In this page:
Biography of Matilda Kinnon Paul Tamaree, Letters from her to Edward Marsden 1894 to 1897.
History of the Sheldon Jackson Infirmary, Tillie Paul Manor
Matilda "Tillie" Kinnon Paul Tamaree, Ḵaalyát, 1863-1955
Tillie Paul, Matilda Kinnon Paul Tamaree, Ḵaalyát, was born on January 18, 1863 at Victoria, Canada. Her mother, Xutxoox, was Tlingit of the Teeyhitaan Clan, and also had Tsimshian and Haida connections. Her father, James Kinnon, was of Scottish background, and worked for the Hudson's Bay Company, and had been stationed in Tlingit country when he married Tillie's mother. The town of Victoria at the time was the regional center for commerce.
When Tillie was about three years old, her mother was sick with tuberculosis and wanted her two daughters to be raised in Tlingit culture, and so had a clan brother secretly take her and her girls in a small canoe the roughly 800 miles from Victoria to Wrangell.
Tillie's mother's sister was married to Snook, or Yukayas Yoosnook, a Naanya.aayi Clan leader, and they brought up Tillie. Tillie's mother died when she was still young, but Snook and her mother's sister Xoonselat made sure she had an idyllic and privileged Tlingit childhood and was well educated.
Wrangell was lawless at this time, and had been ravaged by two gold rushes to the interior, one in the early 1860s and a second in 1874. An Army post had been at Wrangell on and off from 1868 until 1877. In 1869 the Army bombarded the Tlingit settlement of ̱Kaachx̱aana.áak'w. In 1862 a smallpox epidemic had hit the Northwest coast and killed most of the Haida people, and many of the Stikheen area Tlingit.
When Tillie was 12 she was betrothed to a much older Tsimshian man, a clan leader who lived at Metlakatla, Canada, a Christian Tsimshean community. She traveled there, but the marriage did not take place. She then went to live with the Crosbys, a Methodist missionary couple at Port Simpson. She worked and studied there for a time. She then went back to Wrangell, but lived at the Presbyterian home for girls run by Mrs. McFarland.
She stayed there for about three years, and thrived, and was well regarded by the missionaries. She helped with the work, taught the younger girls, and translated for the minister.
When she was about 16 she met her future husband, Louis Paul, Yéil Eenak, who was also Tlingit, of the Daḵl'aweidí Clan from Tongass, and had also studied with missionaries. They married in the fall of 1882.
They were sent as missionaries to Klukwan, but were not welcomed there, and their first child, Samuel Kendall, was born at Wrangell. They were then sent to Tongass to teach, where their son William was born in 1885.
In December 1887 Louis Paul, missionary teacher Samuel Saxman, and Yaak Koolyat, a young Tlingit man, died while scouting for a site for a new Christian village. In early 1887 Tillie's third child, Louis, was born.
Missionary Sheldon Jackson invited the widowed Tillie and her sons to Sitka to work at his school.
She lived at Sitka from 1887 until 1903. At Sitka they lived in a house later called North Cottage, near the top of Jeff Davis Street, that in 1995 was moved down the hill and across the street to 107 Jeff Davis Street (just up the hill and behind Tillie Paul Manor). Her son William Paul, according to Edie and Chuck Bovee, would knock on the door when he was in town and tell whoever answered that they were living in his house.
Her son Samuel Kendall went to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania in 1888, and William and Louis followed later.
At Sitka at various points over the next 16 years Tillie learned to play the organ, managed the school laundry, was a nurse in the hospital, taught sewing, worked as a translator and even developed a system for writing Tlingit, and translated hymns that are still sung today.
She and teacher George Beck started the New Covenant League, a Native Christian temperance organization, which became a very important social organization in the Village and at the Sheldon Jackson mission Cottages settlement, and was a forerunner of the Alaska Native Brotherhood in 1912. They went often to the Village part of town to conduct services in homes and in the Native school.
In 1903 Tillie moved to Wrangell to help there and married William Tamaree, with whom she had three children.
Her son Samuel Kendall never moved back to Alaska, but her other two sons, William and Louis, did perhaps more than anyone else to advance the causes of Native land claims and civil rights. They were prominent in the Alaska Native Brotherhood, and William served in the Territorial Legislature. William Paul was the first Native lawyer admitted to the Bar in Alaska.
In 1923, when Native people were not allowed to vote unless they met certain, somewhat arbitrary criteria, William had his mother accompany Charlie Jones, a Naanya.aayi Clan leader later known as Shakes, to vote and both were arrested. Jones was acquitted and charges dropped against Tillie Paul. The following year all Native Americans in the country were granted citizenship and the right to vote. Tillie Paul has scores of descendants, who are rightfully proud of her and the ways she advanced the cause of civil rights for Native people.
Sources and more reading:
Kahtahah, A Tlingit Girl by Frances Lackey Paul, illustrated Rie Muñoz. (Anchorage, Seattle, Portland: Alaska Northwest Books, 1996). Kahtahah, A Tlingit Girl, is based on the life of Tillie Paul, recreated by her daughter-in- law Frances Lackey Paul with assistance from her husband William Paul and accounts by tradition bearers.
Most of this information is from the biography "Matilda Kinnon Paul Tamaree / Kahtahah; Kah-tli-yudt," by Nancy J. Ricketts and edited Richard Dauenhauer, in Nora Marks Dauenhauer and Richard Dauenhauer, eds., Haa Kusteeyi, Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories, Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature, Volume 3 (Seattle: University of Washington Press; Juneau, Alaska: Sealaska Heritage Foundation, 1994), 469-502.
William Paul telling people they were living in his house, personal communication Edie and Chuck Bovee.
When Tillie was about three years old, her mother was sick with tuberculosis and wanted her two daughters to be raised in Tlingit culture, and so had a clan brother secretly take her and her girls in a small canoe the roughly 800 miles from Victoria to Wrangell.
Tillie's mother's sister was married to Snook, or Yukayas Yoosnook, a Naanya.aayi Clan leader, and they brought up Tillie. Tillie's mother died when she was still young, but Snook and her mother's sister Xoonselat made sure she had an idyllic and privileged Tlingit childhood and was well educated.
Wrangell was lawless at this time, and had been ravaged by two gold rushes to the interior, one in the early 1860s and a second in 1874. An Army post had been at Wrangell on and off from 1868 until 1877. In 1869 the Army bombarded the Tlingit settlement of ̱Kaachx̱aana.áak'w. In 1862 a smallpox epidemic had hit the Northwest coast and killed most of the Haida people, and many of the Stikheen area Tlingit.
When Tillie was 12 she was betrothed to a much older Tsimshian man, a clan leader who lived at Metlakatla, Canada, a Christian Tsimshean community. She traveled there, but the marriage did not take place. She then went to live with the Crosbys, a Methodist missionary couple at Port Simpson. She worked and studied there for a time. She then went back to Wrangell, but lived at the Presbyterian home for girls run by Mrs. McFarland.
She stayed there for about three years, and thrived, and was well regarded by the missionaries. She helped with the work, taught the younger girls, and translated for the minister.
When she was about 16 she met her future husband, Louis Paul, Yéil Eenak, who was also Tlingit, of the Daḵl'aweidí Clan from Tongass, and had also studied with missionaries. They married in the fall of 1882.
They were sent as missionaries to Klukwan, but were not welcomed there, and their first child, Samuel Kendall, was born at Wrangell. They were then sent to Tongass to teach, where their son William was born in 1885.
In December 1887 Louis Paul, missionary teacher Samuel Saxman, and Yaak Koolyat, a young Tlingit man, died while scouting for a site for a new Christian village. In early 1887 Tillie's third child, Louis, was born.
Missionary Sheldon Jackson invited the widowed Tillie and her sons to Sitka to work at his school.
She lived at Sitka from 1887 until 1903. At Sitka they lived in a house later called North Cottage, near the top of Jeff Davis Street, that in 1995 was moved down the hill and across the street to 107 Jeff Davis Street (just up the hill and behind Tillie Paul Manor). Her son William Paul, according to Edie and Chuck Bovee, would knock on the door when he was in town and tell whoever answered that they were living in his house.
Her son Samuel Kendall went to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania in 1888, and William and Louis followed later.
At Sitka at various points over the next 16 years Tillie learned to play the organ, managed the school laundry, was a nurse in the hospital, taught sewing, worked as a translator and even developed a system for writing Tlingit, and translated hymns that are still sung today.
She and teacher George Beck started the New Covenant League, a Native Christian temperance organization, which became a very important social organization in the Village and at the Sheldon Jackson mission Cottages settlement, and was a forerunner of the Alaska Native Brotherhood in 1912. They went often to the Village part of town to conduct services in homes and in the Native school.
In 1903 Tillie moved to Wrangell to help there and married William Tamaree, with whom she had three children.
Her son Samuel Kendall never moved back to Alaska, but her other two sons, William and Louis, did perhaps more than anyone else to advance the causes of Native land claims and civil rights. They were prominent in the Alaska Native Brotherhood, and William served in the Territorial Legislature. William Paul was the first Native lawyer admitted to the Bar in Alaska.
In 1923, when Native people were not allowed to vote unless they met certain, somewhat arbitrary criteria, William had his mother accompany Charlie Jones, a Naanya.aayi Clan leader later known as Shakes, to vote and both were arrested. Jones was acquitted and charges dropped against Tillie Paul. The following year all Native Americans in the country were granted citizenship and the right to vote. Tillie Paul has scores of descendants, who are rightfully proud of her and the ways she advanced the cause of civil rights for Native people.
Sources and more reading:
Kahtahah, A Tlingit Girl by Frances Lackey Paul, illustrated Rie Muñoz. (Anchorage, Seattle, Portland: Alaska Northwest Books, 1996). Kahtahah, A Tlingit Girl, is based on the life of Tillie Paul, recreated by her daughter-in- law Frances Lackey Paul with assistance from her husband William Paul and accounts by tradition bearers.
Most of this information is from the biography "Matilda Kinnon Paul Tamaree / Kahtahah; Kah-tli-yudt," by Nancy J. Ricketts and edited Richard Dauenhauer, in Nora Marks Dauenhauer and Richard Dauenhauer, eds., Haa Kusteeyi, Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories, Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature, Volume 3 (Seattle: University of Washington Press; Juneau, Alaska: Sealaska Heritage Foundation, 1994), 469-502.
William Paul telling people they were living in his house, personal communication Edie and Chuck Bovee.
Letters from Tillie Paul to Edward Marsden
Letters from Tillie Paul to Edward Marsden 1894 through 1897, from Special Collections, Knight Library, University of Oregon. Transcriptions by Ben Paul, used courtesy of Ben Paul. Edward Marsden (1869-1932) was Tsimshian, who came to Alaska from Canada as part of the Christian community of Metlakatla in 1887. He attended the Presbyterian mission at Sitka, and became a Presbyterian minister, ordained in 1898.
History of the Sheldon Jackson School Infirmary, Tillie Paul Manor
Reminiscence by Bev Scholz of her work at the Sheldon Jackson School Infirmary:
Missionary Sheldon Jackson started a mission and day school for Native children in Sitka in 1878, and moved it to the current site just east of downtown Sitka in 1882. The current campus quadrangle was built in 1910-11. Over most of this time the school had medical facilities or a hospital, sometimes the only one in Sitka.
In the 1920s the infirmary was in a corner of the first floor of the Small Boys Building, Fraser Hall. What is now Tillie Paul Manor was built as an infirmary in 1926. The need for this facility by such a small school, with around 130 students, reflects the threat at the time of tuberculosis and other diseases to Alaska Native people.
Tuberculosis had long been present in Alaska, but became an epidemic among Alaska’s Native communities in the late 1800s. Racial discrimination was a factor in the deadliness of the disease, just as it was in immigrant tenements in East Coast cities.
The scale of loss is nearly incomprehensible: in 1932, the rate of death of Alaska Native people from tuberculosis alone was nearly twice as that from all causes, today. Most of the deaths were of people under the age of 30. One in four deaths was of an infant.
Between 1930 and 1935, a span of just five years, thirty-seven children and youth under the age of 20 died in Sitka. Nearly all of these children were Alaska Native, who represented just half the population of Sitka. Most died from TB, influenza and other diseases. Sitka’s population was not much over 1,000 in 1930. Twenty-two of these children were age ten or younger. Another sixteen people died in their 20s, 30s or 40s.
New drugs ended the tuberculosis epidemic in the late 1950s, but the devastating impact of these deaths is still felt today.
When the infirmary opened the main floor had a dispensary, operating room, and rooms for medical staff and for patients, and the second floor was an open ward with cots.
At one point, all of the Sheldon Jackson students received ultra violet light treatment, donning protective goggles, under special lamps set up in the upper floor.
During construction of Sitka’s Community Hospital, from 1949-1953, the infirmary was Sitka’s hospital, and hundreds of Sitka babies were born here, with 60 babies born in the first year and 56 the second!
After the need for the infirmary ended, some time in the 1970s, Sheldon Jackson College converted the building for housing, naming it Tillie Paul Manor. It was student Honor housing, staff housing, and in the 2000s was leased for unmarried Coast Guardsmen while their barracks was being remodeled, and another summer as housing for fish plant workers.
In 2006 Sheldon Jackson College, in deep financial trouble, sold the building in order to repay an emergency loan from a trustee. Thad Poulson purchased the building to ensure it would not be torn down. Over the next several years Thad and his son James did major work to save the building, including a new roof and drainage around the foundation, and major repairs inside, where the leaking roof and deferred maintenance had led to serious damage.
The building was leased to the Sitka Youth Hostel Committee, Inc., a business operated by a board and volunteers, who operated the building seasonally as Sitka’s International Hostel from about 2010 until it closed in early 2020, due to the pandemic. During winters before 2020, then year round after the hostel closed and until late 2023, rooms were subleased as apartments to monthly tenants. For a period in the summers of 2022 and 2023 entire building was also subleased to the Sitka Fine Arts Camp for staff housing. The hostel did not operate from early 2020 until late 2023.
In December of 2023 the Sitka Fine Arts Camp took over the lease, in order to operate the building year round as a hostel once again, with a layout nearly identical to the configuration when it was an infirmary. Each set of two rooms on the main floor shares a bathroom, and there is one bathroom on the second floor. The camp will use the six-bed dormitory on the second floor for staff housing during camp, and the rest of the building will continue in use as a hostel.
The seven rooms in the main floor, formerly the operating room and patient and staff bedrooms, will each have a queen bed or two twins, and one room will have two bunk beds, and the upstairs will have a lounge and six single beds dormitory style. The hosts will have a room and a full kitchen, formerly the “snack kitchen” (the infirmary was attached to Sheldon Jackson School, which had a dining hall across the street). Guests will have use of the former dispensary, with toaster oven and microwave.
The sun porch will be the main gathering space during the warmer months. It is a beautiful space and will remain uninsulated.
Over the years, the owners of the building have been working to research the history and to restore the building to its original look and feel. In 2023 they received a Historic Preservation Fund grant to restore the large windows of the sun porch and to get interior storm windows for the entire building.
Sources: W. Leslie Yaw, Sixty Years in Sitka. (Sitka, Alaska: Sheldon Jackson College Press, 1985)
"Our New Equipment" The Verstovian (Sheldon Jackson School newspaper) Volume 13, No. 4 January 1927, 1-2
Edwin B. Crittenden, The Architecture of the Sheldon Jackson College Campus 1887-1990 (Sitka, Alaska: Sheldon Jackson College Press, 1991).
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