Anchorage 1910 - 1940 Legends & Legacies

Bevers [Beavers], Thomas "Tom"

1889-1944 | Fire Chief, Real Estate Investor, and Anchorage City Council Member

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Arriving in Anchorage in 1921, Thomas “Tom” Bevers [Beavers] played a number of roles in his adopted community. He was the town’s first paid firefighter in the Volunteer Fire Department. He served as Chief of the City of Anchorage Fire Department from 1927 to 1940. He was a tireless proponent of Anchorage’s future, and played a major role in creating the Fur Rendezvous winter festival. As a real estate developer in the 1930s, he invested heavily in real estate when the town’s future was anything but assured. He invested in land in what is now known as the Fairview Subdivision in Anchorage. Bevers served two terms on the Anchorage City Council (1941-October 4, 1944) during World War II, a time when military construction turned the city into a boom town and energized its citizens. He was popular and widely esteemed. He was reputed to be a “ladies man,” but never married.¹

Bevers was an African American who “passed as white” in Anchorage during an era when racial discrimination was widely accepted in America. Throughout the 1890s, when many of those who founded Anchorage came of age, there was an average of 187 lynchings annually. There were at least 4,700 lynchings annually between 1892 and the 1950s, two-thirds of the victims being black. According to historian Preston Jones, “the number of African Americans in Anchorage throughout the first half of the twentieth century was very small and the territory’s distance from the American South probably prevented lynching and race-based brutality from pressing on residents’ consciences.”² Although the culture of Anchorage promoted the virtues of rugged individualization and equanimity on the last frontier, in practice it is doubtful that Bevers, as an African American, would have attained the positions he did or would he have been as influential a citizen. The fact that he was African American did not become known until after his death, shocking Anchorage at the time.³

Virginia to Alaska

Thomas Stokes Beavers (later Bevers) was born on March 30, 1889, in South Boston, Halifax County, Virginia, the seventh of ten children of William and Mary Ellen Beavers. His father, William⁴, was an African American (“Mulatto”) farmer from the rural Dan River District of Pittsylvania County, Virginia.⁵ Thomas worked with his father on the family’s farm. In 1917, at the age of twenty-eight, he registered for military service during World War I with the local draft board in Beavers Precinct, Pittsylvania County, Virginia. His draft registration card shows that he was registered under his birth name, Thomas Stokes Beavers. After giving his home address as Danville, Virginia, Thomas listed his occupation as a farmer, as single or unmarried. The card gave his race as “African.”⁶ He left Danville at the age of twenty-eight or twenty-nine to enter military service during World War I.⁷

By 1920, Thomas had changed his surname from Beavers to Bevers. According to the Seattle, Washington 1920 City Directory, his name is listed as “Thos. S. Bevers.” He worked as a metalworker there.⁸ His name is also shown as “Thomas Bevers” in the Seattle Washington City Directory,1921 when he worked as a tinsmith.

Life in Anchorage: Firefighter, Real Estate Investor, and Community Promoter

Bevers arrived in Anchorage in 1921 and immediately became interested in the town’s development.⁹ He was a member of the Anchorage Fire Department when he applied to the Anchorage City Council to be fire chief on April 19, 1922. He re-applied for the position after Chief J.W. Greene resigned in May 1923.¹⁰ The city council did not make a selection, preferring to let the firefighters elect their own chief. The city council voted to increase Bevers's pay from $155 to $175 per month. Bevers was the city’s first paid firefighter.¹¹

In November 1922, Chief J.W. Greene and Bevers were dispatched with Anchorage’s brand new American La France pumping truck to attempt to put out a fire at the Evan Jones Coal Mine at nearby Jonesville, northeast of Palmer, Alaska. The pair hooked up the pumper to a nearby lake and began spraying up to 1,200 gallons of water a minute into the mine, running the pumper for three hundred hours (with six hours off for maintenance), a “world record for continuous pumping.”¹² The fire was extinguished and the mine, a major source of coal for the Alaska Railroad and Anchorage, re-opened.

In 1928 Bevers was one of a group of prominent Anchorage citizens that formed the Anchorage Fur Farm Association on eight acres of land centered on what is now 10^th and M Streets.¹³ There were a number of fur farms scattered on the outskirts of Anchorage. Exhibitions of furs and fur-bearing animals had been part of the Western Alaska Fairs in Anchorage from 1924 to 1930.

During the 1920s, fur farming reached its peak in Alaska, primarily for blue and silver fox pelts and mink, supplying an active American and European market.¹⁴ Starting in 1910 and continuing until 1930, fur farming would be the third largest industry in Alaska. One fur farmer explained that Anchorage was a good location for this activity, as “the temperate weather [was] cold enough in winter to insure prime pelts and warm enough during pupping season to protect the young animals.”¹⁵ The commercial fishing industry in Cook Inlet also provided inexpensive food. The Alaska Railroad and the port of Anchorage were used to transport furs to Outside markets.¹⁶ As the Great Depression settled over the United States, fur farming in Alaska declined due to lower demand, falling prices, and changes in women’s fashions. Bevers’s understanding of fur farming may well have influenced his determination to create the Fur Rendezvous beginning in 1937.

Bevers joined with Emil Pfeil, a German immigrant who worked as a blacksmith for the Alaska Railroad, in a series of long-term real estate ventures. By 1934, the pair built a large two-story commercial building at Fourth and E Street, which became known as the Bevers-Pfeil building.¹⁷ They renovated the structure, using the second floor for apartments and rented out space on the first floor for businesses, including Hewitt’s Photo Shop, Gus George’s shoemaking shop, the Cheechako Tavern (which Bevers and Pfeil apparently ran for a time), and the Cheechako Café.¹⁸ This was a valuable property and was assessed in 1941 at $64,400. The adjacent property, also owned by Bevers and Pfeil, was valued at $10,829.¹⁹ Bevers, later joined by Pfeil, worked to develop the so-called Bevers Subdivision or addition in what is now Fairview.²⁰ Several pilots had homes in the area, possibly because of its proximity to Merrill Field. Bevers was also “well-known” for his involvement in the “development of the Buffalo coal mine in the Chickaloon Valley.”²¹

In 1934, Bevers was confirmed by the Anchorage City Council for a three-year term as a member of the Aeronautics Committee.²² The Aeronautics Committee supervised Merrill Field on behalf of the city government. Thus began Bevers’ association with Merrill Field, in which he took a deep interest, personally superintending much of the maintenance of the airfield.²³ By 1936, Bevers was reporting to the city council as the chairman of the Aeronautics Committee.²⁴

Bevers served as fire chief from 1927 to 1940. He was responsible for keeping the fire department prepared for about forty fires that it dealt with annually.²⁵  There were few major fires, as about sixty percent were chimney or ash fires. The 1938 Alaska Railroad warehouse fire, which caused an estimated $143,000 in damages, was the largest fire that occurred during Bevers’s tenure.²⁶

Bevers reported on fire hazards. In April 1936, he made a surprise inspection of the Alaska Railroad Hospital. The hospital was built in 1917, and had served the medical needs of the railroad and the Anchorage community for a generation. The subsequent “fire trap” headlines in the Anchorage Daily Times seriously embarrassed the railroad.²⁷ The city council urged that it be condemned, declaring it to be a fire hazard.²⁸

Anchorage Fur Rendezvous

Bevers was lauded as the unofficial Anchorage greeter. On his own initiative, he toured visitors around the town extolling its virtues and the promise of its future.²⁹ He participated in various civic betterment projects such as being the chairman of the prize committee of the Anchorage Boosters Club that selected the best outdoor Christmas decorations in 1935.³⁰ It was Bevers’ work with the recently formed Anchorage Boosters Club in creating the Anchorage winter festival that became known as the Fur Rendezvous that had the most lasting impact on Anchorage.

In 1936, the Anchorage Boosters Club embarked on a project to create a late winter sports tournament and carnival based on a similar event started at the Fairbanks Ice Festival. Bevers, along with Vern Johnson, Dale Bowen, Frank Brandt, Clyde Conover, Vic Gill, Mrs. Jessie Parsons, Mrs. William Mulcahy, and Mrs. William Ketchum,³¹ was crucial to getting this event off the ground.³² Before 1936, the All-Alaska Mid-Winter Carnival had been held in early-day Anchorage. Starting in 1917, the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce and the Anchorage Kennel Club had been the sponsoring organizations, but it was discontinued in 1923.³³

In 1936, the Anchorage Amateur Athletic Association undertook sponsorship of the sports event. The 1936 tourney, held in late February, was a success. Bevers urged the Anchorage Booster’s Club to add a “fur rendezvous” as a special feature to the 1937 event. The fur rendezvous component included a fur auction as well as instructional programs aimed at improving fur trappers’ techniques. Bevers envisioned the event as a revival of the old-time rendezvous of French-Canadian and First Nations trappers of northern Canada. Bevers later noted that “Anchorage is the logical center of fur and big game activities within the territory.” He envisioned that if a rendezvous brought trappers, traders, fur farmers and fur buyers to town, it would make Anchorage the territory’s “Fur Capital.”³⁴

In August 1936, Bevers was appointed chairman of the Anchorage Booster’s Club committee to organize the fur rendezvous for 1937. He traveled as the “floating emissary” throughout the territory in the summer of 1936 to promote interest and to urge trappers to bring their furs to Anchorage to sell at the event.³⁵ The Alaska Game Commission estimated the value of furs coming out of Alaska in 1937 to be $2,285,710.³⁶ Bevers hoped that Anchorage could benefit from this economic activity by making the town the territorial hub for the sale of furs.

The fur auction caught on. Fur sales jumped from $200 to $18,000 in a single year. Bevers expected that sales in 1939 would exceed $50,000.³⁷ To further the interest of the fur and big game industries, the Alaska Game and Fur Association was founded at the first fur rendezvous in 1937, with Bevers as the first president and secretary.³⁸ The Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, which stepped in to run the 1938 festival, named the event the Fur Rendezvous, by which it is still known today.³⁹

Anchorage during World War II

In May 1940 Bevers resigned as the Anchorage Fire Chief. Bevers was elected to the Anchorage City Council on April 1, 1941.⁴⁰ He received 772 votes, at least 250 votes more than any other candidate. He was re-elected to a second two-year term on April 6, 1943.

In 1940, the military build-up in Alaska had begun with the construction of three large naval bases (at Sitka, Kodiak, and Dutch Harbor), dozens of new airsfields, a cold-weather testing station for airplanes near Fairbanks, and a major air base and army post near Anchorage.⁴¹ Prior to the arrival of the military in 1940, Anchorage’s economy had been weak. By 1941, Anchorage was undergoing a rapid expansion as both troops and civilian construction workers crowded in to build the U.S. Army’s Fort Richardson and its large air field, later known as Elmendorf Air Force Base. Military construction turned Anchorage into a boomtown, jump-starting the Anchorage economy and energizing the city.⁴² On April 1, 1940, before the construction of Fort Richardson began, Anchorage had an estimated population of 4,000. A year later, it had risen to 6,000, and by mid-summer 1941, to 9,000.⁴³

This was a tumultuous period, and as early as 1942, the Anchorage City Council had prepared a five-year public works program, with the assistance of the National Resources Planning Board, to try to cope with the population explosion. The plan called for extensive public works, including the construction of a new airport, improvements and extension of the water and sewage systems, expansion of the telephone system, construction of a health center and a high school and gymnasium, and street improvements. Some of these projects were started during the war, but most had to wait for the postwar period.⁴⁴

The Anchorage City Council tried to resolve finding land on which a recreation facility could be built for the soldiers at Fort Richardson. The council applied to the Public Works Administration, an independent unit of the Federal Works Agency, for funds for these public works projects and for fire-fighting equipment. Some federal funds were approved to build the health center and for upgrades to the water system, but the other requests were denied.

During the war, there were many pressing, unmet needs. The totally inadequate housing situation was the most pressing need. The schools were overcrowded, partly because of children living outside the city limits coming to school in town. There was a desperate need to improve the city’s water system, preferably with a “gravity water system” that would bring uncontaminated water to the residents.⁴⁵ The water was heavily chlorinated to be made safe, but it was “almost undrinkable.”⁴⁶

Other problems dealt with by Mayor Bill Stolt and the members of the city council included traffic congestion on Fourth Avenue,⁴⁷ dust during the summers from dirt streets,⁴⁸ and obsolete city building codes.⁴⁹ In the winter of 1941, there was a coal shortage in Anchorage because the Evan Jones Mine sent much of its production to Fort Richardson. The city council started discussions about bonding itself to purchase Anchorage Light and Power.⁵⁰ That same year, Mountain View residents asked to be incorporated into the town to receive “light, water, garbage, sewer and street facilities.”  Their appeal was turned down because Mountain View was not contiguous with the town.⁵¹

World War II dominated the city council’s agenda during Bevers’ two terms in office. Bevers had been on the city council less than a year when the United States entered the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He enthusiastically supported civil defense. In an atmosphere of war hysteria, steps were taken for the city’s police chief to guard “important strategic and vulnerable facilities of the City against sabotage.” Street maintenance crews were prepared to remove bombed out rubble from the streets as quickly as possible, and the fire siren was to be used as an air raid warning.⁵² Fearful of Japanese bomb attacks, the council voted to buy “war bomb insurance.”⁵³ The military’s request to build barracks on the Park Strip causes a local furor. Anchorage residents were fearful that the presence of the barracks would make the town more of a target for invaders. The council unanimously rejected the request.⁵⁴ Bevers was appointed to a tire rationing board.⁵⁵

The city council’s plans to bond the town to purchase Anchorage Light and Power were set back when Congress was too busy to deal with Anchorage’s request to bond for over a million dollars to finance the proposed sale.⁵⁶ A “general supervisor” to assist the mayor and council was approved; this was the first move toward a city manager.⁵⁷ Land was purchased to expand Merrill Field.⁵⁸

In October 1944 Bevers took a break from his responsibilities to go duck hunting on the west side of Cook Inlet with friends. They went on a boat named the Alibi, co-owned by Cecil Wells, Bill Stolt, and Ralph Holdiman. On the evening of October 4^th Bevers, returned to the boat. Only Bill Stolt was aboard when Bevers climbed into his bunk, groaned slightly, and then, without warning, died of a heart attack.

Two days later, October 6, 1944, the Anchorage Daily Times printed this eulogy:

"It is a loss for the whole community when a man in the position of Thomas S. Bevers is taken by death. Mr. Bevers was one of the strongest boosters Anchorage could have. He told of the glories of his hometown wherever he went, and he told them to each one of us while he was right here on the ground.

But one of the best measures of a man’s success is in friendships. Bevers had a circle of friends that extends far beyond the city limits of Anchorage. It is singular that a man could maintain so many friendships while he participated in events that were often controversial and heated. Anchorage has lost one of its best friends and leaders."⁵⁹

Initially plans were made to ship Bevers’s body back to Virginia. One of his sisters arrived in Anchorage to wind up his affairs, and the townspeople became aware that she was African American, and that Bevers had also been African American.⁶⁰ The original plans were changed. The interment was made in the Masonic plot of the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery. Bevers had been a member of the Elks and the Masons; the Masons conducted his burial rites.⁶¹

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