David H. Jarvis

Jarvis was born at Berlin, Maryland, on August 24, 1862. On June 18, 1883, he was commissioned as a temporary third lieutenant and his first assignment was aboard , reporting at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 5, 1883. This assignment lasted a little more than two months as he was transferred from the cutter on September 11 for an undisclosed reason only to be reassigned to Hamilton again on November 24. On March 16, 1888 Jarvis received orders that transferred him to the Pacific coast where he spent the balance of his career with the RCS. He reported aboard USRC Bear based in San Francisco, California, for the first time on April 3, 1888. Aboard Bear, Jarvis made the first of many cruises on the Bering Sea Patrol. On January 2, 1890 he reported aboard based in San Francisco. While assigned to Rush, Jarvis received orders promoting him to temporary second lieutenant. While assigned to Bear in August 1891, Jarvis helped load reindeer purchased in Siberia onto the decks of the cutter. The reindeer were transported to Unalaska in an effort to establish a herd and teach animal husbandry to the Eskimo natives. The experiment station was eventually moved to Teller Reindeer Station with the assistance of personnel from Bear. On 18 January 1896 Jarvis was promoted to first lieutenant. == Overland Relief Expedition ==

In 1897, eight whaling ships were trapped in an Arctic ice field surrounding Point Barrow, the northernmost point of Alaska. It was too late in the year for the cutter to push through the ice, so it was decided the party must go overland, enlisting the help of natives, stopping by a reindeer station to purchase a herd of reindeer. They were also assisted by William Thomas Lopp, the superintendent of the Teller Reindeer Station, and Charlie Antisarlook, a native reindeer herder. The distance to Point Barrow overland from Cape Vancouver was roughly 1,500 miles. The rescue party traveled and carried the provisions using dog sleds, sleds pulled by reindeer, snowshoes, and skis. The group reached Point Barrow on March 29, 1898, having walked most of the distance and endured temperatures as low as −45 degrees Fahrenheit. Jarvis assumed command in accordance with orders from the Secretary of the Treasury. == Recognition ==

President William McKinley recognized the achievements of the rescue in a letter dated January 17, 1899 to the United States Congress, in which he requested of Congress "That gold medals of honor of appropriate design, to be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, be awarded to Lieutenants Jarvis and Bertholf and Dr. Call, commemorative of their heroic struggles in aid of suffering fellow-men." The enabling statute reads as follows: == Later career and death ==

Three years later, Jarvis stood by his post as a special government agent at Nome, Alaska during a smallpox epidemic. In February 1902, he was named collector of customs for the District of Alaska by President Theodore Roosevelt. President Roosevelt, who had recommended Jarvis for the position with the syndicate, twice offered him the governorship of Alaska. Jarvis was a close friend and adviser of Judge James Wickersham, who wrote of him in 1901, "I am very fond of Capt. Jarvis; he is a loveable, honest and competent man—I think those three words cover about all that is necessary in a man." When Wickersham ran for delegate to Congress in 1908 on an anti-Guggenheim platform, he broke with Jarvis and accused him of corruption, bribery and other crimes. Jarvis resigned from various offices connected with the syndicate. Jarvis committed suicide on June 23, 1911, shooting himself in his room at the Seattle Athletic Club, one day after Wickersham demanded a new investigation of him for allegedly defrauding the government on coal contracts. Jarvis's suicide note read, "Tired and worn out." Wickersham, accused by his critics of responsibility for Jarvis's death, commented in his diary, "Poor Jarvis. Until he became the employee of the Guggenheim bunch of Jew thieves he was a man of honor and courage." Captain Ellsworth Bertholf commented, "I lived with him in the same tent, was his comrade in times of hardship and danger... Not many people really knew him, for he was a silent man." == Legacy ==

• , a Hamilton-class United States Coast Guard cutter, commissioned on Coast Guard Day, August 4, 1972 was named for Captain Jarvis. Jarvis was decommissioned October 2, 2012 and transferred to the Bangladesh Navy May 23, 2013. • The U.S. Coast Guard's "Captain David H. Jarvis Inspirational Leadership Award" is presented annually and recognizes an officer that consistently demonstrates outstanding leadership skills which motivate and inspire personnel to strive for excellence. • Mount Jarvis, a shield volcano in the Wrangell Mountains of eastern Alaska, was named for him in 1903 by F. C. Schrader of the United States Geological Survey. • Jarvis's Congressional Gold Medal is now part of the collection of the U.S. Coast Guard Museum. == Personal life ==

Jarvis married Ethel Taber on April 2, 1896. They had three children: Anna (born during the Overland Relief Expedition), David H., and William. ==Notes==