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5 unusual facts about Frederick Schwatka


Frederick Schwatka

Schwatka Lake in Whitehorse, Yukon, is named after him, as is Mount Schwatka, Alaska.

His father Frederick G. Sr. (1810-1888) was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of August and Catherine (Geissendorfer) Schwatke (the original German spelling with the same pronunciation), German Lutheran immgrants from East Prussia (now eastern Poland) and Bavaria, respectively.

His mother Amelia Hukill (1812-1885) was born near Bethany, Brooke County, in present-day West Virginia and was of English and Scots descent.

Schwatka received the Roquette Arctic Medal from the Geographical Society of Paris, and a medal from the Imperial Geographical Society of Russia.

Studying law and medicine simultaneously, he was admitted to the Bar association of Nebraska in 1875 and received his medical degree from Bellevue Medical College in New York in the same year.



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