John Fraser (Jack) Pugh was born in Port Townsend, Jefferson County, Washington, on December 25, 1877, to John E. and Cassie Grant Pugh. He spent his early boyhood days in Port Townsend and graduated from Willamette University at Salem, Oregon.

John Pugh married Venetia Lauretta Fehr in Oakland, California, on December 20, 1900, and they moved to Skagway. Venetia arrived in Skagway on March 18, 1900, on the steamer Seattle, having stayed in Port Townsend for three months due to the shortage of housing in Skagway. Mr. Pugh was appointed to the U.S. Customs Service in June, 1902, and was then stationed at Ketchikan. Their daughter, Venetia Elizabeth, was born at the Customs’ House there in 1904.

After a promotion, the Pughs were transferred to Skagway in 1905. In May 1908, he was placed in charge of the Port of Sulzer on Prince of Wales Island, and in 1909, he was again transferred, to the headquarters at Juneau where he was placed in charge of the navigation department. On December 2, 1913, he was appointed Collector of Customs, head of the Customs Service for the District of Alaska, by President Woodrow Wilson, and was reappointed for another four year term in 1918.

Jack Pugh lost his life at age 41, in the wreck of the Princess Sophia on October 24, 1918, his daughter’s fourteenth birthday. He was buried at Evergreen Cemetery. Three hundred fifty-three people were lost on the Sophia, over one hundred twenty-five from Dawson City.

John Fraser Pugh