Mrs. H. C. Riordan and Miss Stella Riordan, who were drowned on the ill fated steamer State of California, near Juneau, Alaska Monday, were former resident of this city. The only surviving member of the family, Mrs. C. F. Morey, formerly Miss Anna Riordan, lives at Hastings. She received word yesterday that only the body of her mother had been recovered up to that time. Mr. Riordan ran a hardware store at DeSoto for a time, coming to Blair as soon as Blair was. he built the building now occupied by Johnson, the tailor, on the corner where the Home Theatre is now located, and conducted a hardware store there for about a year. He then took the late F. W. Kenny in as a partner, later selling his interest out to J. S. Stewart. Mr. Riordan died several years ago and his widow and Miss Stella lived in Seattle. They visited Mrs. Morey just before leaving on their trip to Alaska. The boat struck a rock in Gambler's Bay and went to the bottom. The total number of dead will not be known until the deep sea driver's complete their work. The known dead now totals 27, with 37 survivors.

#2-Printed in Blair Democrat, August 21, 1913

FORMER BLAIRITES PERISH

Mrs. Stella Riordan and daughter Stella, both of whom lost their lives in the sinking of the steamship California, off the coast of Alaska Sunday, were former residents of Blair.

In the late seventies, the husband and father was a member of the hardware firm of Kennedy & Riordan and their home was south of the W.G. Cunningham place.

Telegrams from the steamship company report that the body of Mrs. Riordan has been recovered but that there is little hope of the finding of Miss Riordan’s body unless she is, by chance, one of the several unidentified dead.

# 3 - from The Enterprise, September 12, 1913

MRS. H.C. RIORDAN AND DAUGHTER STELLA LOST IN SHIPWRECK

Following the telegraphic announcement of the sinking of the Steamship California in Gambier bay, on the Pacific coast between Seattle and Skagway, in which thirty-two lives were reported in Tuesday morning’s dispatches to have been lost, comes the announcement that two former residents of Blair, prominent in history of the town, Mrs. H.C. Riordan and her daughter, Stella, were numbered as amongst those lost. The Riordans, H.C. Riordan, wife and two daughters were amongst the first residents of Blair. Mr. R., long since deceased, being the pioneer hardware merchant of the city, erecting the building now standing on the northwest corner of Walker avenue and Lincoln street, now occupied as a tailor shop, on the corner where the Home theatre is, utilizing the upper story as living rooms, and moving his hardware stock from DeSoto, where he had previously located in business, under the impression that the railroad would cross the river at that point. Later F.W. Kenny bought an interest in the business and the business was conducted under the firm name of Riordan & Kenny for several years when Mr. R. sold his interest to Jas. S. Stewart and removed to Lincoln where he engaged in business for a time, later removing to a suburb of Chicago and engaging in the hardware business.

Anna, the eldest of the daughters, married an attorney named Morey at Hastings and has resided there since. Stella never married and remained with her mother in Chicago and engaged in teaching in the public schools of that city.

Obituaries courtesy of the Washington County Genelogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file at the Blair Public Library.