T. S. Lippy

{{Short description|American gold prospector (c. 1860–1931)}}

File:T S Lippy, with packtrain, Yukon Territory (CURTIS 611).jpeg

Thomas Sergent Lippy (December 2, 1860 – September 13, 1931{{cite web |title=Thomas Sergent Lippy |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/89525851/thomas-sergent-lippy |website=Find a Grave |access-date=2024-03-27}} Dates are shown on his gravestone, reproduced there.), know variously as T. S. Lippy, Thomas Lippy or Tom S. Lippy, was an American millionaire and philanthropist who became wealthy as a prospector in the Klondike Gold Rush.{{cite news |title=Wealthy Klondiker Here: T. S. Lippy Made His Money in Alaska and Is Doing Good With It |newspaper=Los Angeles Herald |date=February 8, 1904 |url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19040208.2.170}}

Lippy was the athletic director of or an instructor at the Seattle YMCA, before he and his wife Salome headed north in search of gold in 1896{{cite news |title=Klondike fever shakes Seattle |author=George Tibbits |newspaper=Juneau Empire |agency=Associated Press |date=July 13, 1997 |url=http://juneauempire.com/stories/071397/klondike.html#.V9eflTWrHGB |access-date=September 13, 2016 |archive-date=September 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919153705/http://juneauempire.com/stories/071397/klondike.html#.V9eflTWrHGB |url-status=dead }} or 1897 after an injury forced him to leave his YMCA job.Berton, p. ? Some Scotsmen from Nanaimo had staked claims Fourteen to Seventeen on Eldorado Creek in the Klondike region of Canada.Berton, p. 54 They decided to abandon Sixteen and Seventeen in order to concentrate on some other claims. Lippy had a claim further up the creek, but restaked Sixteen because his wife wanted a cabin, and there was timber there. Sixteen proved to be one of the richest claims of the gold rush.

Salome Lippy was the first white woman in the area, until she was joined by Ethel Berry.{{cite news |title=Women As Plucky Klondyke Pilgrims |newspaper=Los Angeles Herald |date=August 8, 1897 |url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH18970808.2.139}}{{cite book|author=W. B. Conkey Company|title=The Official Guide to the Klondyke Country and the Gold Fields of Alaska|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KCHXX8JDekoC&pg=PA145|accessdate=September 14, 2016|date=January 1, 2010|publisher=Cosimo, Inc.|isbn=9781616404017|pages=145–148}} Clarence and Ethel Berry, who also became rich, were neighbors of the Lippys,{{cite web |url=http://postalmuseum.si.edu/gold/berry.html |title=Ethel Berry - Bride of the Klondike |publisher=National Postal Museum |access-date=September 13, 2016 |archive-date=July 31, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731022015/http://postalmuseum.si.edu/gold/berry.html |url-status=dead }} living a mile away.

On July 25, 1898, the Lippys arrived in San Francisco aboard the Excelsior, the first ship to reach the lower United States from the Klondike with now-wealthy prospectors; the Lippys brought with them gold valued, according to the Chicago Tribune, at "not less than $200,000."{{cite news |title=Treasure on the Nelson: Vessel Arrives at Seattle with a Million and a Half of Klondike Gold. ... Former Y. M. C. A. Instructor Brings a Fortune From the Frozen North. |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=July 25, 1898 |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1898/07/26/page/7/article/treasure-on-the-nelson}} He sold his holdings in 1903.{{cite book |last=Berton |first=Pierre |authorlink=Pierre Berton |title=The Klondike Fever: The Life And Death Of The Last Great Gold Rush |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kEhvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT563 |accessdate=September 8, 2016 |date=November 6, 2015 |publisher=Pickle Partners Publishing |isbn=9781786256737 |pages=563–564}} That same year he became an investor in The Seattle Automobile Company, the first car dealership in the city.{{cite news |title=The Seattle Automobile Company to Increase its Capital Stock to $100,000 |newspaper=The Seattle Post-Intelligencer |date=April 16, 1908 |page=16 |quote=W. E. Stevens, T. S. Lippy, H. P. Grant, H. E. Schmidt - trustees}}

He and his wife went on a worldwide tour, before building a lavishly decorated 15-room house in Seattle. He gave generously to the YMCA, the First United Methodist Church{{cite web |url=http://www.pnwumc.org/news/seattles-first-church-unveils-160-year-timeline/ |title=Seattle's First Church Unveils 160-year timeline|date=28 November 2015 }} and the Anti-Saloon League, and donated the land for a five-story addition to Seattle General Hospital. He also established a free hospital for miners in Dawson City,{{cite news |title=Cargo of Gold from Klondike. |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=June 25, 1901 |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1901/06/25/page/7/article/cargo-of-gold-from-klondike}} and sent "a library of 1000 volumes" to Skagway, Alaska.{{cite news |title=Library for Skagway |newspaper=The Daily Alaskan |date=January 10, 1900 |url=http://alaskaweb.org/itn/dailyakn/19000110.html}}

He won the 1907 Pacific Northwest Amateur golf tournament{{cite book|last=Francaviglia|first=Richard V.|title=Hard Places: Reading the Landscape of America's Historic Mining Districts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gf_tqwBA-EoC&pg=PR14|accessdate=September 12, 2016|date=September 1, 1997|publisher=University of Iowa Press|isbn=9780877456094|page=14}} and was the Port Commissioner of the Port of Seattle from 1918 to 1921.

Unfortunately, his business investments, "a mattress-and-upholstery company, a brick company, a trust-and-savings bank, and the Lippy Building", all failed, and he died bankrupt in 1931 at the age of 71.{{cite news |title=Back To The Klondike Stampeder's Relatives Mark Alaska Gold Rush Centenial (sic) With Cruise |author=David Germain |newspaper=The Spokesman-Review |agency=Associated Press |date=July 19, 1997 |url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jul/19/back-to-the-klondike-steders-relatives-mark/}} However, his widow was provided with $50 a month from a hospital land agreement. Salome Lippy died in 1938.