Henry Roden

Henry Joseph Roden
Henry Joseph Roden
5th Attorney General of the Alaska Territory
	In office; 1941–1945
Governor	Ernest Gruening
Preceded by	James S. Truitt
Succeeded by	Ralph Julian Rivers
President of the Alaska Senate
	In office; January 27, 1941 – January 25, 1943
Preceded by	Norman R. Walker
Succeeded by	Orville Cochran
Member of the Alaska Senate; from the 4th district
	In office; March 3, 1913 – March 1, 1915 Serving with Daniel Sutherland
Preceded by	Position Established
Succeeded by	O.P. Gaustad
Member of the Alaska Senate; from the 1st district
	In office; January 14, 1935 – January 25, 1943 Serving with Norman R. Walker
Preceded by	Allen Shattuck
Succeeded by	Arthur P. Walker
Personal details
Born	Henry Joseph Roden; August 8, 1874; Basel, Switzerland
Died	June 5, 1966 (aged 91); Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Political party	Democratic; Independent

Henry Joseph Roden (August 8, 1874 – June 5, 1966) was Swiss born American prospector, lawyer and politician who served as Attorney General of the Territory of Alaska as well as a member and subsequently president of the Alaska territorial senate.

Biography

Born in Basel in 1874 Roden arrived in Alaska as part of the Klondike Gold Rush, arriving in Rampart in the summer of 1898.^[4]

In 1902 he began independently studying law, eventually passing the Alaska Bar exam in 1906 and served as assistant US Attorney in Fairbanks, assistant US Attorney in Iditarod and as City Attorney of Iditarod.^[5]

He was elected to the first Alaska territorial legislature in 1913^[6] and was subsequently re-elected as part of the 12th legislature in 1935 ^[7] and remained a Senator until the 15th legislature in 1941 when he served as Senate President.^[8] In 1941 he became Attorney general for the state of Alaska, a position which he held until 1944, when he stood unsuccessfully as the Democratic candidate for the Alaskan representative to the US Congress.^[9]

Throughout this time Roden maintained interests in mining. In 1919 he and others incorporated the Admiralty Alaska Gold Mining Company with himself as president, which controlled a mine in Funter Bay; in 1942 he was still an officer of the mining company,^[10] and following the start of the Aleutian Islands campaign and the evacuation of the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands the mine was leased to the US government to house some of the evacuees. As Attorney general in 1943 he inspected the mine and wrote a letter to Governor Ernest Gruening expressing concern about the situation.^[11]^[12]

References

^ "Attorneys General of Alaska". State of Alaska Department of Law. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
^ ^a ^b "Alaska Territorial and State Legislature Roster" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-08. Retrieved 2015-01-26.
^ "LEAN IN ALASKA COUNT". New York Times. September 13, 1934. p. 19.
^ "Prospecting and Mining Activity in the Rampart, Manley Hot Springs and Fort Gibbon Mining Districts of Alaska, 1894 to the Present Era" (PDF). U. S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management. February 1997. p. 20. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
^ "Roden, Henry". U. S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management. February 1997. p. 20. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
^ "100 Years of Alaska's Legislature "From Territorial Days to Today", 1st Territorial Legislature". The Alaska State Legislature. 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
^ "100 Years of Alaska's Legislature "From Territorial Days to Today", 12th Territorial Legislature". The Alaska State Legislature. 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
^ "100 Years of Alaska's Legislature "From Territorial Days to Today", 15th Territorial Legislature". The Alaska State Legislature. 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
^ "Henry Roden on air here at 7 tonight". The Daily Alaska Empire. April 24, 1944. p. 8.
^ Kohlhoff, Dean (1995). When the Wind Was a River: Aleut Evacuation in World War II. Seattle: Seattle: University of Washington Press in association with Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association, Anchorage. p. 116. ISBN 0295974036.
^ "Forgotten Victims : Twilight of the Aleuts: A War Story". Los Angeles Times. 4 September 1987. Retrieved May 6, 2025. "I have seen tough places during my days in Alaska but nothing to equal the situation at Funter," the state's attorney general, Henry Roden, wrote acting Gov. Ernest Gruening on Sept. 20, 1943.
^ "World War II Aleut Relocation Camps in Southeast Alaska - Chapter 3: Funter Bay Mine, pt. 1". National Park Service. Retrieved May 6, 2025. I have no language at my command which can adequately describe what I saw; if I had I am confident you would not believe my statements....in short, the situation is shocking. I have seen some tough places in my days in Alaska, but nothing to equal the situation at Funter.

External Links

Henry Roden at Find a Grave

[AGList-1] "Attorneys General of Alaska". State of Alaska Department of Law. Retrieved May 6, 2025.

[Roster-2] "Alaska Territorial and State Legislature Roster" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-08. Retrieved 2015-01-26.

[3] "LEAN IN ALASKA COUNT". New York Times. September 13, 1934. p. 19.

[Rampart1-4] "Prospecting and Mining Activity in the Rampart, Manley Hot Springs and Fort Gibbon Mining Districts of Alaska, 1894 to the Present Era" (PDF). U. S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management. February 1997. p. 20. Retrieved May 6, 2025.

[5] "Roden, Henry". U. S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management. February 1997. p. 20. Retrieved May 6, 2025.

[6] "100 Years of Alaska's Legislature "From Territorial Days to Today", 1st Territorial Legislature". The Alaska State Legislature. 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2025.

[7] "100 Years of Alaska's Legislature "From Territorial Days to Today", 12th Territorial Legislature". The Alaska State Legislature. 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2025.

[8] "100 Years of Alaska's Legislature "From Territorial Days to Today", 15th Territorial Legislature". The Alaska State Legislature. 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2025.

[9] "Henry Roden on air here at 7 tonight". The Daily Alaska Empire. April 24, 1944. p. 8.

[Kohlhoff-10] Kohlhoff, Dean (1995). When the Wind Was a River: Aleut Evacuation in World War II. Seattle: Seattle: University of Washington Press in association with Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association, Anchorage. p. 116. ISBN 0295974036.

[LAtimes-11] "Forgotten Victims : Twilight of the Aleuts: A War Story". Los Angeles Times. 4 September 1987. Retrieved May 6, 2025. "I have seen tough places during my days in Alaska but nothing to equal the situation at Funter," the state's attorney general, Henry Roden, wrote acting Gov. Ernest Gruening on Sept. 20, 1943.

[12] "World War II Aleut Relocation Camps in Southeast Alaska - Chapter 3: Funter Bay Mine, pt. 1". National Park Service. Retrieved May 6, 2025. I have no language at my command which can adequately describe what I saw; if I had I am confident you would not believe my statements....in short, the situation is shocking. I have seen some tough places in my days in Alaska, but nothing to equal the situation at Funter.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

v t e Presidents of the Alaska Senate
Territorial (1912–59)	Ray Sutherland Hubbard Frawley Sundback Hunt Ayer Howard Steel Hess Shattuck Hess Brunelle Walker Roden Cochran Coffey Nerland Engebreth Jones Nolan Rivers
State (since 1959)	Beltz Peratrovich McNealy Butrovich Phillips Hammond T. Miller Croft Rader Tillion Kerttula Bennett Faiks T. Kelly Eliason Halford Pearce M. Miller Pearce Halford Therriault B. Stevens Green G. Stevens Huggins Meyer P. Kelly Giessel Micciche G. Stevens

v t e Attorneys general of Alaska
Territorial (1916–59)	Grigsby Murphy Rustgard Truitt Roden Rivers Williams
State (since 1959)	Rader Moody Hayes Colver Burr Boyko Edwards Havelock Gorsuch Gross Condon Gorsuch Brown Schaible Baily Cole Botelho Renkes Márquez Colberg Sullivan Burns Geraghty Richards Lindemuth Clarkson Taylor