Otto W. Geist: A Legend In His Own Lifetime, Part 1
Otto Geist, born on December 27, 1888 in Kircheiselfing, Bavaria, started a trip around
the world in May of 1962. Shortly after his arrival in Europe, he became ill and was
confined to the hospital for more than a year prior to his death.
He was one of 15 children of Mr. and Mrs. Franz Antone Geist. Two brothers, Sigismund
of Munich, and Carl of Louisiana, survive Dr. Geist. Their father was superintendent
of the consolidated schools at Eiselfing and a noted antiquarian in that region. He
encouraged his son's interest in the fields in which he later would gain international
renown.
While still a boy, a collection of his early Roman artifacts was placed in a Bavarian
museum. He attended a Benedictine school at Martinsbuhl in the Tyrol region where
he learned the mechanics and machinists trade. Later he earned a journeyman's diploma
in an art metal works in Mallersdorf in Lower Bavaria. For a time he worked with the
Kraus and Company locomotive factory, which was making locomotives for China and South
America.
When automobiles began to make an appearance on the German roads, he became a driver
and mechanic for a sightseeing bus company. In 1908, when he was 19, he was called
into the German army. After serving approximately two years, he was discharged and
immediately applied for passage to the United States aboard the George Washington.
She was making her maiden voyage from Bremen to New York and was loaded with immigrants
of many nationalities who, like Otto, were seeking their fortunes in the New World.
Otto worked for a time in a Chicago hospital, then walked to Kansas where he worked
on a farm for $100 a year, plus room, board and clothing. After two years he became
tired of his employer's "affection for the jug" and moved to another farm where he
worked a year. For two years he worked as a mechanic in Kansas City then became chauffeur
and part-time gardener for Sterling Morton, president of Morton Salt Company. In 1916,
Otto served as a mechanic and driver under Gen. John J. "Blackjack" Pershing who was
leading a punitive expedition into Mexico against Francisco Villa.
After he was discharged from that service, Otto worked for a time in Morton's factory
that was manufacturing teletype sets. When the United States entered the war against
Germany on April 6, 1917, Otto again entered the service of his adoptive country.
He served in France as a trucker and, after World War I ended, was a chauffeur for
The American Commission to Negotiate Peace. After his discharge from that service
in 1920, he formed his own trucking service in Kansas City, just in time to be wiped
out by the depression of 1920-23.
A brother, Josef, who was working in a marble quarry at Tokeen on Prince of Wales
Island in the southeastern part of the Territory of Alaska, persuaded him to head
north to start a new life. The two brothers laid steel for the Alaska Railroad, then
in 1924 Otto accompanied Harper Workman, an old sourdough, to Bettles aboard a precariously
loaded riverboat. During the summer of 1924, Otto served as second engineer aboard
the sternwheeler Teddy R., owned by trader Sam Dubin. He invested his $1,600 earnings
in a mining venture at Lake Creek, which empties into Wild Lake in the Arctic. Otto
and his partners helped their dogs eat more than 2,500 snowshoe hares that winter
and in the spring cleanup the miners obtained approximately $100 a piece in gold for
their efforts, which had included mushing to the mine from Bettles in weather that
went down to minus 60 degrees F.
UA Site named after Otto Geist
UA Museum of the North (Geist Building)
Otto Geist is also mentioned in these articles:
Links:
University of Alaska Museum of the North
University of Alaska Museum: History of the Herbarium
Alaska Native Remains Returned, Arctic Science Journeys (1996) - Radio Script
Rozell, Ned. Permafrost Preserves Clues to Deadly 1918 Flu, Article #1368, Alaska Science Forum (1998)