FENNIMORE FENWICK.
"On a pioneer farm in northwestern Iowa, with a broad expanse of
beautiful prairie on every side, far from town or village, lived my
grandfather, George Fenwick. On this farm in October, 1840, my father,
Fennimore Fenwick, was born. Of a family of nine children, five boys and
four girls, he was the fifth, two of the brothers and two of the sisters
being older. Closely associated as a healthy, harmonious family of
children, they grew up surrounded by the conditions of an isolated farm
life, so general in the widely scattered settlements of those early
days, with only now and then rare chances for a little schooling of the
most primitive character. However, they shared with each other their
joys and sorrows, their plays and privations; always forbearing and
patient, kind and affectionate, light-hearted, sympathetic and helpful,
they did much to develop that broad, loving, genial nature which made my
father kin to all mankind. So just and true! So nobly unselfish! A
signal illustration of the great blessing which Nature's beneficent law
of compensation brings to large families.
"Passing on to September, 1865, at the close of the war of the
rebellion, we find the large family, so long and harmoniously united,
now separated and widely scattered. Grandfather and grandmother Fenwick
both died during the closing year of the war. With the exception of my
father, the brothers and sisters were all married and settled on farms
of their own: some in Iowa, one in Missouri, two in Kansas, and two in
Minnesota. The homestead was divided between the two younger brothers.
All of the brothers served as soldiers, good and true, during the war;
the two younger only one year each. My father, more fortunate than the
others, by his bravery and soldierly excellence won a commission, and
came home the captain of his company.
"From this point forward we will follow my father's career as he makes a
pathway in life for himself.
"From 1865 to 1871 he devoted his time and his savings to hard study in
the best of schools, finishing a master of his profession--a mining
engineer and expert in assaying and metallurgy. From 1871 to 1882 he was
general manager of a wealthy mining company in Colorado at a large
salary, making a name for himself as one of the most skillful and
successful men in the profession. While in Colorado my father was
haunted by an intuitive feeling that the gold-bearing quartz region of
Alaska held a rich find in store for him. In October, 1882, a very
strong corporation was organized in San Francisco, 'The Alaska Mining
Co.,' to open and operate their extensive mines in Alaska. The directors
of the company chose my father manager. They offered him an increased
salary to go to Alaska to take entire charge of the work. This position
he accepted and retained for five years. During that time he discovered
a very rich mine on a small, rocky island near the coast. In partnership
with his old friend, Mr. Dunbar, one of the San Francisco directors of
the Alaska Mining Co., my father, at the end of five years service for
the company, had developed the mine on the island into one of the best
paying and most extensive of that famously rich gold bearing quartz
region. This was the foundation and support of his vast fortune, which
thereafter required his entire attention. At the death of Mr. Dunbar,
which occurred in 1890, his one-third interest in the mine passed to his
son, Dewitt C. Dunbar, a young man of great energy and integrity, with
an excellent business education. He impressed my father as one in every
way trustworthy and capable. At my father's request, Dewitt C. Dunbar,
accompanied by his young wife, at once removed to Alaska. Under my
father's tuition he began to prepare himself to take the active
management of the mine, which had been christened 'The Martina.'
"In 1882, while on his first visit to San Francisco, my father met and
loved Martina Morrison, my mother--my beautiful mother. She was
twenty-seven, my father forty-two. They were perfectly adapted to each
other, and both equally charmed and devoted. She possessed a fine mind,
well cultured; a handsome physique, charmingly graceful in every
movement; and, her crowning glory, an exceedingly amiable disposition.
Martina Morrison, by those who knew her longest and best, was declared
to be the soul of honor. She was an excellent medium, an enthusiastic
and devoted Spiritualist--one of its purest and most eloquent exponents,
highly esteemed by all as an able and earnest worker in the service of
the two worlds. Fennimore Fenwick, my father, soon became much
interested in her wonderful mediumship, and later became convinced of
the absolute verity of the mighty truths of Spiritualism. He at once
declared himself its willing and outspoken advocate: in his enthusiasm
of delight he even hailed it as the coming religion of the world.
"Martina Morrison had such confidence in my father's future mining
success, that she readily yielded to his urgent request for a speedy
marriage, that she might accompany him on his first trip to Alaska. And
thus it was they sailed away on their bridal tour, their destination
that far off land of flashing glacier and unexplored forest, almost, if
not quite, beyond the borders of civilization. This long voyage to an
unknown country had no terrors for them. They were all the world to each
other. A bright halo of hope and happiness spread a soft glow of
enchantment over ship and sail, sea and sky, so vivid, so far reaching,
that it even touched and tinted the distant shores of that far off, rock
bound coast of Alaska. Smooth seas, lovely weather and favoring winds
speeded the voyagers: those halcyon days flew swiftly by. Almost before
they dreamed it possible the vessel came to anchor in the port that
marked the end of the voyage. Safely landed, my father reported at once
at the office of The Alaska Mining Company, only a few miles distant.
There he commenced his five years of management for the Company, of
which I have already spoken. There my mother remained until December,
1884, when she returned to San Francisco, to visit her friends. My
father followed her five months later."