Born: 7 September 1870, United States
Died: 23 April 1947
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Anna Hall
The following is republished from the National Park Service. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
The life of Annie Hall Strong, a white woman who spent decades in Seattle before pursuing wealth in Alaska with her husband, highlights the connection between those two places during the Klondike Gold Rush. The Strongs joined tens of thousands of other gold seekers who stocked up on supplies and traveled to Yukon Territory through Washington, supporting the growth of Seattle as a major city in the Pacific West in the process.
Anna Hall was born on September 7, 1870 in Nevada City, California to J.W. and Sarah Hall. When she was young, her family moved to Seattle, and after she graduated from Seattle High School in 1888, she studied music in Germany and France and worked as a music teacher. In 1896, she married John Franklin Alexander Strong, a Canadian printer fourteen years her senior. The couple was only settled in Seattle a short time before the promise of wealth and adventure called them to Skagway, Alaska, a new town at the base of White Pass Trail that led to the newly-discovered Klondike goldfields.
A few months after Strong arrived in Skagway in late summer of 1897, she wrote an article titled “Advice to Women,” speaking to the ten percent of all stampeders who were women. Although it was originally published in Skagway News on December 31, 1897, newspapers across the United States picked up the story. Strong advised “delicate women” not to attempt the journey north, writing, “It takes strong, healthy, courageous women to stand the terrible hardships that must necessarily be endured.” With this advice, Strong entered the national debate that was occurring at the end of the nineteenth century about whether the strength of native-born white American men and women, in both body and character, was on the decline. The influx of immigrants from new places, and the population of recently freed African Americans after the Civil War, incited fears among native-born white Americans that they would soon be outnumbered. Many white Americans believed the physical exertion required of men in undertakings like the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Klondike Gold Rush would fortify the American spirit; Strong’s article suggested that well-prepared white women had a role to play in this supposed national strengthening as well.
During the first decade of the twentieth century, the Strongs traveled across Alaska as John set up newspapers throughout the territory. In 1913, John Strong was appointed the second territorial governor of Alaska and Annie served as the first lady of the Alaska Territory until 1918, when John’s term ended and the couple moved back to Seattle. When John died in 1929, Annie made the Frye Hotel in Seattle her home base, while she continued to travel widely and give talks on her travels. At 76 years old, Annie died in Seattle on April 23, 1947.
Annie Hall Strong’s life showed how Seattle became the gateway city to Alaska during the gold rush. It was in Seattle that those who read and followed her “Advice to Women” article stocked up on tools, food, clothing, and plenty of sugar. Her words added to the promotional material that spurred the growth of Seattle and the Yukon. Provisioning during the gold rush helped transform Seattle into the largest city in the Pacific Northwest, known for its entrepreneurship and marketing prowess; at the same time, it contributed to the continued displacement of Pacific Northwest Native Americans from their homelands.