| Oskar Cornelius in Klondyke |
| He worked for the Totebo estate. His father, crofter Sven-Eric, was born in 1840 and payed tenancy for the cottage Appelkullen in Hjorted, where he lived. Oscar was born in 1869. His uncle Gustav Albert emigrated to America in 1887 were he became a bartender and after a while he made money to start a dairy. Two years later Oscar Albert arrived to Minneapolis and later to Seattle. He worked as a brickmaker, a butcher and made business with cattle. Then he had his butcher’s on Western avenue 2220, it’s probably still there.
Oscar stayed for 30 years. It was during the end of the golden age, but Klondyke was more tempting than scary. Only the strong ones survived the long hard way to Dawson City. First by boat to Skagway and then by foot over the Chilkot pass to Bennet Lake. There they had to built or buy boats to sail the Yukon river passing White Horse to Dawson. Many people died in avalanche or drowned in the hard falls and the backstreams of the Yukon river. Some where robbed and shot. |
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 Klondyke |
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| In Dawson city he settled down . It is north of the arctic circle and one night the kerosene frozed it is said. The temperature was 50 degrees below zero but it is a beautiful place with snow covered mountains and the majestic Yukon river passing by. On the 29 th of October 1900 Oscar got his claime number 8457. It was 250 * 250 feet (76*76 m) below the already dugged area of Hunter Creek in the Dawson district. Eight years he stayed in Dawson city and he found plenty of gold which he had to sew into his clothes. But not even there it was safe. Once when he stopped for the night he had to stay awake with his gun uncoked but nothing happend. Another time he ripped out the gold and hid it before he went into the village. The law wasn’t the sheriffs, but a gangster called Soapy Smith and his gang. He got his name due to his past selling soap. Oscar once met one of Soapy’s men but managed to escape. In wasn’t untill the 8th of July 1898 that Soapy was shoot to death by the city engineer Frank Reed. It was a long range shoot both got hit and died. In the Dawon museum there is a picture of five pioneers from Hunker Creek. One of them is Oscar. The picture was taken in 1898. |
 Claims |
| One year Oscar went to and stayed in Noom. It is located by the coast in Alaska and he dug for gold also there. Oscar did not have a family life as far as we know. It was not easy to find a women for marry. The hard life created batchelors and prostitues. Even the girls dug for gold in Dawson. But they didn´t get it from the ground, they got it from the men´s pockets. They, as well, lived a hard life. Oscars cousin Archie, son of Gustaf Albert, was not so tall, but very sturdy. He became boxing a champion of the west coast. Even Oscar tried boxing. They were very strict about that boxing only should be used as self-defense. But if trouble occurd they were always prepared. Once a customer entered the Butchers´ on Western Avenue and started a fight. Archie, who worked for Oscar in the store, jumped over the counter and punched the guy so hard that he flew through the window. But once out in the street again, he stood up and re-entered the store. There he received punch number two, weather he died or not the story never tells. Some trouble followed this incident and it led to the store being sold. Albert became a bartender and later he had his own dairy in Seattle. Oscars brother, Karl Emil born in 1872, went to America as well. But he died of amonia a few years later. In 1918 Oscar decided to visit his parents, who now lived in Mörlunda. He brought a lot of gold and the girls in Mörlunda fewn upon him. He was a handsome man, with a goldwatch in his left pocket, a panamahat and a thick chain of gold over his belly. Small gold nuggets hung down from the chain. Even if Oscar was not a young man any longer, he was still strong and the local hooligans respected him. A cocky smålänning once got him self a real beating, and one only had to mention his name to calm down the troublemakers. Once in a while he enjoyed a good whiskey. Since whiskey was a rare type of liquer at that time this sharpened his image even more. |
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