rank Ivan Reed was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1872 and was living in the area when the Spanish-American War began. Along with numerous other men of his age, Frank enlisted in the Army. After the war, the news of the Nome gold rush attracted him, and, with other stampeders, he arrived in Nome in 1900 to seek his fortune working for the Solomon Dredging Company.

Aboard the ship while traveling to Nome, he met a young lady named Pauline Hovey who, with two of her sisters and her mother, was enroute to Nome to take over the operations of a store in which her mother had purchased an interest. Pauline was born in Munson, Ohio in 1883, and her family moved to the west coast, spending some time there prior to going to Nome. She and Frank were married in Seattle in 1904 and lived in Nome until 1912, when they moved to the Talkeetna area to establish a gold-dredging operation on Cache Creek. Frank’s mining activity on Cache creek brought him to Anchorage in advance of the laying of track for the Alaska Railroad. He took one of the first dredges into the Talkeetna area, towing it from Seattle and up the Big Susitna River as far as he could and then hauling it by horse train to the mine site.

Frank had developed some business interests in the new town of Anchorage, one of which was the Anchorage Lumber Company, a logging and sawmill operation. The company went defunct in a short time, and Frank received for his interest the original Anchorage Hotel, located on 3rd Avenue and E Street. He sold out his interest in the Talkeetna dredge to his partners, moved into Anchorage, and immediately began to remodel the hotel. As co-proprietor, Pauline took a great interest in the hotel and was hostess to thousands of travelers who stayed at the hotel over the years. Among her best-known guests was the popular artist Sydney Laurence.

Frank’s next venture was the founding of the Anchorage Light and Power Company. His part in this enterprise made him known as a key individual in the advancement of Anchorage. With six other investors of vision, he secured the hydroelectric site at Eklutna Lake in 1922 and six years later financed and constructed the power company. This was the nucleus of the Municipal Light and Power department of the city of Anchorage.

Pauline Reed was also prominent in the business, social and political world of Anchorage for many years, and was the National Republican Committee Woman for Alaska in 1931-32. She died suddenly in Seattle in 1934.

Frank sold the Anchorage Hotel in 1936 to D. W. Metzdorf. He sold the power company to the city of Anchorage in 1944, then moved to California due to his failing eyesight. He died that year, and he and Pauline are buried in Acacia Cemetery in Seattle, Washington.

Pauline and Frank had two sons; Paul I., born in 1907 and Frank M., born in 1912. Paul and his wife, Marie, had two daughters, Nell Robison and Ann Paul. Paul I. Reed died in 1996 in Riverside, California. Son Frank M. Reed and his wife, Maxine, had two children. Pauline Jarnet Reed Mackay and Frank, Jr.