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Photo #1.628 courtesy of the Seward Community Library Association Dr. John Baughman’s wife, Mina (left), poses in this circa 1905-10 photo with Mrs. E.E. Hale on a Seward city sidewalk near the Alaska Central Railroad and Seward’s first school.

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Dr. Baughman’s Unusual Second Job, Part 2

Dr. John A. Baughman also filed a lot of paperwork.

(Photo from a lantern slide courtesy of Gary Titus This 1904 Baughman Collection photo shows two hunters—Dr. John Baughman (left, holding girl) and W.H. Case—with four mountain goats they killed near the summit of White Pass and brought back to their home in Skagway later by train.

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Dr. Baughman’s Unusual Second Job, Part One

In the late 1990s, Michael Hankins and two of his pals were treasure hunting near Old Knik when…

Photo courtesy Fair Family Collection The date is Oct. 19, 1957. The place is an airport in Kokomo, Indiana. The occasion is her departure from the Midwest. Her ultimate destination is Whittier, Alaska.

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Jane’s Story

I imagine my mother’s inability at this moment to truly understand the change her life is about to…

After 18 years at Leavenworth prison in Kansas, William Dempsey was returned to McNeil Island federal penitentiary in Washington in April 1939. He would escape from McNeil nine months later. (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives)

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A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 9

On Jan. 30, 1940, nearly eight months later, Dempsey, while on a road gang in a heavy fog,…

Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives Murder suspect William Dempsey is pictured shortly after he was captured on the outskirts of Seward in early September 1919.

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A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 8

Dempsey spent more than a decade attempting to persuade a judge to recommend him for executive clemency

Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives After Pres. Woodrow Wilson commuted his death sentence to life in prison, William Dempsey (inmate #3572) was delivered from Alaska to the federal penitentiary on McNeil Island, Wash. These were his intake photos.

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A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey Story—Part Seven

AUTHOR’S NOTE: William Dempsey killed two Alaskans in 1919 and was sent to prison in 1920 for his…

In 1914, Pres. Woodrow Wilson appointed Charles Bunnell to be the judge of the Federal District Court for the Third and Fourth divisions of the Alaska Territory. (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives)

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A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 6

Prosecution lawyers were fortunate to have a fallback plan: witnesses to the crime.

Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives Murder suspect William Dempsey is pictured in handcuffs shortly after he was captured on the outskirts of Seward in early September 1919.

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A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 5

Although William Dempsey didn’t know it as he fled for his life, several things were working against him

Image provided by findagrave.com website Marie (sometimes called Margaret) Lavor was buried in the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery in 1919 after she was murdered by William Dempsey.

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A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 4

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In the first three parts of this story, William Dempsey, who confessed to killing two Alaskans…

As a teen-ager convicted of larceny in 1916, William Dempsey was incarcerated at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. (Image from the National Register of Historical Places)

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A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 3

The lines of history are most accurately understood in retrospect.

In 1918, a year before he would be gunned down on the streets of Seward, U.S. Deputy Marshal Isaac Evans posed for this photo on his Port of Seward waterfront pass. (Image courtesy of the Resurrection Bay Historical Society)

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A nexus of lives and lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 2

Anchorage authorities believed Dempsey was planning to sail from Seward and flee to the States

John Fenger, seen here in his later years, died in 2006. (Photo courtesy of the Fenger Family Collection)

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Medical establishment comes to Homer — Part 3

In early spring 1965, there were loose ends to tie up …

The Fenger children — (left to right) Heidi, Eric and Peter — delight in a bounty of silver salmon gathered by setnet below their home in August 1962. (Photo courtesy of the Fenger Family Collection)

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Medical establishment comes to Homer — Part 2

It was normal for Dr. John Fenger to receive phone calls when someone in Homer needed medical attention.