Hartshorn, Florence M., 1869-1943

Florence M. Hartshorn (1869-1943) was an early pioneer of Alaska and a photographer's assistant during the Klondike Gold Rush. Born in Michigan, Florence married Albert K. Hartshorn and had one daughter, Hazel Hartshorn Goslie. Florence, and her daughter, arrived in Sitka, Alaska in 1898 at the peak of the Gold Rush, and reconnected with her husband who had gone ahead to establish a blacksmith shop at Lake Bennett, British Columbia, north and east of Sitka. At Lake Bennett, Florence began assisting photographer E.J. Hamacher in 1898. Over the next two decades, the Hartshorns lived in both Seattle and Canada. By the late 1920s, the Hartshorns were divorced and Florence moved permanently to Seattle, where she was an active member of the Ladies of the Golden North, an organization of early women pioneers in Alaska. From 1928 to 1929, Florence began a successful campaign to raise money for a monument to be placed at Dead Horse Gulch in the White Pass, commemorating the thousands of pack animals that died transporting supplies to the gold fields.

Florence M. Hartshorn was born in Michigan in 1869, as was her husband, Albert K. Hartshorn. They had one daughter, Hazel Hartshorn Goslie. In July 1898 she arrived in Skagway, Alaska, and traveled north to Log Cabin, British Columbia, where her husband had established a blacksmith shop. This was the peak of the Yukon gold rush, and she saw first-hand the rugged conditions and the creativity by which the people survived. Florence began assisting photographer E.J. Hamacher at Lake Bennett in 1898. The Hartshorns lived in Canada until the 1920s. By the 1930s, Florence had moved to Seattle and the couple were divorced. In the late 1920s she helped raise money for a monument to be placed in Dead Horse Gulch, commemorating the thousands of pack animals that died transporting supplies to the gold fields. Florence M. Hartshorn died in Washington State in 1943.