Person:John Whalley (7)

John was born 24 Oct 1863 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England the eldest son of Pickering Cuthbert Whalley and Emma Ackroyd. The family emigrated in about 1870 and located in Cleveland, Ohio. A few years later they settled in San Francisco where Pickering opened a tailor's shop.

In 1883 John moved to Seattle, Washington. He worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper and held the positions of circulating manager and treasurer. In 1897 John decided that insurance was a better business than newspapering so he became an insurance agent. He started the John A. Whalley and Co. agency in Seattle. He was prominent in the Seattle business scene and became a representative and later a senator in the state legislature.

In 1897 he was visiting his parents in San Francisco when the Excelsior landed carrying news of the Yukon gold strike. John informed the PI about the news and when the Portland landed in Seattle two days later the PI was ready with full coverage. A reporter for the PI said that the ship contained "A Ton of Gold" and this phrase electrified the nation. Thus John helped start the Yukon gold rush. Two of his brothers and two cousins would join the stampede.

He married Clara Herrick Dickey in Montesano, Washington on 22 Apr 1891.

John and Clara had four children, Mabel Francis Whalley (1894), John Ackroyd Whalley, Jr. (1898), Alice Maud Whalley (1904) and Emily Whalley (1908). Their son, John died at the age of two.

John died while visiting his sister in San Anselmo, California on 30 Mar 1912 at the age of 48.