John E. Ballaine (1868-1941), founder of the town of Seward, Alaska, and Alaska Central Railroad Company, was a journalist, businessman, army officer, civic leader, and private secretary to John R. Rogers, Governor of Washington. He was also associated with the Alaska Pulp, Paper, and Hardwood Company, Alaska Smelting and Development Company, and the Washington National Guard.
Ballaine came to Washington from Iowa with his parents. He attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, but did not graduate. He taught school, became a newspaper writer, and then worked as secretary to Governor Rogers and the Adjutant General of the Washington National Guard, 1897-1898. Ballaine served in the First Washington Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. In 1902, Ballaine founded the Alaska Central Railway Company and its construction branch, the Tanana Construction Company. In 1903, he officially founded Seward, Alaska. John Ballaine and his brother Frank operated the Ballaine Brothers Company, and Frank Ballaine took care of real estate transactions in Seward. Ballaine sold his controlling interest in the Alaska Central Railroad Company in 1905, and conflict in the Company resulted in Ballaine's leaving the company completely a few years later. Although his ownership of the Alaska Central Railroad Company had ceased, Ballaine remained fervently interested in Alaska and its development in subsequent years. Ballaine died in Seattle in 1941.
Photographs of the Ballaine family, Seward and other parts of Alaska, the Alaska Central Railway and Alaska Railroad.
Printed copies of scanned negatives are included with collection.
The collection is open to the public.
Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.
Gift of Jerrold F. Ballaine and Sophronia B. Kalin, October 20, 1965.
Processed by Elizabeth Russell. Processing completed in 2013.
Photographs were relocated from the
Other photographs donated by Ballaine are Evans 1 and Evans & Anderson 1-4 in the Early Photographers Collection (PH Coll 334) and a panorama in the Panorama Photographs Collection (PH Coll 900).
Written on verso: First Lieut. John E. Ballaine, 1st Washington Regiment in Spanish American War. Taken at San Francisco, July 1898.
Written on verso: Officers of Second Battalion, First Washington Regiment, in Spanish American War. This taken at Fontana barracks near Presidio, San Francisco, June 1898.
Written on verso: John E. Ballaine in 1913. When in contest with Morgan Guggenheim lobby in hearings before Senate and House Committees of Congress at Washington over Alaska Railroad bill.
John E. Ballaine and his wife Anna Felcher Ballaine had two daughters, Sophronia and Florence, and a son, Jerrold. John Ballaine's brother and business partner, Frank, was responsible for much of the development of the city of Seward. Frank and his wife Genevieve had one son, Francis.
John Ballaine at right.
Probably Genevieve Ballaine and her son Francis Ballaine.
Frank Ballaine's house in Seward still stands and is known as the Ballaine House.
Written on verso: John E. Ballaine home in Seattle from March 1900 to January 1923.
Written on verso: Aug. 2. Would you recognize your own youngest daughter here wheeling Mr. Mercer in an old rusty wheel barrow?
According to his own account printed in the
Caption: Wild grass. A. T. Co., Seward, Alaska.
Written on verso: 4th Street. 3/28/04. This was taken the afternoon of the day we landed but does not do justice to the place. Fifth Ave. is almost as well built up as 4th. There are about 60 buildings now completed.
Businesses and buildings identified on image (L to R): Com Berrick Dining House; Com Saloon now [illeg.] built; Bells Cigar Store; Brown & Hawkins; Dr. Burr hospital under construction; Brown & Hawkins new 2 story frame bldg. 30x60; restaurant; saloon; p. office; McNeely Hotel, 3 stories; barber shop; saloon; dentists; Hildreth Clo. Store; Com Store.
Caption: A Record Sheep Head. Circle Over 40 Inches.
Written on verso: Seward, Alaska. The Pacific terminus of the Alaska Central Railway, now under construction for 450 miles to the interior of Alaska. Seward is one year old, has 1,000 population, electric light plant, telephone exchange, public school, daily newspaper, fine churches, thirty-eight general stores, fifteen saloons, and is growing rapidly. It is now the terminus of the government cable extending from Seattle to Alaska.
Postcard addressed to Master John F. Ballaine, 4703 15th Ave. N.E., Seattle, Wash. Message reads: Seward, July 29, '10. This is the picture of two little bears here in town. I have seen them many times. Don't you think they are cute! I go to kindergarten every afternoon. I am a big boy now, are you? Aff. Francis.
Francis K. Ballaine, born 1906 in Alaska, was the son of John Ballaine's brother Frank and Frank's wife Genevieve. The recipient lived at John Ballaine's house in Seattle, although it is unclear who John F. Ballaine was since John Ballaine's son, also born in 1906, was named Jerrold Ballaine.
Written on notes found with photographs: Taken around Mile 37 - the white flowers are call [sic] wild parsnips. On Road from Seward to old Radio Station Head of Bay.
The U.S. Government built the radio station at the head of Resurrection Bay in Seward in 1917. By 1931, the Government had left the radio station vacant; the City of Seward purchased the station in 1931, but a 1934 fire destroyed most of the building.
Written on verso: River canyon, below falls 14 miles by road plus f[ill.] by trail from Seward.
Construction of the Railway began in April 1904. The Railway included an engineering marvel, a circular trestle known as the "Loop." Only approximately 54 miles of track were completed before the Alaska Central Railroad Company went bankrupt in 1908. In 1910, new ownership began operations as the Alaska Northern Railway Company, which continued until the Railway was bought by the U.S. Government and integrated into the Alaska Railroad, which eventually ran track from Seward to Fairbanks.
Later occupied by Alaska Northern Railway management and Alaska Engineering Commission. Demolished 1964.
The Alaska Railroad, constructed between 1915 and 1923, was also called the "Government Railroad," because of its construction and operation by the United States government.
Written on verso: The gasoline-electric car on the Alaska Northern Railway in 1909, along Turnagain Arm near mile 70.