John Weir Troy

John Weir Troy (born October 31, 1868 in Dungeness , Clallam County , Washington , †  May 2, 1942 in Juneau , Alaska ) was an American politician and governor of the Alaska Territory from 1933 to 1939 . He was a member of the Democratic Party . He was also a delegate from the Alaska Territory to the Democratic National Convention in 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, and 1940.

After finishing school, Troy started out as a journalist and worked as a reporter for Port Townsend Argus , a newspaper owned by his uncle. He later published a newspaper himself, the Port Angeles Weekly Democratic Leader . Between 1889 and 1897 he held several public offices in Clallam County before moving to Alaska to report from there for a Seattle newspaper about the Klondike gold rush . He lived in Skagway , contracted polio there, and returned to Washington for treatment for some time. During his second stay in Skagway, he settled there permanently and published two newspapers here, the Skagway Daily Alaskan and the Alaska-Yukon Magazine . He later joined the federal services as head of the Alaska Tax Authority ( Collector of Customs ).

After another long stay in his native Washington, Troy returned to Alaska one more time. In Juneau he bought the Daily Alaska Empire newspaper from John Franklin Alexander Strong in 1913 after the latter had become governor of the territory. He later held this post as a staunch advocate of greater autonomy for the Alaska Territory itself. He resigned from office in 1939 for health reasons and retired in Juneau.

Web links

• John Weir Troy in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Political Graveyard (English)