Minnie Field was born in Ireland. Little is known about her early years but she came to Juneau via British Columbia around 1920 and was the matron and cook at the Federal Jail. While working at the jail, she noticed that many of the inmates’ children were neglected. She took some of them home to her room at a boarding house, giving up her bed and sleeping on the floor. After losing the room, she withdrew her savings, $300.00, and set out to build her own home for the children. She found land in the Tongass National Forest at Mile 17 of the Glacier Highway and raised money by selling her baked goods in the community.

She took in Alaska Native and white children, abused, abandoned, orphaned, at times caring for over 50 at a time. Over 2,000 children in all were raised and educated at the home and school, which received an honor medal in 1938, 1939 from the National Education Association. At times she auctioned her own possessions to keep the home running and sold baked goods to feed the children. In the late 1940s, the Alaska Territorial Dept. of Welfare began financial assistance to the home, $40-50 per child depending on age. The Minfield Home and School closed in 1950; Minnie Field died in Seattle on March 19, 1951. [From “The House on the Glacier Highway,” by Neuberger, R.L., in Ford Times, vol. 41, no. 10, Oct. 1949, pp. 1-8.]