Eliza Jackson

     Eliza Jackson was born in 1891 at Aishihik Lake area, Yukon Territory, Canada. She was the daughter of Chief Jackson and Alice Conone. Eliza Jackson married Ira VanBibber, son of John Campbell Robinson VanBibber and Catherine Malinda Taylor, circa 1908. Eliza Jackson died in 1983 at age 92 years.
     From Gary R. Hawpe, ed. and comp., 'Eliza Van Bibber,' Van Bibber Pioneers E-Newsletter, Vol. 5 No. 2 (December 2001), pp. 3 - 5.

ELIZA VAN BIBBER
Yukon Mother of Many

At Mica Creek, on the bank of the Pelly River in Canada s south-central Yukon Territory, stands the old two-story log home of Ira and Eliza Van Bibber. Eight of Eliza s 16 babies were born there.

Now the big house is silent. Only one of the children x Theodore, the youngest x lives there during the winter. Eliza sits alone by her window overlooking the Pelly, watching the deep, swift waters of the wide river slip by, as the many years of her life have slipped by. During warm summer days, she often sits outside, even closer to the river, on the seat from an overland stage sleigh which once was hauled by horses over the winter trail from Whitehorse to Dawson City. Even when the river is frozen by winter, she sits inside her snug home for hours, gazing upon the Pelly and remembering. Always she remains unperturbed, like a serene island in the midst of the ever-changing river.

Eliza is a Tlingit Indian of the Crow clan, granddaughter of Chief Conone of the Taku Tlingits in the Juneau area. Eliza s mother, Alice, daughter of Chief Conone, was one of the five wives of Chief Jackson, Eliza s father. Because another wife was jealous of Alice and threatened to kill her, Alice left Chief Jackson before baby Eliza was born, and joined other Indians making a long trek over to the Yukon River.

Eliza was born in the Aishihik Lake area, probably in the early 1880 s. There is no written record of her birth, but her family believes she is over 90.

Eliza was born in the Aishihik Lake area, probably in the early 1880 s. There is no written record of her birth, but her family believes she is over 90. It was years after her birth that she and her mother registered in the white man s records and were given the names Alice and Eliza.

When they came to Fort Selkirk, near the mouth of the Pelly River, there were no white men around the deserted site of the trading post, which had been sacked by the Chilkat Indians by 1852 and abandoned by the Hudson s Bay Company.

In the nomadic way of the Tlingit people, she roamed widely with her mother and her stepfather, and later her half-brothers and sister, Susie, Peter and John. Through the Yukon and Pelly watersheds they hunted, fished and picked berries.

On one trek, when Eliza was very young, her family traveled up the Stewart River, then crossed over onto the Pelly. Eliza recalls that they were camped above Granite Canyon on their way down the Pelly, when she saw a white man for the first time. The little girl was deeply impressed by the stranger s unfamiliar language and the pale color of his skin. That first encounter with white people remains vivid in her memory.

After Alice s second husband died, she married Copper Joe, from Copper City on the Yukon River below Fort Selkirk, but they had no children. They lived mainly around Coffee Creek, where Alice died about 1921.

When Eliza was a young girl, she accompanied her mother and stepfather to the Aishihik area to attend a potlatch, where, according to custom, her marriage was arranged. Eliza didn't wish to marry the man her parents had chosen. She slipped out of camp early one morning and returned with her uncle to the area of old Fort Selkirk. Several years later, she met and married Ira Van Bibber.

Ira and two of his brothers, Theodore and Pat, had left Chehalis, Washington, to join the stampede to the Klondike in 1898. There were originally from West Virginia.

After spending some time on the gold creeks, Ira and sourdough musher Tom Hebert hauled mail by dog team on the Yukon River between Whitehorse and Dawson City. Later Ira trapped and prospected in the Selkirk area and spent several years on the upper Pelly. In the early 1900's he met Eliza at Selkirk, and that was the beginning of their long adventure-filled life together.

Around 1908, Ira, Eliza and their baby, Leta, traveled to the headwaters of the Pelly and Ross rivers, then crossed the rugged MacKenzie Mountains to the head of the wild, little-known South Nahanni. With Eliza's cousin, Tommy Joe, they spent three years trapping and prospecting on the Nahanni. Their daughter May was born there above the spectacular, higher-than-Niagara, Virginia Falls.

Returning from the South Nahanni in 1911, Ira and Eliza settled on the bank of the Pelly at Mica Creek, about 40 miles above the Pelly's mouth. Here Ira built the big log house in which they raised their family, and trapped, fished and hunted in the Pelly and MacMillan watersheds, where Ira operated a big game guiding business. Van Bibber became a respected name throughout the Territory.

Eliza bore none of her 16 babies in a hospital. Some were born on traplines, some at hunting or fishing camps. Ira assisted at most of the births, and elder daughters Leta and May helped deliver the younger ones. Their first son, Abraham, was born near the head of Ross River, on the long trip back from the Nahanni. Dan was born at Tatimain Lake, and Archie at Beaver Lake. Alex, Helen and a stillborn baby were delivered at Mica Creek, and then John ('J.J.') entered the world at Russell Creek, below the forks of the MacMillan River. Pat was born at Mica Creek, and Kathleen at Selkirk. George arrived at Pelly Crossing, where the Van Bibbers lived for a time. Lucy, Linch, a baby who died at birth and 'Dode' (Theodore) were born at the Mica Creek homestead.

Twelve of Eliza's children are still living, 11 of them in the Yukon. All the Van Bibber family have contributed greatly to the development of the Yukon; their exploits and remarkable experiences are both legion and legendary. Alex, for example, is highly regarded as a big game guide and outfitter and as a dog musher in the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Races. Lucy and Linch are well-known artists. 'Dode' -- who lives with his mother during the winter -- mans a fire lookout tower near Whitehorse in the summer, and despite severe disabilities caused by a crippling disease, is known to have the keenest eyes in the forestry service.

The eldest son, Abe, died in the Northwest Territories about 1933, after traveling from Mayo to Great Bear Lake by dog team during the Eldorado uranium stampede. He drowned while running a net to catch fish for his dogs. Helen died at 14, after contracting tuberculosis in Dawson, where she was attending school.

Across Mica Creek, on a high hill overlooking the valley, their father, Ira, also sleeps, in the undisturbed peace of the Pelly.

Eliza is adored by her numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Although her fine brown features are etched with lines of hardship and sorrow, her twinkling eyes and beaming smile reveal a quick wit and cheerful nature. Despite her dignified bearing, she is friendly and enjoys a joke immensely.

Less than five feet tall, Eliza could stand beneath her husband's out-stretched arm without touching it. Ira always called her 'Short,' a nickname still used by her many friends, who agree that in stamina, courage and patience, she is a giant. It would take a remarkable person to walk in the petite prints of her wandering moccasins!

Her ties with the past and with the traditions of her Tlingit people and the Crow clan are strong. With obvious pride, she recalls her ancestral background and Tlingit legends, these memories mingling with those of her personal life.

As Eliza watches the Pelly flow by, she recalls trading posts, stampeders, steamboats and settlements that have vanished. She remembers traveling along the river with pack dogs, poling boats, rafts, and sleds. Now she sees vehicles speeding along the Klondike Highway through what used to be wilderness. Cars, campers and huge ore trucks roll down a long hill and over a bridge about a mile from her door. But except for a handful of adventurers each summer, the 460-mile river itself is deserted.

Both Eliza and her river have seen many changes. There is sadness hidden deep in the brown eyes that watch the waters rush by. But like the everlasting Pelly, Eliza's memories live on for her, as she will always live in its legends.

ALASKA - Magazine of Life on the Last Frontier -- September 1973, pp. 22, 23 & 52.
Eliza Van Bibber ~ 1891– 1983

Eliza Van Bibber was the matriarch of one of the Yukon’s largest families. At the time of her death she had seen five generations enter the world, including 34 grandchildren, 51 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great-grandchildren. “Shorty” as she was affectionately known, came from an impressive lineage. Her father was Chief Jackson from Fort Selkirk and her maternal grandfather was Chief Konnun, a Taku Tlingit from the Juneau area. She and her mother, Alice, settled in the Fort Selkirk area not long after Eliza was born. Eliza spent much of her childhood along the Stewart River.

When Eliza was in her mid-teens she met her future husband, Ira Van Bibber, at Fort Selkirk. They spent the first few years of their life together trapping near Liard River Hot Springs and in the Nahanni River Valley. By 1914, they had settled at Mica Creek, 20 km upriver from Fort Selkirk. There they built a homestead, grew a fine garden, fished in the summer and trapped during the winter. Most of all, Eliza nurtured a family. She devoted her life to her 14 children and her husband Ira, and enriched the lives of many others.