This story has been compiled from interviews and family histories graciously provided by James Hartness Savage.  To quote James, “The descendants of Burea Jefferson and Lillie Savage should take great pride in the family’s history and the excitement generated by the last grand adventure of its kind, the Great Klondike Gold Rush and the opening of Alaska.”

BUREA JEFFERSON SAVAGE

Burea Jefferson Savage was born in 1862, the first child of John Arvant and Sarah Mills Savage. Arvant, a farmer and millwright, lived in the Pinna­cle area of Stokes County, North Carolina.

Arvant's first son was named after Confederate leaders Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard and Jefferson Davis. Beauregard, a Creole general, commanded the Confeder­ate forces that attacked Fort Sumter. Jefferson, a U.S. Army colonel, was elected President of the Confederacy in 1861.

Tragically, Arvant died when Burea Jefferson was 16- years- old, as Savage spent the next 14 years of his young life helping to support his mother and eight brothers and sisters by working on the family farm. Savage graduated from the Dalton Institute during this period, and taught at the Institute in addition to a Pinnacle public school before the age of 30.

In 1892, Savage traveled to Kansas City, where he planned to study medicine. However, he soon tired of this endeavor and in 1893 made his way to Seattle, Washington. It was in the Seattle area that Savage befriended John McMaster of the John McMaster Shingle Co. 

Presumably, Savage worked for the John McMaster Shingle Co., and may have been “grub-staked” by John McMaster to travel to the Yukon area of Alaska for the Klondike Gold Rush.

Before August 17, 1896, Americans had little interest in Alaska. That attitude changed when a Tagish Indian, known as “Skookum Jim” Mason, spotted a shimmering stone in a creek near the Yukon River.

During the period 1897-1899, 1 in 700 Americans abandoned their homes and set out for the Klondike Gold Rush. The United States was very susceptible to “Klondike fever,” as at a time when workers made an average of 10 cents an hour, gold was worth $17 an ounce.

Thus, tiny Alaskan ports burst at their seams as miner population exploded. Skagway, currently home to 862 residents, brimmed at one point with over 10,000 male miners, 11 female miners, and 350 “professional women.”

Confident and determined, Savage too set out beyond the known mining areas and registered two claims in March 1898.  These claims were on Dominion Creek and Ballerat Creek, filed only 9 days apart.

Operations on Dominion and Ballerat Creek continued until July of 1899, when fresh news came to Dawson.  Amazingly, gold had been discovered on the beaches of Nome, Alaska.  The startling news practically emptied the streets of Dawson overnight, with Savage quickly fleeing the village. 

Savage completed the first of his Nome transactions on September 5, 1899.  He was luckily one of the first arrivals on the Nome beaches, and he acquired numerous claims from 1899- 1906. 

These locations ranged from Anvil Creek, Penny Creek, Bourbon Creek, Snake River, Nome River and the Summit Beach Claim.  The Summit Beach Claim is believed to have provided the largest gold yield for Savage and his partner, Earl Hyde.

In 1902, Savage briefly returned to Stokes County and married one of his former students, Lillie Alma Jones. The couple returned to Nome and resided there until 1906.  While living in Nome, two children were born to Burea and Lillie, James Hyde Savage (1905) and Pearl Savage (1906).  These were for a long time considered to be the first white children born in Alaska.

The couple's best friends in Alaska included Hyde, Savage’s business partner; Jack London, the noted writer; Rex Beach writer; and Tex Rickard, who later became a leading fight promoter at Madison Square Gardens in New York City. Mr. and Mrs. Savage often stated that they knew every character in London's and Beach's books and articles.

The family continued to grow after their return to North Carolina from Alaska in 1906. Lillie Ethel, born 1907; Burea Jefferson II, born 1909 but lived only six months; Burea Jefferson III born 1911; George Kemp, born 1913.

Following his return in 1906, Savage thrived in Stokes County as an educator, banker, proprietor and farmer. As a former mayor of Germanton, Savage was instrumental in establishing one of the first public schools in Germanton. He was also the founder and vice president of the Farmers' Union Bank and Trust Company, one of the first banks established within Stokes County.

In July of 1922, Mr. Savage was gored by one of his prize bulls.  After a long stay in the hospital, he returned home and back to work, but he never truly regained his health.  He later contracted pneumonia and died on January 11, 1923.