# Harriet Pullen > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Harriet_Pullen > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Harriet_Pullen.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Pullen > Source revision: 1342475641 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **Harriet "Ma" Pullen** (August 13, 1860 – August 9, 1947[1]), was an American entrepreneur and hotelier in [Skagway, Alaska](/source/Skagway,_Alaska). After running a freighting company, she bought a house and converted it into the luxurious Pullen House Hotel.[2] ## Early life She was born to Andrew Jackson and Mary Jane Stewart Smith in [Mount Hope, Wisconsin](/source/Mount_Hope,_Wisconsin), on August 13, 1860.[1] On February 23, 1881, she married Daniel Webster Pullen.[1] They had a farm in [Cape Flattery](/source/Cape_Flattery), [Washington](/source/Washington_(state)), and had four children, Dan, Royal, Mildred and Chester.[1][3] (Eldest son Dan would later become the first appointment to [West Point](/source/United_States_Military_Academy) from Alaska and an [All-American football right tackle in 1909](/source/1909_College_Football_All-America_Team), as well as a colonel in World War I.[3]) By 1881, her husband was reportedly the richest man in Clallam County. He lost his fortune on court costs while trying to steal the Quileute Indian Reservation.[4][5] She left her children with friends in [Seattle](/source/Seattle) and traveled to Skagway to earn enough money to support them.[2] ## Career Arriving in Skagway in early 1897 with only $7 (according to her), she quickly found work as a cook for the workers of Captain [William Moore](/source/William_Moore_(steamship_captain)), one of the founders of the settlement.[6] In her spare time, she took discarded tin cans and beat them into pie pans. She baked and sold apple pies to prospectors passing through on their way to the [Klondike Gold Rush](/source/Klondike_Gold_Rush).[6] She used her profits to start a freighting company, which provided transportation on the [White Pass](/source/White_Pass) trail.[6] When the [White Pass and Yukon Route](/source/White_Pass_and_Yukon_Route) railroad opened, her business waned, so she purchased a house from Moore and turned it into the luxurious and very successful Pullen House Hotel.[2] With her finances secured, she sent for her children.[2] Her husband arrived sometime later, but left, seeking his own fortune in the Klondike.[2] She became famous for her hospitality and acquired the nickname "Ma".[6] Pullen was also a suffragist.[7] A women's suffrage bill was the first bill passed by both the House and Senate of the Alaskan Territory, being signed into law on March 21, 1913.[8] After the bill passed, she used a wagon, called the "Pullen House Bus", to help women reach polling locations in Alaska.[9] Pullen supported temperance and her wagon had a sign that read, "Vote Dry and Protect Your Home."[10] When she died in 1947, she was buried near her hotel. Her great-granddaughter Eleanor Phillips Brackbill wrote a biography about her, *The Queen of Heartbreak Trail: The Life and Times of Harriet Smith Pullen, Pioneering Woman*.[11] ## References 1. Weiser-Alexander, Kathy. ["Harriet "Ma" Pullen – Entrepreneur of Skagway, Alaska"](https://www.legendsofamerica.com/harriet-pullen/). *legendsofamerica.com* 1. ["Harriet Pullen - "Ma""](https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/as-precious-as-gold-stories-from-the-gold-rush-extraordinary-women/harriett-pullen-ma). [National Postal Museum](/source/National_Postal_Museum) 1. ["Alaska Hotel Owned by 'Mother of North'"](https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indiana-weekly-messenger-harriet-pul/2051576/). *[Indiana Weekly Messenger](/source/Indiana_Weekly_Messenger)*. May 13, 1926. p. 14. 1. ["BACK WHEN: Land disputes, lawsuits part of Peninsula history"](https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/life/back-when-land-disputes-lawsuits-part-of-peninsula-history/). 2 December 2023. 1. ["CHRISTI BARon's WEST END NEIGHBOR: A real story about the Quileute"](https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/christi-barons-west-end-neighbor-a-real-story-about-the-quileute/). 20 July 2010. 1. ["Harriet Pullen"](https://www.nps.gov/people/harriet-pullen.htm). [National Park Service](/source/National_Park_Service) 1. ["Alaska's Suffrage Star Exhibit"](https://www.skagway.org/library/page/alaskas-suffrage-star-exhibit). Municipality of Skagway Borough. 2 November 2020. 1. Harper, Ida Husted (1922). [*The History of Woman Suffrage*](https://books.google.com/books?id=aX5KAAAAYAAJ&q=alaska). New York: J.J. Little & Ives Company. p. 713. 1. Spude 2015, pp. 223–224. 1. Spude 2015, p. 225. 1. Brackbill, Eleanor Phillips. [*The Queen of Heartbreak Trail: The Life and Times of Harriet Smith Pullen, Pioneering Woman*](https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781493052509/The-Queen-of-Heartbreak-Trail-The-Life-and-Times-of-Harriet-Smith-Pullen-Pioneering-Woman). [Rowman & Littlefield](/source/Rowman_%26_Littlefield) - Spude, Catharine Holder (2015). [*Saloons, Prostitutes, and Temperance in Alaska Territory*](https://books.google.com/books?id=0yeDBgAAQBAJ&dq=%22women%27s+suffrage%22+alaska&pg=PA217). Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806149974. --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Harriet Pullen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Pullen) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Pullen?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.