ohn B. Bagoy was born in the village of Dunave’ in the state of Dalmatia, Croatia in 1869. He came from a family of poor farmers who lived the life of peasants on the land. At the age of seventeen, he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army and served two hitches. He was subject to further conscription as a reservist.

In 1893, John left for the United States in search of a better life. He did not find it in New York, and with a new-found friend and countryman, he set out for California. They first landed in Angels Camp, California and worked in the silver and gold mines.

The cry of gold in the Klondike lured John to Skagway and the Chilkoot in 1896. He worked his way over the pass by packing loads for other stampeders. He earned enough to get his twelve-hundred-pound grubstake by 1898, and was on his way. Upon arriving at Dawson, he found that most of the ground was well staked and there wasn’t much left to choose from. He joined with a man named Johnson who held three claims on Hunker Creek. Johnson held the claims, and miners worked for him on shares, an arrangement called a concession.

Bagoy earned a pretty good stake, and left for Nome in 1900, but there he found nothing. He returned to Bakersfield, California and, with a partner, opened a general store. He decided to take United States citizenship in 1906 and then go on a trip to visit the “old country.”

In the village of Trebinje, just north of Dubrovnik, he met Marie Antoinette Vlahusic’, a twenty-year-old beauty born in Linz, Austria in 1886. Her father was a civilian concessionaire with the Austrian Army and moved to various military posts, operating commissaries. A whirlwind courtship ensued, and they were married in 1907. In 1908, they departed for the United States, first settling in Tonopah, Nevada, where John found work in the silver mines and where their first child, Peter, was born that same year.

The cry of “gold” was heard again, this time in Fairbanks, Alaska. John packed up two-month old Peter and Marie, and off they went by stage to San Francisco and then by train to Seattle and steamer to Skagway. The White Pass and Yukon Railway was built by then, so the trip to Whitehorse was easy. They boarded a steamer and headed for Ft. Gibbon and up the Tanana River to Nenana, then up the Chena River to Fairbanks.

That fall, John staked a claim on Fox Gulch and spent the first winter in a tent, mucking out a drift. Marie cranked the windlass, hauling up the bucket of muck at thirty below zero with young Peter on her back. In the spring, John gave up on Fox Gulch and moved over to Goldstream, where his luck did not improve. The winter of 1909 found them moving into town into a log cabin on Garden Island, where Marie took in washing and John found work as a waiter and bartender in town.

Again, John heard the call of “gold,” this time in Iditarod. Down the river they went in 1910, landing in Iditarod that summer. Marie was with child again, and in November 1910 a daughter, Doris, was born. She was the first child born in the Iditarod mining camp and was the talk of the town.

John’s mining luck was all bad, and he went from job to job to keep the family afloat, doing some prospecting and “sniping old claims” in between times. He had three roadhouses that befell the water from floods and the Riley Investment Company dredges. He finally found some bottomland on Flat Creek with a house, a barn and a large root cellar, and decided to be a farmer again. By this time, 1919, their sixth child was born. By l921 the mining was falling off and eldest daughter and son Peter needed a high school education, so John formed a lottery and sold tickets on his farm, raising enough money to move to Anchorage.

Another long and arduous trip ensued from Iditarod to Anchorage, on which the family lost most of their worldly goods and mementos in the Nenana River.

Arriving in Anchorage in 1921, the family of eight found temporary lodging in the Gitchell Hotel, and then John located two cabins on 4th Avenue and A Street. He pulled the two of them together and made a livable place. He landed a job with the Alaska Railroad in the foundry and worked with Marie in their greenhouse and garden in the evenings. They were able to make a decent living, raising hothouse tomatoes, cucumbers, and other vegetables and selling them to the local stores. Marie was talented with her flowers, and in the summer she did well arranging flowers for weddings and funerals. In the winter she made her own flowers and dipped them in wax to make wreaths and other items. They were becoming successful in this venture, and in 1935 were able to build a new home and also open Bagoy’s, the first florist shop in Anchorage.

John B. Bagoy passed away in 1940, and Marie carried on until she had to retire in 1953. Daughter Mary Lakshas and her husband took over the shop and operated it until the death of Otto Lakshas. Mary sold the shop in 1972, but the name still remains the same in Anchorage, as the first and oldest flower shop in Anchorage and in Alaska.

The union of John B. Bagoy and Marie Vlahusic’ produced eight children. The eldest child Peter Joseph, born in 1908, married Helen Wilson and had two step-daughters, Donna Hobson and Delores Weiler and a son, Peter J. Bagoy, Jr. The second child, a boy, was stillborn in Fairbanks, and a third child was stillborn in Iditarod. Eldest daughter, Doris, born in 1910, married Halfton Anton “Cappy” Faroe, and they had one daughter, Alexandra Marie, who died in 1987. Mary, born in 1913, married Otto Lakshas and they had one son, Jeffrey. Eileen, born in 1915, married Richard Bell, and they had one son, John Bell. Gabrielle, born in 1919, married Roy Holm, and they had two daughters, Julie Holm Kavanaugh and Eileen Holm Quakenbush. The youngest son, John, born in 1922, married Thelma Osbo, and they had three children, John, Jr., Rayna Bagoy Larson and Candice Bagoy.

John B. Bagoy, Sr. died in 1940 and Marie A. Bagoy died in 1982. Peter J. Bagoy died in 1997 and his wife, Helen Bagoy, died in 1992. Cappy Faroe died in 1982, and Doris Bagoy Faroe died in 2000. John P. Bagoy, Sr., died in 2005. All are buried in the Catholic Tract, Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery. Gabrielle died in Seattle in 2004.

A salute to John P. Bagoy

The Cook Inlet Historical Society has had many leaders since its beginnings in 1955 and many members have contributed significantly to projects at the Anchorage Museum. One founding member, John Bagoy, set a standard for those contributions. John’s love of local history resulted in the 2001 publication of the book Legends and Legacies Anchorage 1910 – 1935 a salute to many of the families and individuals who came to the territory during its early years. Through John’s diligent research and fund raising the project grew from a panel exhibit in the museum’s upper atrium to the web based interactive research tool available to visitors today.