You Can’t Herd Swedes
The blood of Norwegians, Swedes, and Germans runs through my veins, top heavy on the
Scandinavian side. I’ve listened and laughed at jokes about them through the years, i.e. you can always tell a Swede but you can’t tell him much, or in Norway you don’t have to knock on someone’s door, but I would recommend it or you may be standing for a long time. But it was irksome to read “give me a barnyard of Swedes and I’ll drive them like sheep.”
Alexander McKenzie, a man I’ve read and written about for some years, spoke them in the context of the Alaskan gold rush that took place at the end of the 19th century. Throughout his career, he had become the “Boss” of North Dakota. Remember when he finagled the moving of the territorial capital from Yankton to Bismarck? Anyway, he set his eyes on the gold rush without the intention of ever getting his hands dirty.
Through his cronies we can connect to him stories swirling around the little gold rush that occurred in Ransom County in 1884. Much of what we know filtered through the office of the register of deeds, the position held by A. H. Laughlin at the time. But there is much more associated with that event that might be of interest to lovers of the local history.
Back now to Alexander McKenzie who began setting his hungry eyes on riches to be made in the Alaska gold rush. He found the gold strike near Nome in September, 1898 very enticing, especially when he learned who had found it - two Norwegians and a Swede by the names of Brynteson, Lindeberg, and Lindblom. His active mind recognized them for what they were, aliens, foreigners, non-citizens, so what right did they have to come over here and do such a thing?
These “Lucky Swedes” thought they’d met the requirements of ownership and could legally dig for the treasured gold. But jealousy ran high among other prospectors who’d become conveniently patriotic and were the “true-blue American citizens.” With no intention of lying down and forgetting about it, someone remembered U.S. mining law stated they could own a mine only if they swore intent to become a citizen before a bona-fide commissioner. Fortunately, nobody like that was available, and a loosely organized group decided to take the law into their own hands and evict the Swedes. Cooler heads prevailed and the Swedes kept on mining.
Time passed, other rich strikes occurred, claim-jumpers thumbed their noses at legal owners, the number of saloons in Nome grew to 100, and lawlessness grew in this atmosphere of non-existent law-enforcement. Here the big, bold, and brassy Alexander McKenzie stepped in. One senator sympathetic to the Swedes plight introduced legislation that gave these aliens rights
to ownership. In McKenzie’s mind that didn’t fit with his scheming ways and needed to be stopped. He exercised his influence over one of our Lisbon gold mine investors U.S. Senator H.C. Hansbrough of North Dakota and talked him into introducing a Senate bill prohibiting alien ownership. It didn’t pass but further amendments phased out any mention of alien rights which gave McKenzie all the room he needed to maneuver.
McKenzie was just getting started. Through his connections in Washington, DC he persuaded President McKinley to appoint another of the Lisbon investors Alfred Noyes to a federal judgeship in Alaska. Noyes was a pliable fellow that followed McKenzie’s wishes and did his bidding. To simplify the shenanigans, he got Noyes to put any contested gold claims in receivership under McKenzie’s control who then hired a gang of men, took over, and started collecting all the gold. This is when he supposedly said “Give me a barnyard of Swedes and I’ll drive them like sheep.”
Word of the theft spread to San Francisco and aroused indignation in an honest judge who ordered two federal marshals to travel north and arrest McKenzie. Brought back to San Francisco, he was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to a year in jail. President McKinley heard of the proceedings and was told McKenzie was a sick man who shouldn’t be in a jail. He pardoned him after serving a brief time and “sick” as he was reported to be was seen running to the first train going east to North Dakota.
Law and order did arrive in Alaska, much of it due to a new judge, James Wickersham, who applied the law honestly and even-handedly. I can claim a weak connection. In 1967 I rode south to the lower 48 on a vessel named for him, the MV Wickersham.
One of the other gold claim investors at the Lisbon strike never fell for the McKenzie tactics in North Dakota. George B. Winship, publisher of the Grand Forks Herald, waged a thirty-year war against him and his cronies. He especially disliked the influence railroads and out-of-state corporations on our state government that McKenzie had promoted. But that’s another story.
This Alaskan gold story became nationally prominent and fed many writers’ imaginations. Several movies told the story. One of my favorites was the John Wayne/Randolph Scott 1942 version called “The Spoilers” with them fighting over Marlene Dietrich in the best movie brawl of all time. Scott is the McKenzie character. Another movie of this ilk was “North to Alaska” which borrows many elements of the story. James Michener rehashed the story and characters in his book simply titled “Alaska.”
Rex Beach headed north to look for gold but failing at that turned into an author to write my favorite story of the affair titled “The Spoilers.” It became the best seller in 1906 and through some creative searching I found and purchased a copy for my library. The leatherette books that Time-Life Books published includes one called “The Alaskans” that contains a historian’s quote that best describes Beach. “What he took home in his mind turned out to be far more valuable than what he had failed to bring back in his poke.”
No comments:
Post a Comment