BRIDGET MANNION, "THE QUEEN OF ALASKA"

Bridget Mannion and her niece Mary Keane in 1921

(Photo courtesy Kathleen Donoghue)

"The Queen of Alaska", Bridget Mannion, was born in Rosmuc, Co. Galway, in 1865. In 1892, after working as housekeeper to a prominent Seattle businessman, Bridget signed on with

an expedition heading for the remote interior of Alaska, and ended up as housekeeper at a trading post in Napoleon Creek, a spot on a small tributary of the Yukon River near the border with Canada. The trading post catered to gold miners and prospectors, fur trappers and Native Americans, and she

was the only single non-native woman for hundreds of miles. She later said that in her first six months in Napoleon Creek she received “150 proposals of marriage”.

In 1894, in the first ever non-native marriage in the town of Forty Mile Creek, she married Edward Aylward, a successful prospector who had been born in Co. Kilkenny in 1849. She joined Edward in mining for gold, and they were among the lucky ones, becoming very wealthy.

In 1896, she visited friends in Seattle while on her way to visit her mother in Ireland, and a Seattle newspaper headlined a story about her, "The Queen of Alaska". The sub-headline on the story was

“How Bridget Manion Found Wealth and a Husband in the Icy North” and says that when she first went to the Yukon in 1892, “There were plenty of men there who had not seen a white woman for a long time.” It describes how she won the name “The Queen” by providing a hearty welcome to

prospectors during the long winter months in Napoleon Creek. At the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle’s first World’s Fair, Bridget was officially crowned “Queen of Alaska”.

Shortly after her return from Ireland, Bridget and Edward retired to Seattle and built a large house in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. They didn’t have any children and after Edward died in 1914, she

lived alone although by that time she also had a married sister, Katherine Hatchell, living in Seattle. On a 1920 trip to Ireland to see her sick mother, Bridget brought her niece Mary Keane back to

Seattle with her from Rosmuc. In 1923, a niece of Edward’s, Nellie Cullen, also came from Co.

Kilkenny to join "The Queen". Both girls stayed in Seattle, married and raised families, with Mary

Keane Tomkins dying in 1994 and Nellie Cullen Nolan dying in 2000. Shortly after her sister,

Katherine, died in Seattle in 1933, Bridget bought a house near where she was born back in Rosmuc,

and in 1948 she moved back to live there. Even in Rosmuc, the locals called her "The Queen". She

died in Rosmuc in 1958 and is buried in the local graveyard. Her closest remaining relative in the

Seattle area is a grand-niece, Kathleen Donoghue.

John Keane, Seattle, July 8, 2011

EDWARD AYLWARD 1897

Published: July 28, 1897

Copyright © The New York Times

Edward (or Frank) Aylward was born in Co. Kilkenny,

Ireland, in November 1849. His mother was Bridget

Grant. He emigrated to the USA in 1867 settling first

in California before travelling to the Yukon to mine for

gold. North-west of Juneau, Alaska, there is a lake

which early miners called Aylward Lake (later

renamed Auke Lake) after Edward who had staked

mining claims nearby in 1884. In 1894 in the first

wedding to take place in Fortymile, Edward married

Bridget Mannion, a woman from Co. Galway, Ireland.

They mined together in Napoleon Creek until 1896

when Bridget returned to Ireland to visit her family.

Shortly after her return from Ireland, Bridget and

Edward left the Yukon and moved to live on Seattle’s

Capitol Hill where Edward died on 29th March 1914.

He is buried in Seattle’s Calvary Cemetery.

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I THEQUEENOFALASKA

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l Title Earned by a Seattle Wo- I t

man on the Yukon. ' •

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NOW OWNER OF GuLD NIJGGEliS • • • ...

~ S, pc-. 189 l. He.,.,. Brlda:et Mo.nIon Found Wealth and

a HlIsband in the loy Nortla.-~

y181~r to the CitT • •

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I . ; • A qU~1l hu een ' v1lJiUng ' Sea.ttle tor

several days pI. t and lew ,persons have • b en aware ot the tact. Not a. rea.l crowned

Queoen. ruler or natlons. or one who has a. eourt 'filled with brilliantly dressed 6ub­jects,1>ut the woman \\pho .ha,s sprung into local tame as "The Queen ot Alaska .... • S. e 1s Mrs. Aylward, ot Napoleon gulch.

- eigh~y-tlv:e miles (ro-m -FOFty-mile cree-k. a. tributary 0( the Yukon. Wh 1e the ca.­reer or thls ~man is not a.s r ma.rka.bIe &8 that ot ma.ny another not d peI'SQon~

till the fact rema.lns t.hat tour 'y-ea.TI ago she was a e rvant. and DOW he is .. lady 'Whose wealth would place h r among thfl

• 'bjg1,)« olasses., it ehe 0 desired. In brief, her hls ory Is as !oU~Vi :

000 after the gr a.t a.tUe fire O'! lUS ~11~s Bridget Manion ,,·a.a Q. cook at the Ye ler r 1dence, on J m street, betw n ThIrd and Fourth" av Due. In the cours& ot ovent.8 she went w.ttb C :pc. ilealy 3.n hla family to P'orty~lle cr ek, where b~ is now In charge or the tradln~ .poet. Tha.t was four years ago last J'uly. She W3JJ only the housekeeper, but wlt:h ~1rs. Healy was the ftrgt woman to go into tho. t frozen oountry. There were pleo ty of men 'there who had not .seen a white woma.n tor a long time, and a.8 she ,. .. a.s sIngle. her nand was sought by th m in mamage. Not belrtg of ille marriagea.ble nature jU t th. n, she kept on workInll:' at very good wM.ges. a.ccumulatlng a small fortune. After~ns ~nJon h~d been tFort:v-mns

~ t l \' n n t d

~ t It d III I

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III tor a long tlme, and as she ",.ag slngle. her b~ nand was sought by them in marriage.

- Not being ot the ma rr1ag'6&ble nature ju&t th n, she kept 011 worklD&, at very good w.ages, accumula.Ung a small fortune.

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~t.e.rM1ssli{a.njon had been e.tForly-mfle toOr e. year and nine months, Mr. Aylwarc1 was succes~!ul In gajnin~ {:or a. w11'e the tlrst la.dy ot the lnnd. At that time he had located SEWeral claims which were pay-ing well. To e,th~r t'hey worked the cla.lma, whIch- was not very bard, as the gold l\'as plcked up 1n nuggets. 1'1: wa.s.at aoo,ut this time she lIo·on the name or "Queen." Prospectors were entering the country, and a.t times were very sbort of. Bupplles. and during the mO!1ths when work t\'as out ot the qucsUcm they ult\"Uys found a hearty w e1<:o m at .. apo] on gulcil. }{any a -man owea Mrs. Ayiwo..rd a d ~bt or gra.titude tor hay ng cheered hl::i dark hours,

Last :May she lett the little bom~ In the gold region and start ~d for th C:>-.l..;t. During the week ot Augu t 10 . lC 1 c .... , ... h-ed San Fra.ncisco. Ot cour56 her cloth ~ s were not or the late t!:J. h10n, aud ill corn­l~ny with a trI nd she was ntl~u out at

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the b~mporium. ~\~hll · th 're lDj"ny of the lacllea ot the city. 'w'hose hu~banc1s bad gone north in ea.rcb 01: U10 glltt~l"jng , ,,"old and to wboan she had been a friend In the hour ot need, called on her anll ex­]:.1' s d th ·ir thanks. Since then ' she has

- v1!"i t :d Tac:-oma. and 15 DOW 111 Seattle, the SUl ~l of old friends. ~

.A:!tcr Visiting trlends tn t!lLs cfty Mrs. Aylward wUl 1 ave tor Boston, to spenn a month or more in lhu.t Clty, and then wJ1l crose the Atln.ntlc tD old Ireland, "here her mOlher now. lJvC"s at the towri or Galw y. Returning i:-om therG ahe

II. w 11 agaln lea\·e 1\lr her .. ·ortt.('l'tl homc:, there to rema,'u with ber h';.l~hanll or severnl year~, whf ,1 they will hav.e ac-q..,lred a.n ind~iH.(· .. ~c!1 t tortun • and thcn

I th Y wjll scC"k t11, more <:1vJliz~d world. Mr8. AYlward 11,) ~ with ht'!" m~Il)· nu:;­

I gets. which sh~ M. jndlvtdually picket! , up on -the claims. '!lC has t1. $100 ne -klacc,

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, made ot nuggel , which sh W~;\t':i a"ound' n lJ.er neck, ami tH.O a ,'alu ' bl~ b\·uv:dE'~. d

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