Also on this day, early Alaskan figure Hudson Stuck passed away from pneumonia at Fort Yukon. He was 57 years old.
Stuck was the co-leader of the first expedition to climb Denali.
Stuck was an Englishman born in London who immigrated to the United States in 1885 after graduating from London's King's College. In the US he worked as a cowboy and a teacher in Texas before enrolling in the Episcopal University of the South. Following graduation he was ordained as an Episcopal Priest and served at first in Texas, where he was active in trying to provide relief to the poor and in opposing child labor. He also preached against lynching at a time when it was at a Southern high.
In 1904 he went to Alaska where he was an Episcopal Archdeacon, a position in that church equivalent to a senior ordained clergyman. Stuck exemplified muscular Christianity and was well suited for Alaska. He was an Episcopal missionary priest there. In 1913 he co-led, with Harry Karstens, the first ascent of Denali. He authored an excellent book on the topic, which I have read. Two of his four books on his time in Alaska remain in print.
While the Episcopal Church has no means or process for canonizations, Stuck has a day on the Episcopal Church's calendar and is celebrated as a saint.
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