Peter Norby

   Another name for Peter was Petter.

  Research Notes:

1. 1910 US - Port Townsend

- Peter, Anna H, age 22 born in Norwary, emigrated 1889; son Karl H, age 2 <1908> in WA
- Peter's occupation is listed as a Manager, Plumbing Co
- Lincoln Street

2. 1920 Port Townsend

- Peter, Anna H, Karl H; Hilda P, daughter age 9 <1911>; Inger K, daughter age, 5 <1915>
- Plumbing shop
- 1614 Lincoln Street - home owned
- Peter - emigrated 1887; naturalized 1896

3. 1930 US - Port Townsend

- Peter, Anna, Karl H, H. Pernille, daughter, Inger, Peteranne, daughter age 4 and 3/12 <1926>
- Peter - plumbing shop
- 1614 Lincoln, value of $2500; own radio
- Karl - occupation none
- also listed as mother-in-law, Hilda Bendixen

4. US Draft Registration WW1; 12 Sept 1918

- birth
- 1614 Lincoln St, Port Townsend
- nearest relative - Anna Norby, wife
- employment - Plumber, Echart Plumbing and Heating Co, Seattle
- height - medium; build - medium; eyes - blue; hair - gray

5. Marriage, WA Digital; note: recorded as Pelir Norby

- age 32; occupation as a Tin Smith; residence, Port Townsend; marriage in Seattle; father Halvor Norby, mother Pernille; witnesses Henry Norby and Minnie Sether???

6. Death - WA Digital Archives

- death 9 Feb 1954; age 79 <1875>; Port Townsend, Jefferson Co, WA
- father - Halvor Norby; mother - Bernille Skaaret


7. Obits -- Port Townsend Leader

Peter, 12 Feb 1954
- passed away at St John's Hospital (Port Townsend), after a short illness
- born in Trysil, Norway, 28 Aug 1874
- came to US at age 12 in 1886 to Blooming Prairie where he went to work on a farm
- came to Port Townsend in 1889
- first worked at Sawbridge Hardware Store, later moved to Yakima with the same firm
- while in Yakima gained considerable publicy and trophies as a bicycle racer
- 1897 - rode from Yakima and then on a boat to the Klondike where he spent a few years
- 1902 - moved to Port Townsend
- for 43 years he was in the plumbing and heating business until his retirement in 1946 (sold his business to Max Loomis)
- married to Anna on Dec 8, 1906 in Seattle survives; son, Karl of Seattle; three daughters, Pernille Blythe of Seattle, Inger Mullaney of Gresham, OR and Peteranne Kock [Koch] of Oak Harbor [ Island Co, Whidbey Island ]; one sister, Mrs C H Olberg of Port Townsend and 10 grandchildren

Anna, 21 Mar 1957
- died at her home 1614 Lincoln [ St, Port Townsend ] Sunday
- had a heart ailment recently anbd was found in serious condition by her daughter, Peteranne Koch; died without responding to emergency medical treatment
- widow of the late Peter Norby
- her and Peter had a beach home at Beckett Point - one of the first; promoted the summer colony
- born January 21, 1888 in Christiania (Olso) [Kristiania], daughter of Karl G and Gunhilda Bendixsen [ of Port Townsend ]
- she came to the US with her parents at 14 months of age < abt 1890>
- they (parents ) lived briefly in Philadelphia and came to Port Townsend - her father was a post engineer at Old Fort Townsend
- later she lived a few years in Anaconda, MT
- married Peter Norby in Seattle Dec 8, 1906
- survived by Karl Norby, Seattle; Pernille Blythe and Peteranne Koch, both of Port Townsend and Inger Mullaney of Gresham, OR; a sister, Mrs Harry Busch, Seattle and a brother Olaf B Bendixen of Republic [ Ferry Co, WA - abt 75 kms east of Tonasket ]; 10 grandchildren


8. From: "Questing for Gold and Furs in Alaska" by Sverre Arestad (Vol 21, page 54; Norwegian-American Studies), copywright 1962; www.naha.stolaf.edu/pubs/nas/volume21/vol21_3.html

- "Yakima Pete" left Yakima, WA shortly after the news of the gold strike in the Yukon
- traveled to Seattle by boat to Skagway; then horsebakc, food and boat over the White Pass, lakes, Yukon River to Dawson
- spent 4 years and 10 months in and around Dawson
- Sverre met with Peter Norby in his home at Port Townsend in the fall of 1944
- at age 70 he "...seemed much younger, withy a good deal of physical energy, a lingering spirtie of adventure, and head full of plans."
- Sverre received a 24 page manuscript (6 months later, <spring 1945>), titled "A Few Reminiscences about My Trip from Yakima, Washington, to the Klondyke in 1897" - a part is re-produced in the article --- "...some alterations consist of condensation, some rearrangment of material, the rewriting of a few sentences for clarity and standardizing of spellins for consisentency. The flavor of the original has been retained."
- Sverre notes an article in the Port Townsend Leader, Feb 11, 1954
- born in Trysil; came to the US in 1886, settling in Blooming Prairie, MN where he worked on a farm
- came to Port Townsend 1889; worked for Sawbridge Hardware Co, later going to Yakima to work with the same company

Summary of the reproduced article, with some additional information under "Notes" (see Grue Family Records and Papers)

by Peter Norby, Yakima Pete; article reproduced by Sverre Arestad, is titled "From Yakima to the Klondike in 1897"
- left Yakima for Seattle the evening (10 minutes to eight) of Aug 28, 1897 [2] with Fred Jungst (Peter and Fred had formed a partnership of Norby and Jungst - Peter was staked [ the amount or type is not noted ] by Lieutenant Wychkoff, a retired navy man; Peter received the use of a horse, Roxy, by P A Bounds; Peter and Fred bought most of their clothing from Harry Dills - he had been at the Pelly River on the Yukon at the time gold was discovered on Bonanza Creek [ Dills was likely in the Yukon on 1896 ] [3]
- took 4 or 5 days to get to Seattle ("...we were in no big hurry")
- Seattle was crowded with gold seekers when they got to First Ave and Madison Street - stayed at the Old National [4]
- Tony Krober joined us in Seattle and became a partner
- Wyckoff had gone to Seattle earlier and had arranged passage for the three of us and 2 horses on the George E Starr*, a side-wheel steamer that had been "resurrected from the marine bone yards"
- they purchased "our outfits, which included a steam thawer that we left at the foot of hill named Liarsville [5] and a skiff [ most commonly a small, flat-bottom boat ] that we sold for lumber after arriving in Skagway" [6]

- John Miller and Dick McDaniel who arrived on another boat, joined in the partnership at Skagway \endash they became known the Yakima party
- there was no dock at Skagway \endash the horses had to swim and the gear was rowed ashore
- they transferred our outfits in relays with the first lap to Liarsville
- after the summit, the going was easier
- "the only and original Diamond Tooth Gertie walked by us on Porcupine Hill [7] . She was from Yakima" [8,9]
- at Lake Lindemann, they built a boat \endash falling of trees and then whip-saw
- they lost some of the bedding and food to thieves \endash the thief was found, a Mountie was brought in, but the Mountie could not arrest the thief because there was no jail \endash Dick had to buy what the man has stolen and the thief was chased out of the country --- makes a note that if the thief had been on US soil, likely there would have been a "necktie party"
- they their boat was name "Yakima"; was 20 feet long, but after loading there was only eight-ten inches left of freeboard, making it unsafe … almost swamped the boat at "Windy Arm" on Lake Tagish … hauled the boat and supplies between Lake Lindemann and Lake Bennett
- on Lake Tagish \endash Canadian customs
- at Miles Canyon, a Mountie told them to look [ check out the rapids before attempting them ] - we packed some of the bulky stuff around the rapids ---- I was the pilot "at the bad places as I was accustomed to swift water but I could turn pale as well as anyone in that sort of place" [ Pete says that once they got to the rivers and lakes, he "felt right at home as I was born and raised right alongside the second largest river in Norway" ]
- rigged a sail on Lake La Barge \endash Lake Laberge was considered to be the roughtest, largets, and longest lake [ and was made famous with Robert Service's poem, "The Land of the Midnight Sun" ]
- had met Swift Water Bill Gates who was on his way to San Francisco to be married --- he was traveling with two other men, one to was carrying a 75 pound sack full of letters at $1 a letter \endash they sold them some of the food for $1 a pound
- arrived at Dawson 1 Nov 1897 … tied the scow alongside the ice at Lousetown [ Klondike City ]
- Peter and Tony had taken a "lay on Bonanza Creek" ("working lays" - claim leases) [10] after digging a 25 foot shaft and only hit bedrock, they stopped
- Peter along with three others of his group took an 80% lay on another claim, but again no gold nuggets to be found
- after a bit, Peter started to work for wages instead on working lays \endash he says, "...I was tired of borrowing money to prospect on" [11]
- Peter notes that he left the Yukon in 1902 after "four years and ten months", but "...even if I didn't get rich in gold, I got plenty rich in experience"

9. See ancestry.com

- " ... 1897 could not be classed as a properous year. Many of the citizens sought to better their fortunes in the Klondyke, amoung them R.B. Milroy ... Fred Jungst, Peter Norby .... these men started in July and August." , page 191

10. Ancestry.com - Public Member Trees

- "Clapp" family - no information on Peter's family/children
- "Custer004" - very little; indicates only one living, married to William Koch and with 2 living children -- thus, Peteranne's family


^{3625,3767,3771,3772,3773,3774,3775}

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Residence - 1910, 15 Apr 1910, Port Townsend, Jefferson Co, Washington, United States. ³⁷⁶⁵

2. Residence - 1920, 1 Jan 1920, Port Townsend, Jefferson Co, Washington, United States. ³⁷⁷⁶

3. Residence - 1930, 1 Apr 1930, Port Townsend, Jefferson Co, Washington, United States. ³⁷⁷⁷

Peter married Anna Henrietta Bendixen on 8 Dec 1906 in Seattle, King Co, Washington, United States ³⁷⁶⁵.^,3766 (Anna Henrietta Bendixen was born on 21 Jan 1888 in Kristiania, Norway,^3765,3778 died on 17 Mar 1957 in Port Townsend, Jefferson Co, Washington, United States ^3778,3779 and was buried on 20 Mar 1957 in Laural Grove Cemetery, Port Townsend, Jefferson Co, Washington, United States ^3778,3780.)