History of the Bremner Family

John Bremner II, brother of James Bremner and son of John Bremner, was born December 25, 1833, in Rhynie, Scotland. According to rumor he was settled on a farm in Iowa with wife and children when he left everything for a life of adventure. His children were taken into the homes of relatives. Sometime after leaving Iowa, John must have booked on ship as a sailor, for he mentions in his journal the “negroes of Africa and the natives of Australia.” Twenty years lapsed between the time he left Iowa and the first mention made of him as an “old man” of 52 years in Alaska. There is no telling what John could have been up to in that time. John Bremner was the only white man of his time to live among the Copper Indians of Alaska. They were considered the most obstructive of the coast tribes by traders, always stealing from the trading store at Nuchuk; Aleut watchmen were paid to guard the goods (although it should be noted that Native Americans did not put much emphasis on individual possession of material goods, and therefore “stealing” did not have the same negative connotations as it does for our current culture). The Coppers traveled to the trading store in spring and fall in their bideras (wide boats of reindeer skin) to trade furs for goods. They barricaded the Copper River to prevent the salmon from ascending the river beyond their land. Thus, they had the monopoly on salmon, while their enemies upstream had none. John wintered on the Copper River, where he wrote his journal, in 1884-85. In the Spring of 1885 he joined the Allen expedition, which descended the Yukon River. The journal was brought to Nuchuk after his death in a soiled canvas bag marked “US Mail, Nuchuk,” where it was found by a man who later incorporated it into a book of Alaskan adventure. The journal follows:

“Journal of a Trip Up Copper River (Shores and Slopes of Alaska p. 200-221)”
Sept. 1. Broke camp about four o’ clock and made six milles river good high mountins on the right bank and low glacier on the left.
Sept. 2. Started about six o’ clock and made about twenty mile by the course of the river about twelve miles in a strat line a low glacier on the West for about eaght miles when the river widend to five or six miles and verey shalow full of sand bares hordly passable.
Sept- 3- Started before sunrise and made about twenty-five miles by the course of the river wich bore more to the west verey shalow cut up in a great many channels and hordly passable a smawl came in on the East side and killed a large Mouse (Moose) and the Ma Nuska are stuffing it into themselvs at a great rate.
Sept. 4. After gorging themselvs with Mouse meat till about four O' clock the damn rascals wanted to leave all my grub except one sack of flour and they would come back in the wenter and get it I told them no if they left my grub they hade to leave me to I did not prepose to trust my supplies out of my sight then they undertook to force me along but they found that uphill woark when they looked in the muszel of my revolver so they left me and said they would be back in ten days how I wish I had a few boys in blue here to teach them a lesson.
Sept. 5. Passed the day in the tent rained hard all day pleasent to be alone after a mounth in the Ma Nuska compney thare is a large opneing in the mountins on the west side of the river but so far of I cant tell if thar is a stream of aney sise comeing in about 3 mils on the West side thar is a beautifull cascade apears to fall about one hundred feet.
Sept. 6. Remained in camp rained hard all day repaired some of my cloths and saw a pair of woodcock I dont know how thay make out to live here in winter.
Sept- 7. Went about ten miles to see that stream that I mencentioned comeing in on the East side it is about two hundred yards wide and not fordeable killed four ducks and am cooking one of them for my supper so you see am liveing of the enemes contrey.
Sept. 8. I claimed the mountin back of camp to get as good a viewe of the opening on the west side as I could it looks as if a large stream came in I expect it is the stream that heades in that lake that we were talking about though I could not get any information from the Ma Nuska thay claim to no notheng about it they talk about a river above Tarrayl that goes to salt water by makeing one day's portage I dont go a cent on what they say.
Sept. 9. Staid in camp all day a bear came prowling about camp last night could not get a shot at him it was so dark. Sept. 10. Nothing to record onley that I am tormented with misquiters thar name is legion.
Sept. 11. A drove of Mouse passed close to camp in the night I shot at them by guess could not tell if I hit one or not this morning I went ant looked and saw whear one had bleed freely so I am going to track him up and see if I cant Fet him.
Sept. 12. I did not get my Mouse he had streangth enough to cross the river though he is dead enough by this I am sorry to lose so much meat but better luck next time.
Sept. 13. Alaska Bear are a fraud nothing but a hog except the pawes I tried yesterday all day to get in gunshot of an old one two cubes and failed thay are more timid then a rabbet.
Sept. 14. Rained hard all day so stayed in camp if the Ma Nuska dont come in two days more I shall go in to winter quarters build a cabin and weat till the river freases.
Sept. 15. Rained all day so stayed in camp.
Sept. 16. I expect I am stuck here for a while no sign of the Ma Nuska to-morrow I shall go to building a cabin.
Sept- 17. Rained all day staved in camp and made me cap.
Sept. 18. Rained hard all day I have given up looking for the Ma Nuska the damn liars I will get even with them yet and dount you forget it.
Sept. 19. The Ma Nuska came last night so thay are better then I thought we will make another start for Tarrel to-day in the meantime they are stuffing themselves with beaver.
Sept. 20. Started about nine o’ clock and made twelve miles the Ma Nuska killed there beaver on the way the valey narrowes in to about one mile in width snow caped mountins on each side the river is no account as a route for transportation shalow and rapid.
Sept. 21. Rained hard till about one o' clock when we started and did not camp till after dark made about ten miles the river verey rapid and shalow have to use the rope all the time a few scatring spruce but mostly cottonwood.
Sept. 22. Started about ten o'clock raining hard made about twelve miles the river verey rapid and shalow the valey between the mountins not more than half a mile wide scatring spruce and cottonwood on the hills near the river.
Sept. 23- Started about sunrise made about fifteen miles the river verey hard work to get along the mountins not so high or ruged as they are further down the river.
Sept. 24. Got started about six o'clock and worked hard till after dark and made about ten miles the river verey bad the mountins getting lower as we get nearer the canyon the Ma Nuska say we will get to Tarrel today I hope so for I am about wore out.
Sept. 25. We got an earley start and soon came to the canyon we had no trouble in going up through the river being so low the current wont so rapid as it was in a good maney places below I dont think the canyon is more than one mile long but when the river is high it must be a grand sight the river is comprest to about one hundred and fifty yards in weadth the sides being from fifty to one hundred feet high we are camped on the west side of the river whear theare is three houses we stopped hear to see the Tayon.
He is a large stout-looking man but ston blind he was verey pertacler to find out what I wanted up hear but was satessfied that I wont going to take his throne away from him.
Sept. 26. Well I got to the great city of Tarrall at last forty-seven days from Nu Chuck it is a hell of a river to navigate no good as a route to transport troops I went through the canyon again today and from whear the river first begines to narrow to the mouth is as near as I can estimate about two miles the city consistes of two houses and about forty-five or fifty inhabitants men wemen and children and thare is a good deal Of spruce timber on the hills around here. The Chutanah comes in some distance above here I am going up to see it in a day or two.
Sept. 27- Nothing to record was buisey drying my stuff which had been wet for a long time I wont be able to get up the Chitana till it freases when Nicoli and four more men are going up and will help me get my grub up.
Sept. 28. Wourking hard fixing a place to winter in it forze water in the house.
Sept. 29. The Ma Nuska have all scattered out up and down the river for the wenter they have no towne but houses hear and thar along the river.
Sept. 30. The river is full of floating ice this morning as cold as it is in November in God's contrey and the Princeple food of the inhabitants is rabbets they apear to be a cross betwen the jack rabbit of the plains and comen cotentayl thar are lotes of them around here.
Oct. I. Rained all day the weather haveing moderated havent seen the sun but once sence I have been here.
Oct. 2. I am liveing alone not a native withen two miles I went out about sundown and killed five rabbits I am begining to live like the natives.
Oct- 3. The same dull rotine verey cold ice running in the river.
Oct. 4. Working on my house.
Oct. 4. Ditto.
Oct. 5. Ditto.
Oct. 6. Ditto.
Oct. 7. Ditto.
Oct. 8. The river frozen over so that the natives cros it jamed in the canyon on the night of the sixth and raised the river ten feet.
Oct. 9. Snowed all day about six inches on a level.
Oct. 10. Very cold I expect it will be clear hell before spring.
Oct. 11. Still very cold.
Oct. 12. Ditto.
Oct. 13. Moderated and pleasent.
Oct. 14. Snowing hard been at it all day and I have been with the negroes in Africa and the natives of Australa and among the Indians of the plains but of all the dirty divels I ever was with the Ma Nuska can beat them two to one. They take the hide of the rabbit and then boil him guts and all. Thar clothes are never taken of till they fall of or ruther rot of the wemen all take snuf and I have never seen one of them wash her hands or face since I have been hear so you can judge how thay look and still the men watch them like a cat would a mouse.
Oct- 15. A pleasent day so I can go out without an overcoat. Three of the Ma Nuska dogs got in a air hole and went to the dog heaven or hell more likely and they are making as much fuse about it as if it was three of theare young ones.
Oct. 16. Clear and cold nothing to record patching my old clothes.
Oct. 17. Bright cold day the Ma Nuska have just killed a bear on the other side of the river you would think hell had broke loose if you heard the infernel noise thay make.
Oct. 18. Clear but cold went out and killed rabbits all the afternoon.
Oct. 19. Snowed gently all day fell about three inches.
Oct. 20. Had a vaiset from the Chief’s son good-looking man for a Ma Nuska he lives about five miles up the river it is verey cold the natives all dress in fur I think I can stand the cold better than they can.
Oct. 21. Clear and cold.
Oct. 22. Thur is morning in the camp No-til-nes passed in his checks this morning him and two others wear crossing the river at a place whear it is open and the raft capsized and he went under the ice I dont think that make hordly so much fuss as thay did over the three dogs thay lost. It is not quite so cold to-day.
Oct. 23. Snowed gentley all day.
Oct. 24. Pleasant for this place. Two Col Chins came in from the headwaters of the Chitanah to-day one of them came to my hut and gave me a peace of native copper it is about one inch thick with rock atached to each side he Says thar is mounting of it whear he got it I hope thar is I will find out how much thar is of it if I live.
Oct. 25. Clear but very cold my daley woark is to get wood to burn and kill rabbits to eat thar is no large game aurund here at preasent the natives say thar will be plenty of dear by un by thar say thar plenty of foxs but I have not seen a track so I dont think they are verey plenty.
Oct. 26. Clear but verey cold the floor of my cabin is frose two foot from the fire and I thought I had made it almost air tight so you see I am in no danger of melting with the heat- I saw the Volcano smoking for the first time today it is the mountain laid down on the chart as Mount Wrangle it don’t look more than twenty-five or thirtey milles from here but the natives say it will take me three days to go thar I cant get one of them to go near it so I will have to go alone I sholl go as soon as the river is safe.
Oct. 27. Clear cold day went up to the mouth Chitanah it is about two miles above the head of the canyon it lookes to be about the same sise as the main river with a less rapid current the natives say it is a good stream to travel on no rocks or rapids on it I expect to go up in February when the ice is good I cant get a damn one of the natives to show me the way to get to the Volcano thay say if I go thar I will die thay wont go within ten miles of it. As soon as the ice is safe I shall try and get thar by myself.
Oct. 28. Snowing hard nothing worth talking about the same thing over again every day.
Oct. 29. Snowed gentley all day the river has cut a chanel in the ice about one hundred feet wide and the current rushes through like a mill race the Ma Nuska say it will be another moon before it will be frozen so as to be safe to travel on.
Nov. 16. 1 have not writen aneything for some time it was the soame thing over and over every day. I made the attempt to get to the Volcano and failed I got within about one mile of the crater when one of my snow shoes broke and I came verey near passing in my checks before I could get back to the timber I froze several of my toes and my ears you ought to see them thay would match a goverment mules I dont think it is possible to make the ascent in the wenter but I think it would be easey in the summer I could not get any of the natives to go with me thay are all afraid to go aney whear near it. I have been getin all of the information about the natives I could but thay are verey shy about telling me aneything thay are scaterd along the river from the Canyon for about one hundred miles the houses from half a day to a days travel apart and then the Col Chines are scaterd along the river above thar is fifteen houses scaterd along the river of the Ma Nuska as near as I am able to learn and opinion judging from the number of inhabtents in the houses I have been in I dont think thar is too exced one hundred of the Ma Nuska tribe men wemen and children thay got martin and foxes from the Col China and a verey little powder witch the Col China get on the Youcon and thar is onley one famley of Ma Nuska on the Chitanah the Col China are scaterd along the head waters and they go to Chitcat to trade and I wish you would inform the proper athortys that the traders at Chilcat are selling stricnyen to the Col China thay are no more fit to have poisen then a five year old child. The Ma Nuska are mostly armed with light double barrel guns or old Hudson Bay flent locks thay are very good marksmen considring, the guns they have and in case of trouble with them thar Powder would soon be spent and they could not get aney except at Newchuck or Chilcat and thay can't live away from the rivers one hundred white men could clean them out without much trouble animals would be no account light boats would be the onley thing that would do in the countrey it has not been so cold this month so far as it was in Oct. the river is still open eaghteen inches of snow on the level.
Nov. 28. This is a quire contry October was verey cold November has been quit pleasant a man could go around in his shirt sleaves and not feel cold it has rained all day to-day it has settled the snow so it is about a foot on a level before the rain thar has not been wind enough to shake the snow off the bushes since the first snow fell.
Nov. 29. Rained hard all day and is still at it I did not make my house rain proof and I am about drowend out.
Dec. 4. Pleasent I hant had a coat on for the last four weeks and the Ma Nuska have been haveing a revolution after the faision of thar white brothers the old Cheif had got poor and being old and blind he want able to fead the hungry divels that come to sponge on him and so thay toke his throne and gave it to another. It is looking bad for me the Ma Nuska have killed three Col China and the Ma Nuska are nearly scared out of wits thay just brought me a report that the Col China have murdered the store keeper that keeps the Co. store on the Uycon somewhear near the mouth of the Tinenah the Ma Nuska say it was Tinenah cuses that done it but they are such damn liars I dont know wheather to bereave them ore not.
Dec. 5. Rained hard all day.
Dec. 6. Rain.
Dec. 7. Rain poured down all day water a foot deep in my house it hase raised the river seven fut the river dont look much like freasing over as it did two months ago.
Dec. 8. Clear and freasing a little the Ma Nuska and the Col China are going to have a grand pow wow about one hundred miles up the river I want to go and see the player but the Ma Nuska say the Col China will kill me and then the Americans would come and kill them I shall go if I can.
Dec. 18. Clear and cold it remained pleasent till the fifteenth when it turned cold and is getting colder every day I have no means of teling, how cold it is but I judge it has been from ten to fifteen below zero for the last three days. Things is looking bad the Col China have come to the Ma Nuska frontier and say thar are going to clean the Ma Nuska out a runner came in last night from the front he made the hundred milles in twenty-four hours the Tyon was at my cabin when he came and he came rushing in as if the divil was after him in less than an hour every man and boy old enough to handle a gun wear on the march up the river thay wouldnt let me go thay swor thay would tie me up if I tried to go the Tyon told me he did not think thar would be aney fighting he thought it would all end in talk but he promised if thar was aney fighting to send for me so I am left the onley man in Taryel with all the wemen and children a fine dirty lot thay are.
Dec. 19. Cold.
Dec. 20. Cold.
Dec. 21. Ditto.
Dec. 22. Verey cold.
Dec. 23. Ditto.
Dec. 24. Not quite so cold.
Dec. 25. I wish you all a merey Christmass I had rabbet for my diner insted of turkey the weather has moderated and it is quit pleasent no news from the seat of war.
Dec. 26. Pleasent.
Dec. 27. The river froze over.
Dec. 28. Pleasent.
Dec. 29. Pleasent.
Dec. 30. Pleasent.
Jan. 1. 1885. I wish you all a happey new year it is quit pleasent weather hear somewhear about zero but I do not fell it cold thar is not a breath of wind thar has been no stormey weather since the seventh of Dec. nor wind enough to stir a leaf and the war is over it all ended in talk and a big dance and I expect to start for the copper mines the midle of the month the natives say the ice will be good then I dont write much for the simple reason that thar is nothing to write about.
Jan. 2. Cloudy but not cold.
Jan-3. Snowed hard all day fell eaght inches on the level but it is as light as down thar is not a breath of wind and the treas and bushes are loded with snow I have been haveing a little fun to breake the monotoney of life at Tarrell the Ma Nuska have got it into thar heads that I am a big medicen and one of them came to my cabin earley yesterday to get me to go and see his wife he said she was going to die if I did not go and cure her I went with him about three miles through the snow and found that the most that alled the slut was dirt. I gave her eaght of Haynes piles and then made them strip her clothes of and scrub her from head to foot when they had got through scrubbing her I made a mustard plaster. Her husband has been to my cabin today he says she is all right now he thinks me the boss medicin man I want the doctor when he writes to tell me if I treated the case properly.
Jan. 5. Clear and cold been patching my old clothes I expect I will be without clothes by the time I get back to Nuchuk.
Jan. 6. Verey cold this morning when I went to get up I found my whisker froze fast too my pelow and still I had slept warm and comfortable all night I wish I had some means of telling how cold it is and not a breath of wind.
Jan. 7. I had to roll out in the night to reef topsails the wind blowing a moderate gale from the north it is the first wind we have had in two months worth speaking of.
Jan. 8. Not quit so cold I had a vesit from a Col China to-day he told me thar was a hundred white men on the Youcon somewhear near the mouth of the Tanenah as near as I could make out he says they have gone into camp thar I expect that Sheglen found good digings thar and a porty have gone in to be ready when spring opens I dont know what else would enduce white men to winter thar.
Jan. 9. Light brease from the north with light snow squalls not verey cold.
Jan. 10. Light snow squalls about zero I dont fell the cold aney more then I did at Newchuck the onley way I know it is so cold is if I toke my mitens of too fix a snare to catch a rabbit the ends of my fingers are froze in about five minuts.
Jan. 11. I had to go about four mils to-day to see a sick young one the fools think I can raise the dead. Thar was an old woman in the house in the last stage of consumption and the fools wanted me to cure her I told them that the Big Tyon up aloft said no that she must die and that I could not do anything for her.
Jan. 12. Cold.
Jan. 13. Cold.
Jan. 14. Very cold froze water three feet from the fire I went yesterday to see how the Ma Nuska preformed at a funral thay told me a young woman had died and thay weare ready- to burey her soon after I got thare one of the wemen began to chant a sort of tune in a low tone and preasently all hands joined in and thay kept geting louder and louder till I had to stuf my ears they made such a noise after a while I thought I would have a look at the corpse I puled the cloth of her face and while I was looking she opned her eyes she want near as dead as thay had thought it apears she must have had sone sort of a fit aneyway it bursted up the fun she lookes to be as likely to live as aney of them when I left thay wear feeding her the soup from a rabbit's Futes.
Jan. 15. Very cold.
Jan. 16. The cold is intense five feet above the fire the chemley is white wet frost.
Jan. 17. Cold cold cold.
Jan. 18. Still verey cold it would be all most imposable for troops to make a winter campaign the cold is so intense thav would all frease to death.
Jan. 19. Not quite so cold I have got the rheumatism in my right arm and shoulder, so I can hardly write.
Jan. 20. More moderate I can go out without freesing.
Jan. 21. Quite mild about zero I shall start in a -few days for the copper contrey.
Jan. 22. Light snow squalls not verey cold.
Jan. 24. Quite mild about zero I shall start in a few days for the copper contrey.
Jan. 25. Pleasant not verey cold.
Jan. 26. Light squalls of wind from the north not cold.
Jan. 27. Warm wind from the south melting the snow it seames od too be able to go out in my shirt sleaves.
Jan. 28. Still thawing.
Jan. 29. Quit warm and pleasant the natives are cursing the warm weather it weats thar fur boots.
Jan. 30. Beatitifull winter weather light wind from the south.
Jan- 31. Cloudy but warm and pleasent.
Feb. 1. Pleasent cloudy light wind from the north.
Feb. 2. The weather is still mild and pleasent the natives are scatring of from this place they squat here till they have gat all thar dried fish and stole nearly all my grub never hunted at all and now thay are half starved serves them right I wish they weare more starved.
Feb. 3. A beatifull day not a cloud in the sky I was treated to a sight to-dav that I wish you could have seen the volcano has been verey quite a good while but to-day it is sending out a vast column of smoke and hurling imense stones hundreds of feet high in the air the mases it is throwing up must be verey large to be seen here it is at least thirty milles in a air line from here to the mouth of the crater it has made no loud reports onley a sort of rumbling noise.
Feb. 4. A 1ittle colder but pleasent the Volcano has stoped throwing stones ore making a noise but is still sending out an imense cloud of smoke it is verey beautifull not a breath of wind and the smoke ascends to a great hight in an imense column before spreading out.
Feb. 5. Cloudy and colder light wind from the north the Ma Nuska have been promsing too start for Nuchuk for the two weeaks and thay hant started yet thay havent the least idea of the value of time.
Feb. 6. Light snow about one inch thar was an old native came to my cabin to-day and I pumped him about that route to the lake he told me that two days' travel up the river thar was a river that headed in a large lake and one day's travel from the lake thar was a river that went to salt water but I think it must go into Cook's Inlet he says it goes to Nuchuk but from the lookes of the country I think its impossible the onley way to find out is to go and look the natives are such liars you cant trust anything thay say.
Feb. 7. The natives have promised to start to-day I am looking for them every menuit so I will seal up the book.
P.S. The natives are verey shy about telling a white man aneything about the country ore about themselves. What few Col China I have seen are a much finer looking people then Ma Nuska I have been about fifty ore sixty miles up the river and as far as I can see it is ais bad as it is below. The Canyon presents no obesticle to navegation at a modrate stage of water but below and above the river is uterley useless as a route to transport troops ore supplies in aney qanty and thar is another route from Chilcat that strikes the headwaters of the Chitanah but from all I can learn it is as bad as Coper River the Col China pack through to Chilcat and it takes them two months to make the round trip. The natives all live along the rivers thay could not live aney great length of time back in the mounting. The countrey here is intierley difrent from the coast it is a dry climat verey cold in winter and verey hot in summer not a bad contrey to live in if it want for the rascals that live in it if the divil is the father of liars he has got a fine lot of children up here and as for stealing I defy the worald to produce a more expert lot of theives thay have stole nearly all my grub thay broke in to my cabin while I was away up the river and stole all my tea and sugar and two sacks of flouir and worst of all nearly all My tobacco I have only one sack of flour left no tea or sugar I have been liveing on rabbet strat for the last month. I wish if you can get it you would send me a small flag I would like too have the honur of raiseing the old Flag whar a white man has never been before at the Coper mine.


JOHN BREMNER.


In the Spring of 1885 John Bremner joined the expedition of Lt. Henry T. Allen, a West Point graduate, traveling 1500 miles with Lt. Allen, Pvt. Frederick W. Fickett, Sgt. Cody Robertson, and Peder Johnson. Peder Johnson was a prospector recruited at Taral, the Indian village near Bremner's winter camp, 64 miles NE of Valdez. On March 29, 1885, the party left Taral to ascend the previously unexplored Copper River. After a side trip up the Chitina to the head of that river, they continued up the Copper to the Slana River. They traveled to the source of the Slana and then downstream on the Tetlin and Tanana rivers to the Yukon. In the Fall of 1886 Johnson and Bremner decided to stay in the town of Nuklukyet on the Yukon (today known as Old Station, 17 miles below the town of Tanana) while the others continued. Lt. Allen and Pvt. Fickett portaged to the Kanuti and Koyukuk rivers upstream, traveled downstream to the Yukon, portaged to the Unalakleet and from there went downstream to St. Michael. Their journey was “subsequently praised as one of the greater explorations in the history of North America.” Allen Glacier and Mt. Allen, near the head of the Tanana, are named for the party's leader (Dictionary of Place Names). Peder Johnson and John Bremner were the second prospectors, after the Schefflin brothers, to locate in the central section of the Yukon River. They purchased a prospecting outfit from the men who ran the trading post at Nuklukyet and stayed there during the winter of 1886-'87.

In the Spring of '87 they traveled 200 miles to the Koyukuk River and prospected the upper reaches of the river with good success. They took out a grubstake and returned by trail that Fall to Nuiklukyet. After wintering there they outfitted again the following Spring and returned to the Koyukuk. They took with them John Minook, a half Russian, and four other men who had come to Nuklukyet in the Fall of '87. What follows is the story of John Bremner's death as told by a personal friend, Gordon Bennett. Upon reaching the Koyukuk River, John Bremner decided to do more extensive prospecting, so Pete Johnson helped him whipsaw lumber and build a boat. John then dropped downriver, leaving Pete on the bar they had formerly worked.

He hadn't gone far when he discovered a large tributary coming in from the north, so he poled up this fork some distance but had little success prospecting. This fork is now called John's River. Leaving John's River, he dropped down to the Dolby River, -and at or near the mouth he stopped for lunch. His fire attracted two natives—one an old medicine man and the other a native of about twenty-six years old. They came to his camp, and although John had but a scant outfit, he fed them. After they had eaten, John started to pack the grub box down to the boat, 1eaving his rifle loaded in camp. When he got within a few feet of the boat, the old medicine man told the young Indian to shoot John and they would have his boat, gun and grub and no one would ever know what became of the old man as the white men were few and the Indians were many in number. The young Indian did as he was told, through fear of the medicine man, and shot poor old John twice but didn't kill him. Then the old medicine man took the gun and shot him three more times before he was dead. They sank his body in the river and went on their way with the boat and supplies.

In due time, when John didn't show up, Pete, Johnson and John Minook made another boat and dropped downriver to look for him. It was through John Minook that the murder was discovered. The following year there were a number of men that crime into Nuklukyet as the news of the discovery of' gold on the Koyokuk reached Forty Mile camp. This bunch got together and decided it was not safe to go into the Koyokuk under the circumstances, so they decided to spend the summer showing the Indians just what it meant to take the life of a white man. The Indians had killed Mrs. Bean on the Tanana in the early 80's and a Russian at Nulato a few years before that, and now poor old John Bremner whom everyone had liked so much. This posse of white men vowed they would make it their business that summer to seek every Indian murderer and hang him. They then went down the Yukon to the mouth of the Koyukuk River. There they learned that the little river steamer The Explorer, belonging to the trader Aneasum Belkof of the Russian Mission, was expected the next day, so they took her up the Koyukuk, leaving two men to watch their barges at the mouth. The Explorer had been built for Lt. Stoney to explore the Stony River in the Arctic, but when this expedition found they could not go but a few miles up the Arctic rivers on account of the canyons and falls the boat had been brought back to St. Michael and sold to Father Zacar and Aneasum Belkof. With John Minook as interpreter, the party of twenty-two men went up the Koyukuk River to the camp where the two murderers were living. It was some distance up the Dolby River and the exact location was not known, go they picked up a native woman who could guide them and soon found a village of about eighty natives. As this was the first steamboat to navigate the Koyukuk, the natives were very much frightened, and the prospectors had to surround them before they realized what was happenings. The only two who tried to get away were the murderers. They were captured and the Chief was told that he too would be taken if he did not give up all the men killed John Bremner, and that they were going to hang by the neck until they were dead. He was also told that if the Indians killed another white man these same men these same men would come back and take him and his whole family and hang them too. Upon reaching the mouth of the Koyukuk, where the two natives were to be hanged, a dispute arose over hanging the man as the young Indian, when asked if the old man had shot John, had said no. The party did not realize that he was more afraid of the old medicine man than of death by hanging.

To settle the dispute, a line, was drawn by the spokesman of the party, who said, “All in favor of hanging both Indians step on this side of the line.” Only seven of the twenty-two crossed the line, so the old man was turned loose and the party dispersed. The young man was hanged on a cottonwood tree on the tipper end of the seven mile island at the mouth of the Koyukuk River. The old medicine man returned to the village on the Dolby River, and the relatives of the young Indian tried to kill the old man by cutting him up, but he recovered to make his way to the Yukon River, where he died two years later. The feud between the two Indian families lasted for three years and caused the death of six Indians (Sourdough Sagas p. 109-112).

The Bremner River, named for John Bremner, flows into the Copper River 55 miles NW of Katalla and the Chugach Mts. To this day the Bremner, although it is a large river, can only be seen by plane. The North Fork of the Bremner has its headwaters at the Bremner Glacier, which is eight miles in length. From the junction of the Middle and the North forks of the Bremner the river flows through mountain wilderness 40 miles SW to the Copper. Today the Bremner River is part of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Wilderness Area, one of the largest tracts of untamed wilderness left in the country. The Bremner River is shown on the accompanying map (see arrow), as a detail of the red square shown on the larger map of Alaska. On the map the Bremner can be seen to flow into the Copper, which then flows into the Copper River Delta, on the Southern coast of Alaska. The -little- town of Bremner Alaska, on the Copper River, consists of an airstrip -and not much more. It is not on most maps. About twenty years ago George Bremner II went to Bremner and me some of our “cousins” who are descendants of John Bremner and are pretty much full blooded Indian. The John River was originally called “John's River” because that was one of John's favorite places to prospect. The John River is formed from the confluence of the Contact and Inukpasugruk Creeks, and flows 125 miles south from Anaktuyuk Pass to Koyukuk River (which flows into the Yukon River), 1 mile NE of Bettles, Kanuti Flats 66o 55’ N, 151 o 39’ W (Dictionary of Alaskan Place Names). The John River is seen in the map (see arrow) as a detail of the black square shown on the Alaska map. The next chapter is the autobiography of George A. Bremner I, telling the story of the homestead in the Washington Territory.