John E. Ballaine papers, 1889-1940

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.