McCutcheon, Herbert H. "H.H."

Search the database

McCutcheon, Herbert H. "H.H."

1876-1945 | Alaska Railroad Employee, and Politician

Herbert H. “H.H.” McCutcheon of Anchorage served in the Alaska Territorial Legislature for fourteen years, serving between 1931 and 1945. He was elected to the Territorial House of Representatives (1931-1943) and the Territorial Senate (1943-1945). He was Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1941. He was a strong supporter of the Alaska Pioneer Homes and favored senior benefits. He was a supporter of the University of Alaska. He also favored abolition of fish traps in Alaskan waters.

Herbert Hazard “H.H.” McCutcheon was born in Bayside Humb, Humboldt County, California on July 31, 1876, the son of James McCutcheon and Margaret Graham McCutcheon. He first arrived in Alaska in 1899, arriving in Nome as chief steward on the S.S. Corwin, sailing between Seward and Unalaska. In the spring of 1900, while serving on the steam schooner, Dora, he went to Nome with a load of stampeders and left the ship to work as a miner at Golovin Bay. In 1903, he purchased a roadhouse and general store at Golovin and prospected in the area, staking a claim on Dime Creek.[1]

In 1908, McCutcheon went to Bristol Bay, and the following year, moved to Chitina, becoming the U.S. Road Commissioner for the Copper River and Northwestern Railway. He had a short stint in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he worked for the British Columbia Railroad.[2]

In May 1915, McCutcheon followed the land rush to Ship Creek that immediately preceded the start of construction of the Alaska Railroad by the Alaskan Engineering Commission, the federal agency in charge of construction. His first job was laying track from the mouth of Ship Creek, north through the terminal yards, and clearing the right-of-way northward and beyond, toward Eagle River, on the Birchwood section of the railroad. When the line had been constructed as far as Whitney Station (a rail stop named after Bud Whitney, who homesteaded on Whitney Road about a mile further up from Moose Creek), he was the first section foreman on the Fairbanks Division of the Alaska Railroad and oversaw maintenance of that section of the line until the early 1930s. After this period, he was the yard foreman in Anchorage until his retirement in 1938.[3]

McCutcheon met and married Clara Johanna Krueger in Chitina in 1910. She was born in Good Thunder, Blue Earth County, Minnesota, on March 12, 1890. She went to Cordova at the age of nineteen, where she worked as a cook and waitress for the Copper River and Northwestern Railway at Camp No. 13, about twenty miles from Cordova. While at Cordova, she met McCutcheon, an employee for the Copper River and Northwestern Railway.

After they moved to Anchorage, the McCutcheons spent their first winter “camping out” in a tent pitched at Seventh Avenue and C Street. They cut logs at that location to build their first permanent home. They later bought the one-and-one half story house to the west around 1927. The house, located at 310 West 7th Avenue, was built in 1921-1922 by Smith Higgins, an Anchorage builder and teamster. The structure was unlike the bungalow style of houses that were prevalent in early Anchorage, as it was higher and narrower, and reminiscent of a typical nineteenth century farmhouse transplanted from the Lower 48 to Anchorage.[4]

McCutcheon was influential in local and territorial politics. His first elected office was a single term, in 1929-1930, on the Anchorage City Council. He was instrumental in developing Merrill Field as the city’s first substantial airport. He served on a special committee, with Oscar S. Gill and Carl E. Martin, to work with aviation officials and the territorial highway engineer to select this new site on the east end of town.[5]

McCutcheon entered territorial politics in 1931, when he was elected as a Democrat to the Territorial House of Representatives. He served continuously for twelve years and in 1941-1943, was Speaker of the House. He was elected to the Territorial Senate in 1943, where he served until his death in 1945.

McCutcheon was one of the first members to join the Anchorage Elks lodge and was exalted ruler in 1925. He was also elected president of the Pioneers of Alaska in 1944-1945, however, due to ill health he was unable to complete his term.

Clara McCutcheon was also an active clubwoman and gardener, and was Pioneer Queen Regent of the 1970 Fur Rendezvous. She served on the Territorial Board of Public Welfare, and was a member of the Electoral College. She was past president of the Pioneers of Alaska, Auxiliary 4, Anchorage. She was also a member of the Order of Moose, Rebecca Lodge, and the Anchorage Emblem Club.

H.H. and Clara McCutcheon had three sons: Stephen, Stanley, and Jerome, who followed their father into politics. Their eldest son, Stephen “Steve” McCutcheon (1911-1998), was elected to fill his father’s Senate seat in 1946 and served in the Territorial House of Representatives from 1947-1948. He was elected to the Senate again from 1947-1953. He retired from electoral politics in 1953, but was a delegate-at-large to the 1955-1956 state constitutional convention at Fairbanks. He chaired the committee on the legislature. He was the convention’s unofficial photographer, and compiled the most complete photographic record of the convention in existence. In 1946, Steve McCutcheon opened Mac’s Photo Shop in Anchorage, which he operated for twenty years. He became a noted photographer, largely self-taught. He earned an international reputation as a commercial photographer, and took stock images of Alaskan flora and fauna, glaciers and other geological features, and Native culture. During the period from 1990-1999, the McCutcheon Collection of more than 140,000 photographs was donated to the Anchorage Museum, comprising its largest photograph collection.[6] Stanley McCutcheon (1917-1975), an attorney, served in the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives from 1943-1943, first with his father and then with his brother, Stephen. He was re-elected in 1949-1953 and 1955-1957.[7] Jerry McCutcheon (1931-.) was involved in the 1968 presidential campaign, and organized the Hubert H. Humphrey headquarters at the family’s home in Anchorage. He was also active in a number of local civic organizations.[8]

Herbert H. McCutcheon died on November 13, 1945 and is buried in the Elks Tract, Anchorage Memorial Park.[9] Clara Johanna Kreuger McCutcheon died on December 29, 1986 at Providence Hospital in Anchorage at the age of ninety-six. She is buried in Angelus Memorial Park in Anchorage.[10]

Click an image to see more

Clara Johanna Krueger McCutcheon. Photograph, 1909.

Herbert Hazard "H.H." McCutcheon. Photograph, 1941.

Herbert H. "H.H." McCutcheon as Speaker of the House, Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1941.

Clara McCutcheon in her garden at home, 310 West 7th Avenue, Anchorage, 1962.

Clara and Herbert H. "H.H." McCutcheon in Juneau during the 1941 session of the Alaska Territorial Legislature.