondent for the New York Times
and as such, he wrote an article
prophesying there would be » Dem
ocratic sweep in the Alaska elec
tion. He even went so far as to pre
dict that the states were going to
elect Roosevelt as president.
Tony Dimond, delegate to Con
gress, was so impressed that he gave
Bob a job as his secrtary. So Bob
and Vide sold all their worldly
goods in order to get the fare to go
to Washington.
"We just hated it there," Vide
| said, "And the first job that came
I along, Bob took it. It was a new
post, as assistant administrator
to FHA in Juneau.”
The Bartletts lived a year in
Juneau and then Bob’s father died
and they took over his mining busi
ness on Independence Creek, near
Miller House between Fairbanks
and Circle City.
The Bartletts as miners did very
well and soon were able to buy
some nice, new' equipment. Because
the mine had only a tent house,
Mrs. Bartlett and their 2-year-old
daughter lived 30 mile# away at
Circle Hot Springs.
The houses there were heated
with hot water piped from the
the springs and vegetables grew
well irrigated by the water.
“It was hard work but Bob en
joys the outdoors and looks back
on that period in our lives as per
haps the happiest,” Mrs. Bartlett
said.
The Bnrtletts employed two 18
year-old boys to help them at the
mine. Both were “bottomless pits”
and almost ate the Bartletts out
of house and home.
“We could hardly pack a lunch
for them big enough for their mid
night snack and then they said they
weren’t getting enough to eat. Can
you imagine!” said Mrs. Bartlett.
“Bob's mother would send down
an extra pie occasionally.”
Bob thought it was important to
run the best possible mess house
so we could get the best possible
young men to work for us, even
though it cost us a lot.
Mining near us were the Von
Hansens and I learned from Lydia
Mrs. Vide Bartlett
Van Ranmt* of « new pnrodMet, »
powdered mi® that was rathe*
cheap, that you eould make pitchers
of milk with and wouM help kwep
body and soul together and caviti*-*
filled faster.
The two 18-yenr-old yowtft wham
Mrs. Bartlett had trouble feeding
were Fritz Wrocte, KrotKo* at MM
and Ray Wrede, of FatrfconAtt, and
John Dimond, now a justice of the
Alaska Suprenss Court.
In 193® o* 1857, thee* was a v*r$>
heavy earthquake in central Alaska.
It knocked all the rtish'°« out of tt»«
Bartlett's cupboard. Af the min*
they thought someone hart accident
ally set off a'stick «f dynamite.
One of the boys who had not
awakened for f?«e midnight shift
was so startled Vis went to work
dressed in his store cl cities rather
than his working clothe*.
In tSP®9. Bob Bartlett left the mitt,
ing business when be was appointed
by President Rewsevelt as Secretary
of Alaska. For all infenfs and pur
pose* the vositfcn was roifghly
that of liesrtenont torerfio# in other
states.
In 1?#* Tffiif BtrftC'hd aftftorunecd
he would retire from Cowgrcw at,$
Rob decided 1© run for the post.
There were threw candidate)# in the
Democratic primary and it arum a
long hard battle. Bob and Vide jmt
almost everything into the cam
paign but it wa* worth i«. ftab come
out the winneb.
The campaign wiped u* ©«f. It
too* us a long time to renin cwrt of
that,” 3Sr*. BautletS soil*.
The fir*t and moat important
plan* is Rob’* ftrrt platform wa#
statehood and the firet thrftg he
did upon gjrttrsg to Washington
was to write a statehood bill and
throw it ia the hopper. Bat, of
course, it didn’t go anywhere#.
From then, cm, Be* wad Vide
worhefl feverietely for y«*r* for
statehood, encountering many frus
trations and disappointments.
“At first pec^ile called it a dream.
It was a long struggle that com
pletely engulfed our lives,” Mrs.
Bartlett said.
«—e»—-ma»iir<giT m. .jwpum
Adler's Shop
Out-of-town orders solicited
and filled promptly
Box USD) Fairbanks
L—I
“Yo«r best friends would vote
against you or you would think
they were your best friends until
they would vote against you. Then
you would decide they weren’t your
friends at all.”
As a delegate. Bob had all the
privileges and responsibilities of a
rvnieewftrtatitivi? to Congress except
that «f voting. Time after time, ses
sion after session, he would intro
duce bills for statehood only to
have them brushed aside.
Every opportunity before clubs
and organizations Bob and Vide
would speak for statehood, trying
to get “grass roots” support, trying
to get the people in the states to
urge their congressmen to vote for
A1:**S» statehood.
Whew the Bartletts first went to
Washington, Vide’s mother went
with them.
“She didn't have much money
either, fwt she had enough to buy
a ru£. I remember she told us,
“This may not be a very good rug
hut it will last until we get state
hood*
*'8h« didn't live to see the day i
thirt**?! years later when we did I
get it but the rug, threadbare, was
still ift our living room.”
biggest thrill in mv life
v:« wtven I found out that Al^s^a
vculA fin®lly become a state," Vide
sai®.
Tor yes^s, statehood had been op
posed by Sam Rayburn, speaker of
ttti House of Representatives, It
was the custom for Bartlett to call
«n Rayburn shortly before each
ses«io« of Congress to go over pend
ing legislation that would affect
Alaska.
In 1198, when Bartlett called on
him, Ssm Rayburn said, “I give up.
1 will see that you get your state
hood bill passed this year."
GALENA TRADING CO.
Galena, Alaska \
Food and Lodging
Aviation Gas and Oils
| General Merchandise
. Eugene P. Steffen
Proprietor
: WANTED: RAW FURS
Martin, Beaver, Hair Seal
j Cash Paid by Return Mail
S. T. SAARIO
109 Cushman St.
Fairbanks, Alaska
Ffaone GL 6-5100
“Bob knew when Rayburn said he
would see that it was done, it would
be done. Sam was a great power in
the whole country, really.”
When Bob got back to his office,
he telephoned Vide at home to give
her the news which she says was
her “biggest thrill.”
In the late spring of '58 the Hous«
passed the statehood act and Ray
burn worked closely with Lyndon
Johnson, then the majority lead**
of the Democrats in the Senate, an<4
the Senate also passed it.
When the bill was passed kfrs.
Bartlett was sitting in the gallery.
Ordinarily those in the gallery artt
not supposed to make a sound.
But when the bill was passed the
whole gallery rose up checrin* aod
shouting. “They were not supposed
to applaud but try to stop them at
time like that,” Mrs. Bartlett said.
“After all, it was the first stat«
to join the union since 1815.”
“I was so excited I can’t tell yoot
who else was in the fcallery but t
do remember the grandson of Sandy
Smith, a colorful character c<
Alaska, was sitting beside me.”
When Bob returned to Alasks,
he was met at the airports by large
crowds and was elected in IK®
to the Senate with one of th* large**
majorities ever to elect a U.S. wna*
tor. He receive® #3 per c«ftt of *ltfc
votes.
The other plank in Bob Bart»
lett’s first platform when he wen*
to Congress as a delegate in 194*
was for T.B. Hospitals. He put ire
a bill to have them established sen*
the bill passed right away. In fact,
the incidence of TB went down *a
dramatically fast, it was reviewed
in medical journals all tit*
country.
T.B. Hospitals were practically *
thing of the past when AI **«
finally got statehwacfc, Ad#;
plank of Bob Bartlett's first poll*
tical campaign.
(To Be continued)
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Filled Promptly
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Fairbanks, Alaska
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ONE STOP
SERVICE
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Fairbanks
CONSTRUCTION AND
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Local 942, AF of L
i
Edmund N. Orbeck, President j
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305 Noble St.
Meetings Every 2nd Fridkiy
7:30 P.M. . |
Dial GL 6-4S83
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