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In December 1878, Fort Wrangel, Alaska is a lawless place. No one is in charge. Chaos reigns. When a gold miner is shot dead inside a saloon, the people in Fort Wrangel are forced to bring the murderer to justice. (Published on May 13, 2021)
National Police Gazette, January 1879
The National Police Gazette published an account of the murder of Thomas O’Brien. The publication is often considered the nation’s first men’s magazine, and it was known for its sensational stories and vivid illustrations.
The National Police Gazette is one of only two contemporaneous accounts of the trial of John Boyd.
Reverend S. Hall Young
The Reverend S. Hall Young came to Alaska in 1878 to minister to Fort Wrangel’s Tlingit congregation. He found a community reeling under the stampede of the Cassiar Gold Rush. No one was around to enforce laws, ensure peace, or ensure justice.
He married Fannie Kellogg in Sitka in December 1878. On the newlywed couple’s return to Fort Wrangel, Young was asked to officiate a single funeral for both murderer John Boyd and the murdered Thomas O’Brien.
Reverend Young told the story of John Boyd in “Hall Young of Alaska,” an autobiography written years after his time in Fort Wrangel. Young and the National Police Gazette have the only contemporaneous accounts of the John Boyd story.
Amanda McFarland
Amanda McFarland came to Fort Wrangel to minister to the community’s young Tlingit girls, who were often at risk from gold-miners and early marriages.
Decades later, she recalled visiting the condemned John Boyd as he awaited his execution…
“When murder was committed by one white man shooting another…I being sent for three times during the last night by the poor, wretched man to talk and pray with him. He told me he had not heard a prayer for twenty years or longer. Such scenes as this were very trying to me, but pleasant and joyous intermingle with sad ones.”
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If you are interested in what happens in Wrangell history after the the trial of John Boyd, check out John Muir and the Fire on the Mountain. This episode covers the summer and fall of 1879, when naturalist John Muir made Fort Wrangel his Alaskan base of operations.
