Frederick Wilhelm August Poppe Materials

Open original Digital object

Identity elements

Reference code

SIE 4-61

Name and location of repository

Level of description

Title

Frederick Wilhelm August Poppe Materials

Date(s)

  • 1986 (Creation)

Extent

Content and structure elements

Scope and content

Consists of photocopied articles from the Milbank Herald Advance and We Alaskans, including eleven photographic reprints. The articles, written by Frederick's grandson, describe Frederick’s adventures in Alaska’s gold fields as well as biographical information. The photographs include a portrait of Frederick Wilhelm August Poppe and various scenes from his time in Alaska.

Article citation: Walter Poppe, “Journey to Alaska,” We Alaskans, June 15, 1986, 06-07.

Article citation: Walter H. Poppe, “Milbank men tried their luck in Alaskan gold fields,” Milbank Herald Advance, April 1, 1986.

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use elements

Conditions governing access

Physical access

Technical access

Conditions governing reproduction

Languages of the material

    Scripts of the material

      Language and script notes

      Finding aids

      Acquisition and appraisal elements

      Custodial history

      Immediate source of acquisition

      Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information

      Accruals

      Related materials elements

      Existence and location of originals

      Existence and location of copies

      Related archival materials

      Related descriptions

      Notes element

      General note

      Biographical Note

      Frederick Wilhelm August Poppe was born in Kragerø, Norway in 1851. He immigrated with his father, Arendt, to America at age 18 and settled in Prior, Minnesota in the late 1870s. In 1897, Frederick organized a group of thirty-three men bound for the gold mines in Alaska. They set sail in 1898 for Alaska on the steamer Valencia, which carried 590 passengers, 23 horses, and 28 dogs. As was the case for the vast majority of gold prospectors, the journey was dangerous, met with many adversities (including a near mutiny), and relatively unsuccessful. Arriving in Valdez, they had to move their goods over a glacier, which took about thirty days, to get to Copper River. They prospected along the Copper River and then on the Tunana River. Frederick returned from Alaska a year later in 1899 after a very rough experience and little gold. Six of those with Frederick died.

      Prior to his Alaskan adventure days, Frederick was a self-declared druggist in South Dakota and owned the Milbank Drug Store and later another drug store in Aberdeen. He also went in to the insurance business in 1897. Frederick married Henrietta and they had four sons. After Henrietta’s unexpected death in 1887, Frederick remarried in 1890 to Martha Brockmann. They had a daughter, Eleanora Martha.

      Specialized notes

      Alternative identifier(s)

      Description control element

      Rules or conventions

      Sources used

      Access points

      Subject access points

      Place access points

      Name access points

      Genre access points

      Digital object (Master) rights area

      Digital object (Reference) rights area

      Digital object (Thumbnail) rights area

      Accession area