LAST MONTH I wrote about Daniel Webster Pullen and his family. By 1870, Pullen had bought a trading post in La Push and was prospering. In 1881 he married Matilda Smith. By 1889, they had four children.
The Pullens fell into hard times when they were confronted with several significant legal issues.
Daniel was very deaf during this time frame. He needed Harriet to aid in the business. This made Harriet a key witness during the trial. Harriet was on the witness stand for a week. The cross examination was unusually long (four days) and it was estimated that Baxter’s attorney, Charles F. Munday, asked Harriet 4,500 questions. As trying as it was, Harriet maintained her credibility.
On June 26, 1893, the jury sided with the Pullens returning a verdict for the defense. But win or lose, the legal costs were high.
By 1897, the Pullens were broke. For a year, newspapers around the state ran short filler articles saying Daniel had “suddenly become insane” and ”left his home and has not since been seen or heard of. It is believed he has committed suicide.”
It was not true. Daniel was very much alive.
Harriet Pullen and Minerva Troy. The pair travelled to Skagaway, Alaksa together. (Submitted photo)
Daniel, being 55 years old, was not interested in starting over again. In the fall of 1987 Harriet and Minerva Troy (of Port Angeles) boarded the steamer Rosalie and sailed for Skagway, Alaska. Harriet and Minerva arrived in Skagway on Sept. 12, 1897.
Daniel left the Quillayute Valley and went to work for a Pope & Talbot logging camp near Port Gamble. Their sons stayed with Daniel until later when they reunited with Harriet in Skagway.
Mildred was sent to the Ellensburg Normal School.
It takes a very special strength to begin a new adventure while leaving your children behind. It may have been for the best since Harriet was traveling into the unknown. It would be better to establish a place to stay before the children joined her.
By winter, Daniel and the boys boarded the steamer Alki for their journey to Skagway. One of the sons, Royal, got pneumonia on the boat. Daniel and a fireman on the boat nursed Royal back to health.
Daniel went to work as a carpenter. In his spare time, he built the family a small house. After that, Daniel built a larger house that Harriet used as a boarding house.
Daniel continued working as a carpenter on the depot for the White Pass and Yukon Railroad.
Regrettably, Daniel suffered hearing loss that made it hard for him to hold a job. His age didn’t help either.
Daniel and Harriet did not view their life’s journey the same way. Around 1902 they parted ways. Daniel and Harriet divorced. Daniel took a small boat south along the Chilkat Inlet to a place called St. Michael. Daniel worked there for a while before taking a boat to Kent.
In January 1907, Harriet traveled back to Quillayute to visit her mother. She began her return by boarding the steamer, Gertrude. The Gertrude departed Clallam Bay at 7:45 p.m. Harriet thought the evening trip would give her a chance to rest.
No time for rest. The Gertrude departed into the heart of a severe windstorm with gale-force winds. Besides the wind, it was snowing hard resulting in whiteout conditions.
The ship’s master could not even see more than a couple of hundred feet in front of the boat.
Those old steamers were tough vessels until something broke. After getting pounded for about an hour a steam pipe broke in the engine room.
The captain turned back to Clallam Bay where the harbor was sheltered.
The steamer Gertrude, which hit rocks when Harriet Pullen was aboard in 1907. (Submitted photo)
The water was too rough to launch the lifeboats. A line was shot ashore, and a breeches buoy was rigged up. A breeches buoy is a rope system used to move people from wrecked vessels.
It was safer to remain onboard the Gertrude until morning. Harriet was a strong woman to endure such a terrible experience.
In the morning, the sea was a bit calmer, so they began loading life rafts. Two tugboats, the Lorne and the Wyadda had arrived to assist in the rescue. After Harriet got into the life raft, a rogue wave hit and lifted the life raft up above the side of the steamer. The raft got caught on the handrail and flipped over completely. Harriet fell into the water below.
Still, she had the presence of mind to reach up and grab a slat on the raft.
Harriet hung on until others could pull her back on board. She was transferred to the Lorne and taken ashore. That afternoon, Harriet was able to board the steamer Rosalie to continue to Port Angeles.
Harriet continued on her journey back to Skagway, where she lived out her remaining years. Harriet was nick-named “Mother of the North.” She was entrepreneurial and strong. She drove teams of horses and was a baker.
Yet, even with that entrepreneurial spirit and the strength to go with it, it was not always easy to make ends meet. Harriet took cooking jobs to keep her family going.
Eventually Harriet bought the Ben Moore house and renamed it The Pullen House. President Warren G. Harding delivered an address at her hotel.
Things never went as well as hoped. Harriet never got out of debt. She became a poor businesswoman.
To Harriet’s eldest son, Royal, it felt like he was forever bailing Harriet out of financial trouble. He was always “apprehensive when a letter from Skagway arrived—what new trouble was she in?”
Harriet died on Aug. 9, 1947.
We should remind ourselves that when we go out on a limb, make sure the limb is strong enough.
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John McNutt is a descendant of Clallam County pioneers and treasurer of the North Olympic History Center Board of Directors. He can be reached at woodrowsilly@gmail.com.
John’s Clallam history column appears the first Saturday of every month.
