Archives West Finding Aid

John J. Sesnon was a leading businessman in early Nome, Alaska. He was born in 1867 to a prominent San Francisco family, and moved to Nome during the 1900 gold rush with his first wife Anna Blennerhassett (alias Alma/Elma Hassett). There he established a shipping business at the mining camp. His business interests expanded to operation of warehouses, wharves and a toll road; commodities shipping, the sale of coal and most notably, lighterage. All of these services were an integral part of the Nome economy, especially lighterage, which was a means to get goods to shore from the steamships. The Bering Sea waters on Nome’s coast were too shallow and rough for large ships, so they anchored offshore in deeper waters, and goods were freighted to shore on barges (or “lighters”). John Sesnon expanded his lighterage operations to include towers mounted on huge caissons anchored offshore and inshore, with an aerial tramway and large crane. John J. Sesnon Co. became one of the largest enterprises in the territory. By 1907, he was reported to transact nearly a million dollars of business in one season. In 1907 he retired to Seattle, Washington in poor health. That same year, he married his second wife, Elizabeth Wetzel, a trained nurse who had attended him during a long illness. In Seattle, he invested in real estate and was prominent in yachting affairs, often sailing his yacht Elizabeth to San Francisco and Southeast Alaska. Mr. Sesnon died at his residence in Seattle on June 25, 1912, leaving a fortune to his widow and $5000 to Anna Hassett "providing that she did not marry before his death." During his life, Mr. Sesnon was involved in many legal disputes, concerning both family and business affairs.

Beverly Bennet Dobbs worked in Nome as a professional photographer from 1900 to about 1911. He photographed scenes in Nome and the Seward Peninsula and made portraits of Eskimos, for which he won a gold medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World's Fair) in 1904. About 1911 or 1912, he sold his photography business to the Lomen Bros and focused on his moving picture business.

Benjamin William Leeson lived 1866-1948, and worked as a photographer 1887-1900. In 1894 he moved from Vancouver B.C. to Quatso Sound on north Vancouver Island, B.C., where he ran a store with his father and studied and photographed the Quatsino native people.

Frank Nowell was a photographer who spent the years from 1900-1909 in Nome, documenting life in Nome and the Seward Peninsula. During his stay in Alaska he made frequent visits to Seattle on business leaving his studio operation in the hands of an assistant. Eventually he decided to remain and work in Seattle where he was appointed official photographer for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE) in 1909.