Jessie: the story of a genteel lady in frontier Alaska

Jessie: the story of a genteel lady in frontier Alaska is the fascinating saga of one of Alaska’s most remarkable women of the Goldrush/Sourdough Era. In 1913, Jessie Mather, born to a wealthy, Victorian family in Sheffield, England, was stranded with her parents in Eagle, Alaska, by the outbreak of WWI because funds to continue travel became unavailable. Some fifty-six years later, in 1969, Jessie died in Sitka, and the few remaining items of her estate were sold in a state auction. The author who purchased those mementos unseen soon realized it would be possible to reconstruct the life of this pioneer lady from the contents of the ancient trunk, and thus Jessie’s story - a true riches-to-rags adventure - chronicles the life of this durable Alaskan citizen.