Gold-Rush Romance Enshrined In Bronze

Two women in bronze share a love story of the Klondike gold rush.

One is remembered with a statue in Skagway, Alaska, where thousands of gold-fevered miners stormed ashore 100 years ago.

The other is recognized with a plaque mounted on a wall of the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle.

The two women were honored by Jack Newman, a packer on the gold-rush trail. He loved them both.

And, tragically, a murder mystery is involved.

In the beginning . . .

The story began in Skagway in 1897, when 24-year-old Mollie Walsh arrived from Seattle aboard the S.S. Quadra. She hoped to join the gold stampede, but found Skagway a wicked and dangerous place for single women.

Back then the women of Skagway were divided into two categories, the "respectables," and the "unfortunates," the latter being the town prostitutes.

Mollie was one of the "respectables" but risked censure for befriending a young woman who lay dying in a brothel. She found a clergyman to read a prayer as the woman breathed her last, then helped arrange the funeral.

The Rev. R.M. Dickey, a Presbyterian missionary, conducted the service. An excerpt from Mr. Dickey's diary:

"The funeral service . . . was held in the church, which scandalized some people. Nearly 50 unfortunates were there, their painted faces and gaudy ornaments marking them from the respectables, some of whom sat aloof and disapproving."

Soon after, Mollie decided to leave Skagway. She walked 33 miles up the White Pass Trail, to a tent city called Log Cabin. There she pitched a tent and began serving hot meals to tired and hungry stampeders. Grateful men soon named her the "Angel of the White Pass."

"She's a real lady, pure as the driven snow," an admirer said.

Two men wooed Mollie - Jack Newman, one of the best-liked packers on the trail, and Mike Bartlett, hot-tempered owner of another pack train.

Mollie chose Bartlett. They married and moved to Seattle.

The murder

An article published in 1973 by the White Pass & Yukon Route, a Skagway railroad that dates from gold-rush days, tells the rest of the story:

Claude G. Bannick, a Seattle mounted policeman, was riding his Pike Street beat on the night of Oct. 27, 1902, when he heard a woman scream. - then a pistol shot.

Mike Bartlett had murdered his wife.

Bartlett was tried a year later for the killing of Mollie Walsh Bartlett, but was acquitted as being temporarily insane. Later, he took his own life.

Bartlett never said why he shot Mollie.

They left a 2 1/2-year-old son,

Leo. A police matron was given temporary custody of the child.

Jack Newman was beside himself with grief when he learned of Mollie's death.

Newman also had left Alaska for Seattle, where he married a widow by the name of Hannah Barry.

The statue and tribute

In 1930 - 28 years after Mollie's death, and knowing that his own life was closing - Newman decided to honor the memory of his "Angel of the White Pass." He commissioned a bronze sculpture of Mollie to be placed in Skagway.

And there the statue stands today, by a children's playground that has become known as Mollie Walsh Park.

The inscription, written by the man who lost Mollie to the man who killed her, reads:

ALONE WITHOUT HELP / THIS COURAGEOUS GIRL / RAN A GRUB TENT / DURING THE GOLD RUSH / OF 1897-1898. / SHE FED AND LODGED / THE WILDEST / GOLD CRAZED MEN. / GENERATIONS / SHALL SURELY KNOW / THIS INSPIRING SPIRIT. / MURDERED OCT. 27, / 1902.

Jack Newman was unable to attend the dedication ceremony in Skagway, but sent a message.

"I'm an old man and no longer suited to the scene, for Mollie is still young and will remain forever young," he wrote.

"Her spirit lingers still reach across the years and play on the slackened strings of my old heart and my heart still sings - MOLLIE! - my heart still sings, but in such sad undertone that none but God and I can hear . . ."

Hannah has her say

Down in Seattle, Hannah Newman let her husband know that she was less than thrilled with his tribute to his lost love.

Newman told sourdough cronies about Mrs. Newman's displeasure.

" `Look here, Jack,' she said, `are you going to devote your life to putting mules and horses and Mollie Walsh in bronze? Where do I come in?' "

And so, Newman quickly placed a dinner-plate-size bronze profile of Hannah on the exterior of the Washington Athletic Club, at Sixth Avenue and Union Street. The inscription:

MRS. HANNAH NEWMAN / WITH COURAGE AND FAITH IN THE / DEVELOPMENT OF OUR CITY OWNED / THIS GROUND FROM PIONEER DAYS / UNTIL THE ERECTION OF THIS BUILDING / 1930

Jack Newman died soon after Mollie's statue was unveiled in Skagway.

Newman had requested that he be buried in Skagway, beside Mollie's monument.

Mrs. Newman had him buried in Seattle.

You'll find Mollie Walsh's statue near Sixth Avenue and Spring Street in Skagway, a short walk from downtown hotels. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stanton H. Patty, who retired as assistant travel editor of The Seattle Times, now is a freelance writer based in Vancouver, Wash.