May 15, 2011

Dr. Howard Atwood Kelly




Our good neighbor, Marlene McCluskey, over at the Skagway Historical Society blog found some more information on Dr. Howard Atwood Kelly, whom I quote in my book about Skagway's shell and pea men. I'll let Marlene tell the story...


While perusing Jeff Smith's book today I found a reference to a doctor that I had not previously known of in Skagway. He was writing in his journal on March 25, 1898 about the shell games on the Skaguay and Dyea trails: "The most prominent feature of the landscape is the activity of the shell-game men and their cappers. How any one can be deceived by these crooks is a mystery, but many are. They look evil, and are evil. Great numbers lose heavily and a good many have had to give up their journey and turn back, all funds being lost...Shell-game tables extend from Dyea to Sheep Camp and one comes across them every hundred yards or so..."

Well, when I looked up Dr. Howard Atwood Kelly wasn't I surprised to find that he is not only the founder of the modern science of gynecology, but also one of the four founders of the Johns Hopkins Hospital where he stayed until 1919! Turns out he is another hero who passed through Skagway. Kelly was born on February 20, 1858 in Camden, New Jersey and died on January 12, 1943 in Baltimore.

A huge thank you to Marlene for adding so much more to a man whom was previous thought to be 'just a passer through."

Click the link to read more about Howard Atwood Kelly.











August 28, 2009










Howard Atwood Kelly: page 477.




Jeff Smith









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