[Autograph Letter, Signed, from Julie E. Haley, Daughter of Noted Sitka Pioneer and Miner Nicholas Haley, Describing Her Firsthand Account of the Burning of Baranof Castle in Sitka in 1894]

Sitka, Ak: August 1, 1894. Very good plus.. 5pp. Original mailing folds. A historically-illuminating eyewitness account of the burning of Baranof Castle, the famous fort built in the New Archangel (Sitka) by the first governor of Russian America, Alexander Baranov. During Russian rule, the castle was the administrative center of Russian America. Baranof Castle was the site for both the formal ceremony of the sale of Alaska to the United States and the hoisting of the first American flag in Alaska. The building was continually reconstructed throughout its tenure and fully renovated in 1893. On the night of March 17, 1894, the castle caught fire and burned (truncated) to the ground, apparently due to the ignition of oily rags stored there. At the time of the fire, the building was used as the office and residence of the U.S. Court Commissioner Robert C. Rogers. Much later, in 1962, the site where the castle once stood was declared a National Historic Landmark.

The author of the present letter, Julia E. Haley was the only daughter of Nicholas Haley, a Sitka pioneer, notable miner, and important early landowner with several claims close to Sitka Bay. Born, raised, and ultimately buried in Sitka, Julia Haley owned and operated the well-known curiosity shop the "Old Indian Trading Post" on Lincoln Street in Sitka in the first two decades of the 20th century. Her store offered a variety of local products and artifacts, some of which purportedly came from the ashes of Baranof Castle, though Haley's account of the fire seems to refute any possibility of relics being found in the ashes. Here, Haley writes to a friend identified only as "Miss Young," a schoolteacher in San Francisco. In her letter, Haley provides a detailed account of the Baranof Castle fire, notes the troubles people have in getting to Sitka due to "much trouble on the railroads," and briefly describes a ball given by local ladies in honor of the Bering Sea Fleet ("That is the U.S. Navy ships in harbour - Yorktown, Mohican, Albatross, Ranger, Hassler, Corwin, Adams, Bear, Rush, Pinta, and H.M. Ship Pheasant & Areal").

Haley's description of the fire reads as follows: "I suppose you have heard about the Baranof Castle. It was burnt to the ground. Not even could we have a chip in remembrance. Of it nothing could be saved. It was impossible. Judge Rogers was in the building at the time & it took all they could do to get him out. He was at the windows for 8 hours crying for help. But no one heard him. Every one was asleep. He lost everything. Nothing saved, only a long coat he had on. And his poor little dog was in the attic & no one could get near him. It was a beautiful building after it as nearly repaired. So you may tell your friends that the Baranof Castle at Sitka is no more. The ground it stood on is all there. The building after being repaired was going to be occupied by the officials & we miss the view so much. It was a very pretty fire. I wished you could have seen it. The flag pole was the very last to burn. They took several views of it which looks so much like it. Every one felth [sic] so sorry. All the ladies watched it from one in the morning until four."

A unique account of one woman's experiences in far-flung Alaska in the last decade of the 19th century, with a particularly noteworthy eyewitness account of the last moments of Baranof Castle. (Inventory #: 2889)