DAR - Founding Members

Sitka's Women's Friendly Society, ca. 1885

Women's Friendly Society

The Women's Friendly Society had several divisions, including painting and gardening, and existed under a variety of names well into the 20th Century. It is the precursor to the current Sitka Women's Club..

There were many organizations and clubs in Sitka at the turn of the century, all with overlapping membership. The Women's Christian Temperance Society was founded in Sitka in 1888 and was active until 1923.

The Dorcas Society

The Dorcas Society, ca. 1894

Another women's organization active through the turn of the century.

Mother of: Helen Fay
Pendleton

Sister of: Florence
Fay Valiant Elizabeth
Fay Rush

DAR ID number 40740. b. Newport, RI, m. Joseph H. Pendleton. Pendleton served in the marines in Sitka in the 1870’s as Lieutenant, and returned in 1901 as a Captain. He made several “rash decisions” (according to Robert DeArmond, a local historian) including the burning of buildings on Alice and Charcoal Islands (native smoke houses), ostensibly to prevent spread of small pox. He also burned several native boats, for the same reason, but it was said he did not do the same with white-owned property. Nevertheless, he must have appealed to some tribal leaders, as his obituary notes that he was adopted into a Tlingit clan during his second rotation in Sitka.

In April, 1903, Governor John G. Brady wrote to Marine Commandant, General Heyword, complaining of Pendleton’s actions, including disturbing the peace and trying to eliminate services formerly provided to the town by the Navy, such as access to the Navy surgeon. Heywood later snubbed Gov. Brady on an inspection visit to Sitka.

Capt. Pendleton is listed as a member of the "Chapter of the Church," St.-Peter's -by-the-Sea, 1900.

The Pendletons left Sitka in 1904

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Daughter of: Mary
Helen Fay Pendleton

DAR ID number 41159. Daughter of Joseph H. and Mary Helen Fay Pendleton. m. H. W. Cole. No other information found in Sitka archives.

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Sister to:
Mary Helen Fay
Pendleton and
Elizabeth Fay Rush

DAR ID number 41161. b. Annapolis,Maryland, m. Joseph William Valiant. Sister to Mary Helen Fay Pendleton. No other information has been found on the Valiants in Sitka.

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Sister to:
Mary Helen Fay
Pendleton and
Florence Fay Valiant

DAR ID number 40746. Sister to Mary Helen Fay Pendleton & Florence Fay Valiant. m. Charles Wesley Rush. Elizabeth Rush died 14 Sept. 1904. Dr. and Mrs. C.W. Rush are listed in The Alaskan as in attendance at a reception given by Gov. and Mrs. Swineford in Sitka, October 11, 1888 honoring the officers of the U.S.S. Thetis and the U.S.S. Pinta. Mrs. Rush is listed attending other events without her husband’s company, suggesting he may have been a Navy physician.

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Sister to: Irene
Elizabeth Honor
Phillips Sturdevant

DAR ID number 42644. b. Canada. m. Arthur G. Shoup. Sister to Irene Elizabeth Honor Philips Sturdevant; daughters of Capt. Merton Levy Phillips, with the Revenue Cutter Service. Arthur G. Shoup was the son of James McCain Shoup, who was U.S. Marshall in Alaska beginning in 1897; Arthur G. was named “deputy U.S. Marshall” in 1906. According to Robert DeArmond, local historican, Ethel and Arthur Shoup were living in Ketchikan from October 1902 until Arthur’s appointment in 1906. A daughter, Ellen, born in Ketchikan in March, 1903, was baptised at St. Peter’s-by-the-Sea in February of 1907. Ethel and Arthur divorced in 1911. The senior Shoup (Honourable J.M.) is listed as member of the Chapter of the Church, St. Peter’s, 1900. Both father and son are included in early pictures of the Arctic Brotherhood.

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Sister to: Ethel M. Shoup

DAR ID number 41160. b. Detroit, MI. m. Richard M. Sturdevant. Capt. Merton Levy Phillips (father) was with the Revenue Cutter Service. Sister to Ethel M. Shoup. R.M. Sturdevant was a 3rd Lieutenant when he saw action in the Spanish-American War in 1898 as part of the Revenue Cutter Service.

Mother-in-law to:
Florence Edith Mills

DAR ID number 43820. b. April 18, 1837 Peacham, VT (in some sources listed as Cabott, VT), m. William Ritchie Mills, who was one of early arrivals to Sitka, and competitor to John Brady, a Presbyterian Missionary who became a tradesman, and later governor of the District of Alaska. Mary Ann Mills' son, William Parker Mills, was the founder of W. P. Mills company, and the cause of a “nasty dispute” with John Brady, which erupted in 1901, and was settled out of court just before coming to trial in Juneau in 1902, disputing Brady’s access to water from Swan Lake for his saw mill.

Daughter-in-law to:
Mary A.C. Waldo Mills

DAR ID number 42710. b. Bloomfield, CA, m. W.P. Mills. Is elsewhere noted to have been 1st V.P. of the Women’s Reading Club. The daughter of a dentist, Florence met W.P. Mills in San Francisco. Dr. James L. Cogswell apparently came to Sitka with his daughter and son-in-law, as he is reported in The Alaskan (Nov. 19, 1904) as “our esteemed fellow townsman, ... the President of the National Society of Sons of Revolutionary Sires”. In April 1903, W.P. Mills, the son of Mary & William Ritchie Mills, acting as school board member, blocked the entrance of Sitka Public School no. 1 to prevent teacher Cassia Patton from bringing 5 “Ranche” (native) children in to that school. Donated priest’s chair to St. Peters, 1900.

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DAR ID number 42709. m. William L. Distin, the first surveyor general appointed to Alaska, having the task of straightening out Sitka’s land office records. Later William Distin was “ex-officio secretary of Alaska,” sharing John Brady’s governor’s office with Cassia Patton, schoolteacher and Brady’s sister-in-law, who worked part-time as Brady’s secretary. Listed as member of the Chapter of the Church, St. Peter’s, 1900

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DAR ID Number 42708;
b. in Greene County, Indiana. m. John P. Campbell. No references found in Sitka archives.

DAR ID number 42713. b. Portland, OR, daughter of John and Lena Vanderbilt. Anna's father, John Vanderbilt had a partnership with Edward DeGroff in a store and other business ventures in Sitka. He died in 1890. Anna’s mother, Lena, married DeGroff in 1894. DeGroff is listed as a member of St. Peter’s by the Sea, though he is referred to in Vanderbilt's early letters as Dutch Reform. He may have joined his senior partner’s church.

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DAR ID number 42712. b. Southbridge, MA. m. Edwin Otis Smith, who is included in early pictures of the Arctic Brotherhood. According to Robert DeArmond, E. Otis Smith was the representative for a group of Rhode Island investors who purchased William Millmore’s interest in the Millmore Mining Company in 1897 No other information is available on either Mr. or Mrs. Smith.

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DAR ID number 42711. b. Portland, OR. Daughter of George Stowell, CO of the Marine contingent in Sitka. Herself a school board member, she worked with W.P.Mills in April 1903 to block the Ranche children from P.S. no. 1. She stayed on when her father left, and married his successor, Carl Gamborg-Andresen (in DAR files it’s Gamborg Anderson), then left Sitka with him when he transferred.