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CHASING MY TALE
There it was "Prof. Hewlett of Wisconsin Finds
Proof of His Sister's Fate." I
will admit that I have a fascination with stories of the Yukon Gold Rush; the
wild adventures: the life and death struggles in the frozen north. But this was totally different from any of
the tales I had read. I found another
article in the Minneapolis Journal of October 29, 1906: “Graduate of “U’ Met Tragic Fate…Tale of Wolves Devouring Her Body.”
Here was a woman who, I was to find, cast away all conventions and trekked into
the wilderness to satisfy her desire for adventure and knowledge. Here was a tough, independent woman who in
her life had determined to live her way no matter what the customs of the times
demanded. I started my search.
The first story
related that the professor had found "part
of the skull, a rib, a femur and bits of clothing" in a two year
search through the wilderness in search of an answer to her disappearance. Who was she?
Who was the brother who searched the northern wilderness? Let's start at
the beginning.
Frank and Edith
Hewett grew up in the tiny village of Kingston, Green Lake County,
Wisconsin. Their father, Alonzo P.
Hewett was the son of the earliest settler, Charles Hewett who brought his
family west to that place in 1844, Alonzo being 14 at the time. Alonzo married Kate Knowlton and in about
1851 Frank Hewett was born. In 1855 or 1856 (dates rarely agree on old records)
his little sister Edith was born. No
doubt, like most big brothers, he felt a special bond and obligation to his
sister’s safety. Alonzo made several
trips to Iowa to establish himself on a new frontier in 1853 and 1855. He stayed for under a year each time because
the winters were “too severe”, and the “comforts of the west too scarce to
enable him to stand the pressure.” It
was during this second sojourn in Iowa that Edith was born. After her birth Alonzo returned to Kingston,
and remained with his family until 1875 when, apparently finding the state
sufficiently civilized, he returned to Lime Springs, Iowa.
Alonzo's family
was musically talented. In 1861, at age
31, he enlisted at Fond Du Lac Wisconsin in the 3rd Wisconsin
Infantry as a musician in the regimental band.
He was discharged for disability in August of 1862 and returned to his
trade as a wagon maker until returning to Iowa in 1875 where he worked as a
carpenter and builder. He established a
hotel called The Hewett House. Frank
established himself in Forest City, Iowa as a music teacher. Later, as we shall see, he entered show
business.
In the 1885 Edith
Hewett White was a housewife with two children living in Minneapolis with her
husband, John A. White, who worked for the Minneapolis Harvester Works. They had married in January of 1878, when
Edith was 22 and John 26. In 1879 a
daughter, Vera was born. In August of
1881 a son, John A. White II, was born.
Apparently he died early for he does not appear in later census
records. In 1883 another daughter, Alace
was born. In 1885 a son John P. White
was born. He died at age 2 on September
18, 1887. Shortly after his death Edith
and her Husband separated. Perhaps it
was the loss of another child that led to the estrangement. Perhaps it was her desire to participate in
the theatre, or her desire to pursue a career other than that of
housewife. According to one source, she
had taken up acting in community theatrical productions.
Edith enrolled
in the University Of Minnesota School Of Dentistry in 1888. While attending the
university she took up the sport of fencing.
The only photo I found of her was taken with her fencing foil and shows
a dashing woman, seemingly much younger than her actual age, for she was then
in her mid-thirties. On June 5, 1890 she
was the first woman to be conferred the degree of D. D. S. at the university. Her fencing photo adorns the college
brochures and literature to this day.
Edith set up her
dental practice in the Syndicate Block in Minneapolis and for some months
practiced profitably. Then in February
of 1891 the press reported shocking news:
Edith White had
apparently been in theatrical productions with Harold Chambers, and they became
enamored of each other. “Loves Young Dream” proclaimed the St.
Paul Globe “comes to two people old
enough to know better.” The article continued: “Yon
Yonson was a play. The two have stepped from parts in a comparatively low grade
dramatic production to leading roles played on Shakespeare’s stage- the
world. He skill as a dentist combined
with her beauty as a woman attracted patients by the score. Among the male
patients…was Harold Chambers. They admired the same works of art, loved the
same books and doted on the same drama.
They longed for an opportunity to “act out on the stage.” The
opportunity came in the shape of a chance to participate in the presentation of
that highly classical drama, Yon Yonson.
Dr. Edith’s beauty and intelligence made her the leading lady, while
Harold’s avoirdupois caused him to be cast for the “heavy man.” This happened
November 10 last…After that they spent all their leisure hour together…The
doctor, his inamorata, has not been seen since last Saturday.”
White and Chambers
fled from their families and friends, first to Winona, Minnesota and then to
East St. Louis where Chambers found work in a railroad office. Chambers left a wife and two children ages 3
and 15 months penniless. They next
appear in the available historical records in May of 1893 when they were
married in Marion County, Indiana. This
may not have been a legal marriage because the 1900 census shows John White and
his daughter Vera living in Mankato, Minnesota where he stated he was married
and had been so for 22 years.
In the years when
Edith was married and raising her children, her older brother Frank was
becoming an entertainer. He was
something of a prodigy, skilled in playing the violin, cornet, flute, piccolo,
and the clarinet. Beginning in about
1877 Frank worked as a musician with various troops traveling the world. Whether by ambition or necessity, Frank
joined with Eva Pear in 1879 at Melbourne Australia and wrote an operetta named
“Rain.” They toured Australia, New
Zealand and the East Indies. He called
his small company Hewett’s Musettes. The
company made a return tour of these countries in 1882, after touring the
African colonies.
Eventually his operetta and its performance
began to come under criticism. In June
of 1882 the critic of the Victoria, Australia Argus wrote: “In no sense could the succession of solos be regarded as an
operetta…The lady and gentleman are proficient as performers on a variety of
instruments and it is for the purpose of illustrating that ability that they
have embodied in a thinly constructed story a number of opportunities for
playing them.” Obviously Hewett could not continue to count on the
appreciation of musical talent to fill the seats. Applying the same ability to learn which had
helped him to master a half dozen musical instruments, he studied legerdemain
and became a stage magician, adding to his musical duties that of
Illusionist. In 1907 he began supplementing
his act by showing motion pictures, which were considered magical by many.
His wife May and
a woman named Zetta Reigan were recruited to form the core of his revised
act. He displayed his mastery of musical
instruments and interspersed sleight of hand demonstrations. “Lady Zetta” as Reigan called herself, did
exhibitions of “mind reading.” His wife
acted with the other two in comic skits.
As soon as she was old enough they incorporated their daughter Edwina,
born in 1898, into the act. They played throughout the Midwest and the far west
to great reviews, such as the following:
“The little
girl in flowing robes, is apparently hypnotized and laid on a table in the
broad light of the stage. Without
mirrors, without black cloth and without attempt at mysterious conditions, the
child rises in midair before the manipulations of a fan. It is then the puzzle becomes embarrassing,
for a solid iron hoop – your own if you wish – is passed over the suspended
child from end to end, showing no possible means of support, above or below or
on either side. It is called an
“illusion,” but it is not, for what appears to be done is actually done, and
the sight is in no way deceived. The box
trick is another deception in which Edwina enters with zest. Entering a box at one side of the stage, she
presently is taken from the inner box of a nest of boxes on the other
side.”
At some time
Edith and Harold Chambers parted company and she eventually moved to Dawson in
the Yukon Territory in about 1898. This
was wild and rugged country still in the throes of the Klondike Gold rush. She got a job in the offices of the Ladue
mining firm, either as a dentist or clerical worker, but soon found that
uninteresting and quit. She then formed
the idea of writing a book about the far north.
She would explore the largely unexplored regions of Alaska’s Tanana
River.
She outfitted
herself well for the trip. A good horse and a full pack with appropriate
clothing for the trip; a coat and heavy skirts to which she sewed army
pants. She had a rifle, knife, matches, ointment
for mosquitoes, fishing gear and her dental tools. The later may have been to treat the natives
as she planned to find a village with the option of wintering there. She left
Dawson on July 24, 1901 and was not seen or heard from again until July of 1903
when William Shafer, a U.S. Signal Corps officer wrote to her family informing
them that her diary and two letters addressed to her daughters and spouse had
been found in a remote camp in the wilderness.
These detailed her travels and the misfortunes that led to her death. No remains were found.
Receiving this
news, Frank determined that she was dead without question. She wrote of the mosquitoes that attacked to
the extent that her face was swollen and red.
In a real sense it was the mosquitoes that caused her death. While in camp her horse was driven to panic
by the mosquitoes and wandered away. When
she went to find her horse, not putting her pack out of reach, bears invaded
the camp. They ripped her tent and
pulled the pack apart, eating her food supply and destroying most of the
rest. She turned back, but became lost
in the mountains for days. She was
nearly killed by mountain Lions, saving herself only by wading up to her neck
in the frigid river water and standing there until the cats lost interest and
moved on. She wrote in her diary that
she was starving and her strength was gone.
Her last entry was in October 9, 1901.
By that date the average high temperature was 36. The average low is 22
degrees. The sun did not rise till 8:45
am. There was snow on the ground.
Starved, she must have risked hypothermia at each stop.
Frank determined to go to the North Country
and find his sister's remains. He needed
to know exactly where and how she met her end, and bring back her remains for
burial. With his touring schedule and
the need to secure funds for the trip, he was not able to search for her until
1905. By June of that year he, his wife,
six year old Edwina, and perhaps a cousin, Charles Hewett were in Dawson, Yukon
Territory. They supported themselves by
doing shows in the villages and mining camps.
As they traveled he interviewed those who had found her diary and
letters, and he heard of a man who claimed to have found her campsite and the
scattered equipment and remains, which he said he buried in a barrel. Frank took a pack and wandered in the places
where he felt she might be found. 1905
passed and Edith's remains were not found.
The Hewett’s returned home and planned for their return in 1906.
By June of 1906
they were back with a new act and even greater magical tricks. They drew large crowds again, and as he could,
Frank wandered in search of her remains.
On September 17, 1906 he found her last camp. “I found all that remained of my sister,” he wrote. “She abandoned her horse, built a raft and
undertook to float down the Tanana. River. Being alone and unable to handle the
raft successfully, she left it, caching most of her outfit eighty miles above Goodpaster,..
She took a few belongings and scarcely any food and started north. It was her intention to make some Indian
village. The diary states she was twenty-four days traveling from the Tanana
River to the place she perished. Her
sufferings must have been frightful. Her
farewell letters proved that she retained her reason to the last and that she
realized the awful fate that awaited her.”
The bits of
clothing were ripped into hundreds of pieces, bearing “abundant evidence” of wolves’
teeth. A merchant identified a shoe and
buttons he had sold to her. That and the few bones were all that was left to
account for her passage on earth. Frank
wrote: The wolves had torn her to pieces, leaving but little, but enough so
that I could take them to Seattle for burial.” Did she starve to death, or
did the wolves attack and kill her when her strength was gone? That may never be known. Frank preferred to believe that her death was
from starvation, but why should the wolves have waited? Wolves do attack humans. As recently as March 2010, a teacher and
former gymnast named Candice Berner was attacked and killed by wolves while
jogging on a road in Chignik Lake, Alaska. She was in excellent physical
condition. Edith was not.
Frank went home to Seattle, and took up a permanent
residence there. He continued doing performances
infrequently and managed a theater. His
father, Alonzo came to live with him in his final years. He died in 1919. Frank showed movies of the Great War in 1917,
and the newspaper billing added; “The Great Hewett will appear in magic and
illusions at each performance.” He faced
the great mystery when he passed through the last hoop, dying on April 25, 1931.
He was a good big brother.
