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Charles D. Brower
CHARLES DEWITT BROWER (March 6, 1863 - February 14, 1945) was a whaler, trader, and postmaster in Barrow, Alaska. Known as the “King of the Arctic,” he became one of the few white men to settle in ...view moreCHARLES DEWITT BROWER (March 6, 1863 - February 14, 1945) was a whaler, trader, and postmaster in Barrow, Alaska. Known as the “King of the Arctic,” he became one of the few white men to settle in Barrow, Alaska.
Born in New York City to Robert DeWolfe Brower and Maria Garrison Craft, at the age of twenty he was invited to join a small party to investigate coal mining possibilities near Cape Lisburne, Alaska, on the Arctic Ocean. Attracted by the lure of wide horizons and far places, he accepted the invitation.
Beginning with his first voyage in 1884 aboard the good ship “Beda,” he arrived in the Arctic in 1885 and became an important citizen of the north, studying the ways of the natives and their natural environment.
He opened his own whaling operation, the Cape Smythe Whaling and Trading Company, at Barrow, Alaska and quickly established himself as one of the most successful non-native whalers in Barrow.
In 1884 he married an Eskimo girl name Mary Tocktok Herschell, and together they had six children. Following her death in 1902, Brower married his second wife, Mary Boones (Asiangatak), in 1904. They went on to have 12 children.
Except for occasional visits “outside,” Brower remained within the Arctic Circle for the rest of his life, living and working at Point Barrow, Alaska, where he died in 1945 at the age of 81.view less