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Gold Rush Cemetery - James Mark Rowan grave

This view shows the grave of James Mark Rowan at the Gold Rush Cemetery in Skagway, Alaska.  Rowan was a hard working logger in the Skagit Valley when Washington was still a territory. Old growth trees of mammoth circumference were still there to be cut but it was grueling, dangerous labor. He left that and for two or three years he was employed as City Marshal of Mount Vernon.


Married just over a year, he resigned his position as marshal when men started coming back from Alaska with bags of gold and exaggerated stories of how easy finding it was. James Rowan packed his bag in August, leaving his pregnant wife in Mt. Vernon and made his way north to Skagway. He may have tried his hand at prospecting but had to take work as foreman of a crew building a wagon road for awhile.

After that he hired on as a Deputy United States Marshal in the wide open town of Skagway. Soapy Smith, infamous extortionist, gambling and booze joint owner and all around bad guy had the town in his grip. Into this mix came James Rowan, whose pregnant wife had joined him in Skagway two months previous. When he was stopped on the street by Andrew McGrath, who claimed to have been drugged, robbed and beaten by bartender, Edward Fay, he accompanied him to the two story variety theater where the deed had taken place. A story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says McGrath tried to strike the bartender as soon as they entered. Fay reportedly took out a gun and shot Rowan in the stomach and MaGrath in the groin. They both died of their wounds but information had a way of getting changed and embellished by the time it reached the lower forty-eight.

One version had Rowan dying immediately and another had him staggering out to the street where he was helped to the doctor's office with time to moan, "the poor little woman". His son had been born just hours before the shooting. Some papers said Marshal Rowan had been on the way to get the doctor for his wife and newborn when stopped by McGrath, another version had him out celebrating the birth in Soapy Smith's saloon. The citizens of Skagway were ready to hold a lynching when they heard that the lawman, his wife and baby and McGrath were ALL dead. Rumor and gossip had inflated the death toll and tempers were high. The variety theater owner, a man named Rice, was convinced by a business man of Skagway that it would be in his best interest to hand Edward Fay over to prevent a riot. A committee was formed to protect the bartender. Another committee of twelve men were appointed to hold a trial. The town had been tense for some time. The citizens were in favor of closing saloons and gambling dens while the criminal element was ready to start shooting if anyone tried to shut them down.

Governor Brady wired the President of the United States to implore him to send troops and declare martial law along the coast of Alaska, especially Skagway and Dyea. A citizens petition for 300 troops to establish martial law was sent to the Secretary of War in Washington, D.C. In the middle of it all Soapy Smith started collecting donations for the widow, who although not well, was still alive. The baby, contrary to what a newspaper wrote about his death due to "want of sustenance", was reported to be doing well. Calmer minds did prevail with respect to the lynching of the accused. He was spirited out of Skagway and turned himself in to be imprisoned in Sitka to await trial for the murders. After two trials, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years. With good conduct he got out in six years and nine months. Reports on the wife of James Rowan were sketchy. Most said she did die shortly after the shooting.

Much of this information came from the February 5 and February 6, 1898, Seattle Post-Intelligencer found in the Chronicling America Historical Newspapers site. When reading those and other newspapers covering the same event details were always a bit different. Reasons for the shooting, where and why Rowan was away from his wife when he met McGrath, McGrath working on the road building, not Rowan, McGrath being called by the name Rollins in the second trial and the list could go on. Poor communication and inadequate or biased sources put a different spin on all of reports.

The most accurate detail is the amount of time Edward Fay was sentenced to and for the lesser charge of manslaughter.

 

From: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29321866/james-mark-rowan

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Copyright: William L
Type: Spherical
Resolution: 20756x10378
Taken: 07/07/2023
Uploaded: 19/04/2024
Published: 19/04/2024
Views:

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Tags: gold rush cemetery; alaska; skagway; mining; historic; woods; graves; headstones; james mark rowan; deputy; united states; marshal
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