|
Charles G. Horsfall
C. G. HORSFALL was born in Derbyshire, England, July 5, 1859. He immigrated to America in 1869, and settled in Brooklyn. His father subsequently purchased a flouring mill on Long Island, where he was initiated in the first
rudiments of his vocation as miller and engineer.
C. G. Horsfall resided in New York until 1892, when he moved to Salt Lake City to install roller machinery in the plant of the Inland Crystal Salt Co., at Saltair, Utah, retaining his position as superintendent,
until 1900, when he resigned in order to become a member of the Utah-Alaska Mining Co., and joined that memorable rush to Nome.
Unlike many others that came in with that stampede, Mr. Horsfall's faith in the ultimate development of Seward Peninsula never wavered and the present operations have fully sustained his opinion.
March 14, 1902, Mr. Horsfall began the construction of the Nome River bridge, his associates being A. A. Nichol
and J. A. Groger. This was the fourth bridge constructed at this place, the three
others succumbing to the storms and ice a few weeks after completion. Mr. Horsfall
strongly maintained, in opposition to the opinion of several military officers, that it was
possible to erect a bridge at a reasonable cost that would withstand the elements. His
judgment, based on experience in dock and bridge building in New York, has been
verified by the structure that spans Nome River. Boynton & Nicholson were the
contractors.
Mr. Horsfall and his wife are well and favorably known in this part of the Northland. They were married in Nome, having met for the first time in the Northern mining
camp in 1900.
Source: Nome and Seward Peninsula by
E. S. Harrison. Seattle: The Metropolitan Press, 1905.
|
