Harriet Pullen with her cat. Photo courtesy of Katherine Selmer Moseley.

Thursday, August 26 was recognized this year as Women’s Equality Day both by the U.S. Congress and by Mayoral Proclamation in Skagway. It celebrates the day in 1920 when the 19th amendment went into effect, banning discrimination by gender for citizens seeking to vote. KHNS talked with Maxine Selmer, a great-granddaughter of one of Skagway’s most influential women.

Harriet “Ma” Pullen was one of the great pioneers in Skagway’s history, helping to shape and mold the fledgling community. She first came to Skagway from the Olympic Peninsula of Washington in 1897, at the beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush because she heard she could pick gold nuggets off the streets. 

“But of course, that didn’t happen,” said Maxine Selmer, Harriet Pullen’s great-granddaughter who still resides in Skagway. 

“She left her, her children in the care of the family and hopped aboard the steamer Rosalie and came north arrived in Skagway September 12, 1897,” said Selmer.

She only had $7 in her pocket when she landed. But she soon took a job cooking for Skagway’s original homesteader Captain William Moore and the men that worked on the Sylvester Wharf. She shared a little house on First Avenue that used to flood sometimes.

“The roommate had to get up early and get off the table because apparently, she slept on the table. Harriet slept in a bear hide sling. So they cleaned up and cooked breakfast for the men who were working on the dock,” said Selmer.

Meanwhile, Captain Moore was building a house for his wife, but the stampeders bound for the goldfields of the Klondike overwhelmed him, so the house was never completed, and he and his wife left town.

“She rented it for several years before she bought it,” said Selmer.

That house would go on to become the Pullen House, it was a boarding house and a hotel over the years.

“She collected Gold Rush memorabilia and had a museum there,” said Selmer.

Eventually, that memorabilia was featured in the Worlds’ Fair in Seattle in 1962. Harriet’s business continued to grow and in 1916 she homesteaded 160 acres in Dyea.

Harriet Pullen with cows and horses in Skagway. Photo courtesy of Katherine Selmer Moseley.

“And she set up a farm over there with horses and chickens and cows,” said Selmer.

That homestead would later go on to become part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.

“She also had purchased Kearn’s castle on the hill. And it had burned in a forest fire in 1912. But she had it for a couple of years before then and operated it as I’m going to say a resort but not a resort, like we would think of today,” joked Selmer.

Then in 1923, the president of the United States Warren G. Harding came to visit. 

“The president, his wife, J. Edgar Hoover all came. Somebody back in Washington DC, said, stop by Skagway and say hello to Mrs. Pullen. And that’s how they happen to come in here,” said Selmer.

She had a room reserved for them and they freshened up. Harding made a speech on the front porch of the Pullen House then went down to the A.B. Hall and became the final member of the Arctic Brotherhood Fraternal Order in Skagway. Shortly after leaving town, Harding died under suspicious circumstances. 

The Pullen House would continue to operate even after Harriet left the day-to-day operations to her daughter.

“In 1943 there was a fire in the back on the backside there, and the army was here and was able to save the building,” said Selmer.

All that remains of the Pullen House now, however, is its fireplace. As the story goes, local builder, Charlie Walker built the fireplace for Ma Pullen, but since she had a reputation for not paying her bills on time, he made sure she would.

“She went in and lit the fireplace and it smoked, it wouldn’t go. Well, he said as soon as she paid him, he would take the extra board out of the chimney,” recalled Selmer.

Harriet Pullen’s chimney. Photo by Mike Swasey 2021.

Harriet “Ma” Pullen accomplished all of her success mostly on her own. She had an older husband who wasn’t around for much of it.

“Her accomplishments were hers it wasn’t because he was right by her side the whole time helping her,” said Selmer.

And the woman who helped shape the town of  Skagway, Alaska, never wanted to leave.

“She was she thought it was the most beautiful place thought it was like Switzerland. In its beauty,” said Selmer.

And Harriet Pullen never did leave Skagway. After sending all of her children to get complete educations, she finally passed away just shy of her 87th birthday. She was buried next to her hotel, with her gravestone still sitting next to the tracks of the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad.