Letters by by Allan and Helen Crawford to Crawford and Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 24 August 1921

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Aug. 18th, 1921.

Dear Mr. Stefansson:

I have just received a letter from my mother, she says "I
wish that you would give Stefansson our address and have him send him
a line or two, if possible, it would reassure us".

Will you please do this for me. Address Mrs. J. T. Crawford,
108 Walmer Road, Toronto. You will understand what is necessary, dis
pell the "northern trails have their secret tale that would make your
blood run cold" idea, and your sure everything will be very successful
and so on. Just a short note.

About shares. If I am going to get along in the north I
would like to get more, say ten more. Could you sell me an option on
these say at 10% or anything agreeable to you. It is too bad it is
too late to do that in a business way but I will abide by anything you
arrange. The idea is that I pay one hundred dollars and the balance
nine hundred if I take the shares. If I don't take them the option
fee is forfeited. This will be your authority if you care to let me
do this.

Let me reassure you again about the fur. I understand that
I am going up to do trapping first and the rest to fill in spare time.
I'm sorry that you misunderstood me.

Mr. Anderson was here all day yesterday and he has a defin
ite statement of all your advances to the company.

Allan R. Crawford.

Sept. 2nd, '21,
Nome, Alaska.

Dear Mr. Stefansson:

When you have received this no doubt everything will be

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satisfactorily arranged.

At present the Pioneer Mining Co. are the owners of the
Orion. So far as I can learn no arrangements had been made for our
using it. The credit at the Miners & Merchants Bank is $975.00. It
will be necessary to charter a boat either the Olga or the Silver Wave
both of which are large or else the Orion. At present the Orion
appears to be the boat. I have wired Mr. Taylor for more money and am
wiring you to same effect. We were unable to land Aug. 27th when we
arrived and the Victoria took all passengers to St. Michaels. Just
got off today. This letter is really unnecessary but as monthly mail
closes in a few minutes I felt I should drop you a line.

Sincerely,

Allan R. Crawford.

***

Sept. 2nd, '21,
Nome, Alaska.

Dear Mother:

As monthly mail closes in a few hours I am just dashing off
a few lines. Am enclosing a map showing extent of our voyage. We
were out 15 days. Altho' we were off Nome on the 27th we were unable
to land as there is no harbour and the waves were beating on the beach.
We had to lay up at St. Michaels for four days. The trip was very
pleasant. Only a couple of days of choppy sea and I didn’t miss a
meal. The delay is most unfortunate for us since the ice is gradually
coming down. At present there is some mix up about the charter but
I hope that will be fixed up in a day or so. I have seen so much
country lately that I thought nothing in that line would get me any
more. Then I saw Nome - there is only one Nome. Little streets
twenty feet wide lined with dinky little buildings. Once they were

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gambling joints and bars. Everything has gone now except the high
prices - these remain. I will write to you in a few days but I must
hurry this off for the mail. Give my love to Dad and the kids. I
haven’t time to send this in duplicate as I said in my previous letter.

Allan.