wMy Dear Mr. Bristow: I heartily agree with the patriotic sentiments
expressed by Mr. Ballaine.”—Theodore Roosevelt, President in 1903.
FOUNDER OF TOWN OF SEWARD GIVES
SOME INTERESTING HISTORY ON HOW
TOWN OF SEWARD CAME TO BE BUILT
FURNISHES PHOTOGRAPHIC COPY OF ORIGINAL LETTER
TO PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ASKING PERMISSION TO
NAME THE NEW TOWNSITE ‘‘SEWARD”
By JOHN E. B ALL AIN E
Letter from John E. Ballaine Tells Interesting Incidents About the
Beginning of Seward and the Railroad from Seward to the Interior
Not Hitherto Published in Any Paper or Publication in Alaska.
The Prosperity Edition of the Seward Daily Gateway is a bit
of enterprise so wholesome and constructive that I gladly contribute
some particulars about the founding and growth of Seward, in con
nection with the building of the railroad from, Seward to the Tanana
Valley, which may be not alone of timely and special interest, but of
future value as well. Some of these particulars are brief parts of a his
torical volume I am compiling, which will contain photographic copies
of original documents I have preserved.
Among those original docu
ments, my letter of October 10,
1903, addressed “To the Presi
dent'’ indorsed on the margin by
President Roosevelt in his own
handwriting, and initialed by him,
“T. R. ”, is peculiarly appropri
ate, it seems to me to be, repro
duced now, 22 years after its date
and composition, in a special Pros
perity Edition of the Seward
Gateway.
Doubtful and uncertain as the
future of Seward may have ap
peared at the time, when every man
and woman in Alaska then believ
ed that a railroad from the Coast
to the Interior of Alaska must of
necessity start from Valdez and ex
tend to Eagle on the Yukon. To tap
the fabulous but fleeting Klondike,
I staked my judgment on the route
from Resurrection Bay to the Ta
nana River after two years of
painstaking investigation, and then
adopted that route for the Alaska
Central Railroad when no white
habitation existed on any part of
it. Every word of my forecast to
President Roosevelt, in the letter
here reproduced, is now fulfilled.
In August, 1903, as President of
the Tanana Construction Company
and General Manager of the Alas
ka Central Railway, I took the first
construction crew to Resurrection
Bay, landing there August 28. Aft
er starting work on the new dock
and sawmill, I went straight to
Washington to have action on the
approval of the Alaska Central
Survey, which had been made un
der my management in 1902. The
Interior Department was then 18
months behind with its work, and
our survey had not been reached. I
had conditionally arranged with
the Shedd Brother^ in Chicago for
a loan to the Tanana Construction
Company, and indorsed by me in
dividually, with which to build the
first twenty miles, but could get no
part of that loan until our survey
was first approved. The Interior
Department refused to advance our
survey ahead of its turn. That at
titude threatened to postpone our
work another year, and possibly to
undo my arrangements with the
Shedd syndicate for the loan to
Construction Company.
In tliat emergency, I decided as
a last recourse to go straight to the
President, state the case briefly,
and appeal to him to have the In
terior and Postoffice Departments
cut their red tape. Ilis Secretary,
William Loeb, on the 8th of Octo
ber, 1903, gave me an appoint
ment with the President for 10
o 'clock next day. I stated the situ
ation to the President, both as to
the approval of the railroad sur
vey and the naming of the new
town. He listened closely, and
then, looking me straight in the
eye with his characteristic squint
through his double-lens glasses, he
said, verbatim:
“Mr. Ballaine, you write me
two letters on these subjects, cov
ering each subject in a separate
letter in just about the language
you have used here, and bring
them to me tomorrow morning at
10 o'clock. If it is proper for me
made reads:
“My Dear Mr. Bristow: 1 heart
ily agree with the patriotic senti
ments expressed by Mr. Bullaine.
“T. R.”
The Mr. Bristow he addressed
was the then Fourth Assistant
Postmaster General, and was aft
erward United States Senator
from Kansas.
As President Roosevelt handed
me the two letters he said,' with a
twinkle of a smile:
“I think these indorsements will
bring the results you are after.”
And they certainly did. In ten
minutes after I had presented the
letter to Mr. Bristow, an order was
issued establishing a new postoffice
on Resurrection Bay, Alaska, un
der the name of “Seward,” and
Mr. Bristow expressed his emphat
ic approval of the patriotic senti
ments, in agreement with the Pres
ident.
At 4 o’clock the same day ap
proval was given by the Commis
sioner of the General Land Office
Tanana Construction Company, of
which I owned all the stock, had
entered into a contract with the
Alaska Central to build the rail
road from Seward to the Tatiana
River, taking railroad stock and
bonds in payment.
My sale of the Tanana Construc
tion Company to the Frost and Os
borne interests two years later and
their part in continuing the work,
the failure of their financial back
er, the Sovereign Bank of Canada,
and the subsequent completion of
the railroad by the Government,
after fierce rivalry by many bid
ders over rival routes, are all sub
jects that can scarcely be given re
view here.
But in the historic volume I am
compiling for the interest and in
formation of coming generations, I
shall include, among other docu
ments, a photographic copy of a
letter written by President Wilson
to me, giving the reasons for his
designating as the route of the
Government Alaska Railroad the
AAlUOUtl XlUlii VUU L
CABLE address:
“RALE I GH WASHINGTON.”
Tm i i>: 11 AivE i o ii
gyi©^SAM PLAM.
ABSOLUTELY FIREPROOF
E L.WESTON, Manager
Was iii 2:v<f li.C., f
Q at... IQ,. 1903.
To The President:
I have established a new town on Resurrection
bay, Alaska, and have named it Seward, in honor of
V/illiam H. Seward, the Secretary of State who ne
gotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia. It
is the Pacific ocean terminus of a projected rail
road system, the Alaska Central, incorporated in
1902 and now under construcjtion, the purpose of
which is to open the interior of Alaska to settle
ment and development.
The Postoffice Department has refused my re
quest to give the name of Seward to a postoffice
at this new town, on the ground that there are
already two postoffices of that name in Alaska.
One of them is a small mining camp on Lynn canal,
the other a fishing village on Bristol bay.
Permit me to suggest that the great service
rendered by Secretary Seward in the purchase of
Alaska would be more appropriately commemorated
in the bestowal of his name upon a town likely to
become the metropolis of Alaska, and in time one
of the important cities of the Pacific coast,
rather than in its use to designate a temporary
mining camp or a summer fishing village.
If you agree with this view, and can do so
with propriety, I earnestly request that you inter
cede with the Postoffice Department to the end
that the name ''Seward" be given to a postoffice at
the new town on Resurrection bay, in accordance
with a petition on file in the office of the Fourth
Assistant Postmaster General.
I have the honor to be, with great respect,
Very truly yours,
Photographic Reproduction of Prophetic and Historic Letter, With Original Notation by President T.
R. Roosevelt, on Founding of Seward and B-uilding of Alaska Central by John E. Ballaine.
to indorse them, I will do so.”
Promptly at 10 o’clock the next
morning1, October 10, President
Roosevelt came to the door of his ’
ante-room of his office, where I wTas
waiting my turn, and announced:
“Mr. Ballaine, good morning;
come right in.”
Without a word h eread my two <
letters. He first indorsed the one :
concerning action on the Alaska
Central survey, and then intently <
read the one about the establish- >
merit of a postoffice under the
name, “Seward.” As he indorsed >
it on the margin, he commented to
me:
“I entirely agree with you, Mr.
Ballaine. ’ ’
His marginal indorsement then
;o the survey of the Alaska Cen
tal from the new town of Seward
;o the Tanana River, where Nena
la now stands, over the exact route
partly built on by the Alaska Cen
:ral, and now occupied by the
Grovernment-owned Alaska rail
road.
I went with the officially approv
ed survey to Chicago, where, after
several weeks spent in drafting and
redrafting a contract, devoting in
me instance four days over a
change of a single word, I signed
i contract with the Shedd syndi
cate as President of the Tanana
Construction Company, and in
dorsed by me individually, for the
first $200,000 to begin construc
tion of the Alaska Central. The
location it now occupies as origi
nally explored and adopted by me
for tlie Alaska Central, as advo
cated by me in the hearings before
the Senate and House Committees
on Territories during consideration
of the Alaska Railroad Act, and
later before President Wilson when
he was considering the route to be
chosen by him among the several
rival claimants. His letter shows
why he overruled the recommen
dations of the War Department
and of the specially appointed and
framed Alaska Railroad Commis
sion in 1912, in favor of a route
from Chitina through the barren
Copper River Valley. President
Wilson’s letter to me states that
the data I presented and the argu
ments I submitted, supported by
incontrovertable official proof, lef1
no shadow of doubt as to the right
ful location.
Every resident of Alaska now
freely acknowledges the rightful
ness of that location as the only
rightful and logical route—except
the disappointed interests. The se
cret manipulations of those disap
pointed and hostile interests to
cripple and discredit the Govern
ment Alaska Railroad have tempo
rarily and, partially succeeded, but
they cannot permanently succeed
against the provisions that Nature
has made in physical geography
and in the distribution of climate,
soil, timber and minerals, along
the route of the Alaska Railroad
in all of its 467 miles between Sew
ard and Fairbanks.
After 23 years of struggle and
progress—a struggle that some
times seemed hopeless and a pro
gress that often waited—it seems to
| me fitting that I should give here
a letter supplied me by the Hon.
George Turner, of Spokane, former
United States Senator from Wash
ington, a former United States
Judge, and member of the Alaska
International Tribunal in 1903,
with Senators Lodge and Root. He
was one of my associates in the or
ganization and promotion of the
Alaska Central Railroad and my
j attorney in preparing many of its
'papers. Senator Turner was the
1 first man whose help and interest
; I enlisted in the project, as early
las 1900. I have similar letters from
j all of the other men who became
: my associates—George W. Dickin
j son, F. August Heinze, J. W. God
win, Gov. John II. McGraw, and
E. E. Caine.
Senator Turner’s letter is as fol
i lows:
Columbia Building, Spokane, Wash
ington, July 12, 1923.
Mr. John E. Ballaine,
Seattle, Washington.
*
*
My Dear Ballaine: There can be
no question of the fact that you orig
inated and organized the Alaska Cen
tral Railway Company. You were also
at the head of the Company for many
years as its General Manager and as
j President of the Tanana Construction
Company. You financed the company
in its earlier years by your own ef
forts. You located the Townsite of
Seward and made it the terminus of
the railroad. You chose the route >
through to Fairbanks and built the
first section of the road.
After sale of the railroad to others
it was extended on to Turnagain Arm.
The Company was then reorganized ^
into the Alaska Northern. The stock
and bonds of the Company were sold
to the United States and the road was
completed by the Government over
the route and in practical conformity
with the plans laid down by you in
the beginning.
Alaska and the Northwest generally
owe you a debt of gratitude for the
wise prevision and foresight displayed
by you and for the tenacity and cour- A
age with which you stood by the en
terprise until it was at last made a
success.
Sincerely yours,
GEORGE TURNER.
There is work yet to do—there
always will be work to do—to
make Seward a great city of com
mercial and manufacturing impor
tance, as it will be in days to come.
It will some day be the Stockholm
of Alaska, and Stockholm contains M
close to 500,000 population.
The special Prosperity Edition
of The Gateway is one of the useful
and helpful phases of the neces
sary work to be done in the attain
ment of its destiny.
Mr. John E. Ballaine, through
whose courtesy the above histori
cal sketch of the pioneer days of
the first railroad in Seward is pub '
lished, is now a resident of Seattle!
Mr. Ballaine for many years lived
in Seward and was one of its fore
most workers for a large commer
cial center on Resurrection Bay.
There is no man in Alaska better
posted on conditions along the rail
road belt and his articles are al
ways of interest to our readers.