Hajdukovich captured Judy Ferguson.
I’ve recently shared the stories of two remarkable ladies of the far north—Mary Hansen of Alaska and Martha Black of Yukon. The North Country attracts and produces people like these ladies—resilient, independent, incredibly tough. Researcher recently discovered a writer named Judy Ferguson who has made a specialty of documenting the lives of these people—especially those who made their homes in Big Delta.
Judy grew up in the lower 48—in Oklahoma; moved to Big Delta in 1968; met and married Reb Ferguson. The Fergusons raised three kids in isolation along the Tanana River. Home schooled their kids. Travelled by dog sled in winter and by boat in summer.
Judy’s first book, Parallel Destinies, An Alaskan Odyssey, documents the remarkable lives of the early Alaskans. It’s fascinating.
A member, herself, of that incredible fraternity (sorority?) Judy knows whereof she speaks.
Tempted by the idea of learning and writing the stories of remarkable Alaskans, but hesitant, Judy ran across the story of John Hajdukovich. Her hesitation ended.
John, born and raised in Montenegro, came to Alaska in 1903. Like so many others he came to find gold; and, like a very few others, he found a home and a life. Coming into the country John’s steamboat went aground. Cold and wet he walked to Fairbanks.
John left a wife and daughter in Montenegro, and as the years passed they became increasingly estranged. World War I devastated the tiny country—and John’s family. John trapped and hunted and freighted supplies, bought and rebuilt a roadhouse at Big Delta. And he dreamed of bringing his wife and daughter to join him. In 1932 he wrote his daughter, begging her to come. His wife refused.
Photo Courtesy Judy Ferguson
John lived among Athabaskan natives and, perhaps out of loneliness, he adopted them. Relating to the natives as few white men ever could. Hardy, independent and tough as only an Alaskan can be, John Hajdukovich may also have been, quite simply, the nicest man who ever lived there.
If the natives needed something, they contacted John, and he got it for them. They called him “Praise the Lord, John”. He had stores and caches everywhere and people in need simply signed out goods as they needed them.
In a time and place that treated the natives abysmally, John Hajdukovich protected and defended them.