James Wickersham
James Wickersham
James Wickersham, a 43-year-old politically active Tacoma lawyer, came to ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ as a newly appointed federal judge in 1900. Mostly based in Fairbanks, Wickersham spent eight years trying cases across the state before ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵns elected him delegate to Congress. There, despite having no vote, he successfully pushed acts that brought the territory an elected legislature, a railroad, its first national park and a land grant for what would become the University of ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ.
The university land grant bill passed on March 4, 1915. Traveling by train, ship and sleigh, Wickersham returned to Fairbanks, where he organized a July 4 ceremony to dedicate a symbolic cornerstone to the future university. He set the concrete block on a ridge west of town that Athabascan people called Troth Yeddha’.
Two years later, the ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ Territorial Legislature followed Wickersham’s lead by establishing the ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ Agricultural College and School of Mines.
Wickersham’s cornerstone, rededicated on its centennial in 2015, remains prominently displayed in the university’s central square.
More online about James Wickersham:
- A by the Tanana-Yukon Historical Society
- A portrait of (PDF) in ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ and his efforts to build a comfortable home in the gold rush town of Fairbanks
- The state Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation’s page for the , his Juneau home
- in ÓÐÁϺÐ×ÓÊÓƵ’s Digital Archives