Knubedal-Jacksons at Tava (“Tent" in Aleut) Island, March 1929-April 1931
 
Grampa Chris Jackson helped fox farmer C. Jay (CJ) Mills kill and skin his foxes.  It was definitely a different way of life here on Tava because on this island Grampa wasn’t operating the fox farm.  He focused on fishing and logging to make a living. Obviously, the two oldest Jackson children (my mom JoAnn and Uncle George) thought it was totally laid back over here compared to what they had been doing since coming from Norway and living on the Legma Island fox farm for the last two years.

The Jacksons loaded all their trunks into the boat and moved over to Tava Island in March of 1929. Anna (our Nanny) was five months pregnant and decided this time she was going to have her baby in town instead of staying on an island like she did when dodder Polly was born. When they saw a plane with pontoon landing gear fly over Nanny figured that would have made it really easy to get to the hospital when labor started.
However, they didn’t have docks on islands these new float planes could use to pick up any fox farmers, especially ones that needed to get to town quickly. Most likely the cost of these charter flights was way more than they could afford. So Grampa took her into Sitka and their son, my Uncle Chris Jackson, was born in “the big city” on July 6th 1929!

Len T. Peterson was President, his brother C.A. Peterson was Vice-President, F. Beauchamp was Secretary-Treasure and CJ Mills was the Manager of Sitka Fur Farms Inc., the company that leased Maid and Tava Islands. The note on their letterhead stationery made the important point that Maid and Tava Islands were “stocked with an improved strain of Alaska Blue Foxes.”  (Very impressive!)

Sitka Fur Farms Manager CJ Mills and his family lived on Maid Island. His cousin Foster had come to Alaska to run Tava Island, next door, in November 1924. Foster and his wife Louise, daughter Jane and son Russell lived there a couple of years. When our family arrived on Legma Island, in March 1927, the Foster family had already decided they didn’t like fox farming and had moved to Sitka, so they never met Grampa & Nanny.

When Gramma & Grampa went into the “big city” of Sitka for the birth of the next Jackson, the rest of the children went over to stay with the CJ Mills family on Maid Island. One thing that was pretty special about spending the night over there was that the brothers had their own cabin, and so did the sisters. One of the Jackson girls, Polly, remembered she and her sisters had to sleep with the Mills girls in the same bed.  She said not only did her feet get really really cold, she especially remembered feeling very “out of place” over there.
Carl Mills must have had a crush on Gertie because he always teased her and put crabs down her neck. He probably thought it was cool because she really didn’t like it but he definitely got her attention.  George thought Mrs. Mills was pretty mean because every time something went wrong, she blamed him. Very likely she didn’t appreciate him teaching her sons and daughters nasty words in Norwegian because no one else was supposed to know what they were really saying.

This was basically a new life, in a new location. Obviously, Grampa thought the amount of money being made by fox farmers was not enough these days, and that it would be much better to focus on fishing and logging. He spent time fishing on his boat, the FV Star, and always looked for the best cedar and spruce trees as well.  Hand logging was the common practice in Alaska, instead of using animal or steam power. Fishing industry folks would buy the biggest trees for fish traps, and local sawmills sawed lumber for canneries and salteries. They also made cases and crates for Alaska canneries to use for shipping salmon, and used pole-sized timber for pilings.

We’re not sure (but it is doubtful) if he had a special permit to cut and sell timber, but they did make lots of trips to the beach to find prime timber. If the water was calm enough, rather than hit a “deadhead” (partially submerged floating log) when they were running in high seas, they could hook on and tow some nice sized logs to the logging camp. In fact around December 8, instead of checking out foxes at the feeding stations, he had a different focus. He tied two prime cedars up in the narrows and hauled them into the camp to sell the next morning.
  
Another change of life for fox farm kids JoAnn and George here is that they were totally laid back compared to what they had to do when living on Legma. They had time to “watch the stars,” and actually saw some awesome northern lights in January and a moon eclipse in April. One of the not so great things was when school started, they had to get to the harbor (on the other side of Tava) to catch the school boat. Even though school started in April, spring weather wasn’t great and it was pretty darn scary to walk because the woods they had to go through were pretty thick and dark, and they didn’t have trail lights.

The 1926 Forest Service appraisal of the Tava Island lease included lots of good info about this fox farm. For instance, it is 501 acres (just a little smaller than Legma Island), the beaches were mostly large boulders and there were some reefs with rocks that were hidden at high tide.  They didn’t think the harbor was the best in the world, but it was ok because it was protected really well from the storms. Actually that was, and still is, a huge benefit!

The best place for foxes to have their dens was along the shore line because the drainage kept the beach very wet. Even during the dry season, these islands had a very good supply of water. Spruce and hemlock covering the south beach was a good thing. The Forest Service guys thought the food supply for the fox houses was good because folks could get fish heads from the cannery and mild curing plants and buy cereals from the local merchants. Because of all these positive variables for the fox farm, the annual lease fee was being raised from $25 to $61.96!

One really “cool” thing about living on Tava was sometimes it would get cold enough to freeze the lake. It was in the middle of the island and the Jackson and Mills kids would always skate there together.  Our family didn’t have any ice skates but the Mills family did and were kind enough to share. Like Cora Mills explained, “we had clamp-on skates that were easy to take off, so we always shared our skating time.”  Very nice.

Compared to what their mom cooked, our kids thought Mrs. Mills made some really weird peanut butter cookies and hotcakes. Well, of course they didn’t even taste close to what they were used to because Nanny always used butter and eggs cause they had chickens and always had fresh ones. Most folks didn’t know or even care about high cholesterol back then, and taste was way more important. When asked today what snacks Cora Mills loved most, she said her favorite was our Nanny’s sponge cake!
 
Mr. Mills was generous enough to give our family a radio. Grampa hooked it up to the same six-volt battery that Grampa used to run off his boat. They always listened to the main station in Des Moines, Iowa which was chosen so they could listen to the news. When he did have it on, all the kids were supposed to be totally quiet. If they did make any noise they would be in big trouble! Cora also remembers that everyone had to be quiet when their dad was listening to his radio, too.

The first week of November 1929 stenographer Dorothy, the daughter of Dr. Fred Goddard and Home Supervisor Mary of the Goddard Sanitarium, “enumerated” all the residents in the Outlying District of Goddard. Needless to say, everybody here knew all their neighbors.  The most senior fox farmer was 61-year-old Seth Mills, who had been born in Illinois. He and his 39-year-old wife lived on Elovoi Island with 41-year-old Claude, 42-year-old Mabelle, and their son Donald, who was 11.

The other “All-American” family was on Maid Island, “headed” by CJ Mills who was 43, born in Illinois; his 38-year-old wife Gretta was born there, too. Their three girls (Helen, Ruth and little Cora May) and three boys (Glenn, Donald and Carl) living on Maid Island were all born in Alaska.

Adolph Thompson was 36 years old and had come from Germany, and his 32-year-old wife Sophie came from Poland. They had a daughter, Anna, who had been born in Alaska five years before.  Carl, his 51-year-old brother, also from Germany, was living with them on their Biorka Island fox farm. Adolph was a naturalized citizen, but his wife and brother were aliens. Our Jackson family, living on Tava Island, is also included on this list, and there’s one other person from Norway - John Clausen, a widowed 51-year-old, who was also a naturalized citizen.
 
Besides the Goddard family living in the Goddard Village, there was a sister-in-law from Scotland, Marjory Clumsa, doing housework at the sanitarium, and Carl G. Hill a 49-year-old guy from New York who was their manager. Titus Demidoff (27 years old), an Alaskan, and Charles Fulton (who was 38), a Tlingit, were their laborers. The day Dorothy did this report there were also two fishermen doing some salmon trolling: Augustus Woodrow, a 41-year-old guy from Pennsylvania, and 85-year-old George Sykes, from England.
   
Moving to town or another island would not and did not change anything that would make Nanny’s life easier. She was still working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to take care of the family. No doubt she was totally blown away when the Huffs came over to visit on January 26th, 1930, which just happened to be her birthday.  Imagine that!  They brought a nice birthday bouquet and bottle of wine, right?  Maybe a nice bouquet yes; but there is no question that her children had a very beautiful cake that would feed them and all the guests.

The first week in May, Grampa got some dahlia bulbs from Mrs. DeArmond at Goddard so he could give them to Nanny for Mother’s Day.  All her life, growing flowers was one of Nanny’s favorite things to do and the family always believed she had the most beautiful flower gardens on any island, or in any neighborhood. She always planted daffodils in December, her tulips always started coming up in March for Easter, and she always had lots and lots of nasturtiums blooming in August.

Whenever Grampa and son George were out hunting, fishing, or traveling around the islands, like all the other folks, they would shoot eagles. Sometimes they would even take hunting trips just for that purpose. One reason was because these damn birds would go after newborn fox pups that were coming out of their dens, which was obviously a loss of income. Also, because an eagle bounty law had been passed in 1917, as our family friend and historian Bob DeArmond described in his article “Shoot the Damned Things! - Alaska’s War against the American Bald Eagle” they would send the claws in and make 50 cents for each pair.  

In 1923, when the bounty was raised to $1 for a set of claws, a lot of people who did it for a hobby went into business. Gertie remembers seeing claws hanging (not the full bird) so they would get good and dry. The Jackson girls always thought eagles were really big and looked very mean and they were always scared of them. (Not cool.) Lots of folks also believed eagles were damaging and worried about them picking up little kids.
 
The last day of school was usually the second week of October because seas were pretty rough that time of year. Their summer breaks, October to April, were definitely a lengthy school vacation.  Seas were not calm enough on regular schedule till April for the School Boat to start up the daily run between fox farm islands and Goddard. The kids definitely had lots of time to spend on their beach playground every day.  It was the same back then as it is today - activities were not cancelled, and the kids definitely did not stay inside, when it rained.

One day (probably cool and rainy) in January 1930 George was beachcombing and found what he thought was a seal skull and took it home to show Nanny. She almost had a heart attack and told him to take it outside and bury it.  When other adults heard about it, they dug it up and took it to town. During the next few days they found vertebrae and another bone, parts of some pants, and a life belt on the beach. Dental images identified him as one of the four missing fishermen who had been on a halibut boat named the FV Washington at Sandy Bay.

Ten years later, when he was 22, in 1940, George met a young man in Sitka selling life insurance who told him how dangerous and hazardous it was to spend your life working on the sea, and said he knew from experience, because his dad had drowned while he was fishing years ago.  When George asked him what boat his dad was on, and he told him the FV Washington, George said he was probably the one who had picked up his dad’s skull and bones on the beach. Then he decided indeed it would be a good idea to buy insurance from him.

Our mom JoAnn didn’t have a lot of good memories about being raised on the fox farm islands either. Her example was on July 3rd, 1930, when she celebrated her 9th birthday on Tava Island, which was nothing exciting, but always remembered that George swamped the skiff when they were hauling wood.

That year, when hunting season opened August 20th, Grampa didn’t think the deer were as fat as they would have been twelve days later (when it had opened the year before.) The season closed 15 days earlier on November 15th. No change in the number of deer you could get though; only three male deer, with at least 3-inch horns.

One of the worst things that ever happened to our family was on March 2nd in 1931. Nobody could have done anything about it. George had run over to Maid Island to pick up Mrs. Mills and bring her back to Tava to help Nanny as her midwife, when his baby brother, named Ole, was born dead.  Needless to say, it was very sad.  He was buried on the island.  Claude Huff posted the notice on the dock “Mrs. Jackson’s Baby Dead.”  This was definitely very hard for JoAnn to accept this happening. Several members of the family have been out to the island quite a few times but so far nobody has been able to find the gravesite. 
 
Grampa anchored his boat between Maid and Tava. Unfortunately, during a good storm, the boat drifted ashore and broke up.

Uncle George did say one time that he figured the only way a guy could make money back in those days was, rather than fox farming, to make and sell the moonshine!  
 
Really? Hmmm--maybe so!

Next post: The Jackson family on Elovoi Island, April 1931-March 1932

Obviously, some very important government officials thought school age kids that lived on fox farm islands should be able to go to school like ones who lived in big towns like Sitka, and get educated. Juneau legislators decided to consider it an “emergency” and something that needed to be done immediately. They said  when folks  established a school district, the Board of Education could set aside as much as $2,500 to pay for the construction of and equipment for a school house.
A petition to establish a school district had to be signed by at least eight adults who lived in the area. Each had to be a U.S. citizen (or a resident who declared the intention to become one) and of course, live within the boundaries of their school district. We haven’t seen a copy of the petition but most likely Dr. Goddard, his wife, daughter Winn, along with  CJ, Gretta, Seth & Edna Mills, Adolph Thompson and contractor Ed Harris were some of the ones who signed a required document. Obviously the Clerk of the Court thought it was an awesome request.

The May 1925 Alaska School Bulletin said this new school district near Sitka had been established at Goddard, it was supposed to open on April 15th and about ten students would probably be taught by Miss Winn Goddard.

The next year school started a week early, on April 8th 1926,  and they had classes in one of the conference rooms at the Goddard Hot Springs Hotel.  Mrs. CJ Mills was the teacher on October 15th and the rain and winds were really bad, the waves were pretty high and the water was pretty rough. Since there was even snow on the mountains, they decided it would probably be best to make it the last day of school.
 
So special schools could be built in places where there were fewer “white” children than required by law for the establishment of a rural school.  This was outside an incorporated town, places like where our family lived in the Goddard area. There did have to be at least six white children between 6 and 17 years old and they could teach kids from kindergarten up to  10th grade in order to keep getting help from government to pay the cost.
On January 12th, 1927, the Territorial Department of Education  opened a bid to build this 16 x 24 foot school building on the shore of Hot Springs Bay.  Ed Harris won the award for $1,149 and had to complete construction by April 2nd that same year. 

He hired Claude Huff February 5.th On the 19th, Grampa (Chris Jackson) was working with our Uncles Ole and Happy to get a house built on Legma Island for the family. He also helped  clear land and set the school foundation.There was work every day in March except for the 8th, when they got a foot of snow! Several other fox farmers were also helping the Huffs, including the CJ Mills family, Seth Mills and his wife, along with Will Harris and his girls, at this new school site.

Additionally, on March 19th, Forest Service Ranger George Peterson noted in his diary that he left Sitka with a trail crew at 10:30 in the morning and got out to Goddard at 12:25. He showed the men what he needed for this trail to go from the school house to Goddard’s springs. They left Goddard at 4:28 P.M. and arrived back to Sitka at 6:36 p.m. and noted: 11-8 hrs. Wow! So eleven guys and travel time—to and from the job….  Impressive!

A “property card” for the Territorial School was applied for that day and issued six months later, September 29th. That was for 1.12 acres ¾ miles south of Goddard on the shore of Hot Springs Bay. Best of all there was no annual lease charge. In the middle of March, about the same time Nanny and the children moved out to Legma, Uncle Happy helped build the woodhouse for the school. (It’s the smaller building on the left in CJ Mill’s  photo. School doors (actually the one door) opened only two days late, on April 4th. But realistically, that was a lot of work they did get done in less than three months!

George’s report cards on display at Sitka Museum included his first day of school, which was  April 4th 1927.  Records also say it was Don Huff’s (from Elovoi) 1st day at school  and Ms. Alta Smith was the teacher who signed out the last day on October 13th.  

Going to school every day in this brand new school house on Goddard was very exciting.  We aren’t sure if George got picked up by the School Boat or if Grampa took him.  Nanny couldn’t have taken him because she had preschoolers at home; there weren’t any day care centers  available in the area, and most dads didn’t share child care.  Plus, she didn’t  run the boat or row the skiffs, cause she never had to. JoAnn could have rowed them over but then they would have had to tie in Gertie and Polly so they wouldn’t fall out, because Don Huff made a note in his diary that the seas were really rough that particular day.

The new one-room school was big enough for ten desks, and there was a store room, but they didn’t have any running water or an inside potty. All the view windows were on the ocean side of the building with five green shades and a beautiful view. They had a nice heating stove that needed wood, which cost $10 a cord (800 pieces). WOW! Today a cord of wood usually sells for about $125!

Gas lamps were used for lights. Most likely it would have never happened but just in case there was a fire or too much smoke in the building they were required to have fire drills at least twice a month. The rules said fire drills (weather permitting) but it’s hard to believe there was ever a day with weather so bad they couldn’t do a drill.  Right?

School opened at the end of March or first of April, and went to the first of October, so it ended up being a seven month job with a good “benefit package” in a sweet environment. Teachers were provided housing and meals at the really nice Goddard Hot Springs Hotel, only a ¾ mile walk to and from work, on a trail built and maintained by the Forest Service guys. The teacher’s annual Salary was $1,120 which meant pay of about $160 each month. Most likely she was working on a “regular” school schedule back then of about 10 hours for at least five days a week & a lot of times it included Saturday.

On April 10th, the Forest Service trail crew, including Fireman Hansen, was back to do the final required work. Obviously there needed to be more details about the size of the school site since Officer Peterson also needed to submit a measurement of the trail and to survey the school lot, which he did on a Sunday, going out to the island at 9:30 and getting back to Sitka at 5:15.

All students attending had to bring their lunch to school because it was way too small for a cafeteria and they sure couldn’t afford to go over and buy something at the Goddard Hotel.  The Jackson kids always had snack veggies like carrots, sandwiches on homemade bread (of course) with rolla polsa (venison), salmon, or peanut butter and jelly. It was also the best time of the year to fill up on fresh ripe berries, and usually there were plenty of those bushes right outside in their “playground” between school and the beach.

My Aunt Gertie was five years old when she started school. She does say the first day when she had to go to the bathroom (of course it was an outhouse) and wasn’t tall enough to reach the latch, she had to get someone to help her.  It has always been remembered as one of the most embarrassing and traumatic days of going to school when the family was living on fox farms. She also remembers how many of the other kids ate seagull eggs. Her mom couldn’t believe how “different they tasted” and didn’t think they made cookie dough work very good either.  Polly, 15 months younger than her sister Gertie, remembered she always had to sit at the front desk in the classroom because she was in kindegarten and she always had to work on cards and count as far as the calendar went. She thought that was definitely some of the hardest work.

Cora Mills always wondered what the heck the teacher had been dropping down “the bathroom hole”  that was always all wrapped up. They thought it (napkin) was indeed secret and didn’t know why.  She also never forgot the one drum stove set in the middle of the room.

The same year George had to re-do first grade, JoAnn started school four months early. Kids weren’t supposed to go until they were six years old and her birthday wasn’t until July 3rd.  The first day that year was April 6th  and the  last day was October 12th, 1928. We don’t have all of JoAnn’s report cards but she probably did just as well (if not better) than George cause girls are always better than guys, right?  And she looked so cute! Actually having such a “diverse” age group, that had to be Very Inspiring, Correct?

After Uncle George spent a year in school, he and JoAnn were both in first grade and their teacher was Miss Julia McCaus who had a revised or “updated” cirriculum.  For whatever reason, she didn’t grade geography, history or physiology and they even added hygiene as an option but that doesn’t mean those subjects weren’t part of her daily discussions with the kids. She did continue the drawing class and was the only teacher who taught music - very cool!

No evidence (pictures or tapes) was found but most likely the students had some kind of concert for their parents and maybe even invited guests at Goddard Hot Springs. She was the only teacher that included a grade for their Effort and took the time and explained what G, (good)  E (excellent) and F (fair) letters meant. School started on April 15th, and the last day was October 25th 1929. This year, new additions to our school law said it needed to be open a total of 20 days each month and also that “School Age” meant a student had to be 6 years old that year or would be that age on or before February 1st of the next year. Plus, now they required TWO fire drills every month of a school year and a U.S. flag had to be on or near the building during school hours. Even leaving one on display all the time would be fine too!

1930: We don’t have a student or teacher photo for this school year.
There is an Annual Report that the teacher has to turn into the Commissioner of Education at the end of the school year.  The general statistics submitted by Ms. Garrison, the teacher in 1930, did report there were 5 boys and 1 girl (Gramma Jo) attending Goddard this year! Both George (10 years old) and Hannah (JoAnn) (9 years old) were going to be “passed up” to the next grade.

The school was only three quarters of a mile southeast of the Goddard Hot Springs Hotel. There were always awesome and famous guests who came from all over the world and lots of times a teacher, like Ms. Garrison, in 1930, would ask them to visit the classroom and talk about their travels. The last day of school that year was in the last week of October which seems kind of late, because usually weather can get pretty bad and water really rough, for the School Boat rides that time of year.

1931 school records show six “white” students in 136 days & only one girl again this year! Obviously Eddie & George Baggen were absent the day this school photo was taken!
 
In 1932,  eight kids started on March 28th for 139 days of school. Gertie Jackson, at age 6, was there every day with her brother and sister and she was promoted to first grade. When she talks about it today, she does remember her mom would not have been against any native youth attending their school but there weren’t any in their class for some reason.
 
It’s a good thing it wasn’t required that six students had to attend every single day  because sometimes none or only a few students could make it to school. One sample was August 4th, 1933. George, JoAnn, and Polly Jackson and Don Huff were the only students at school because on this particular day, all six of the Mills kids (and Gertie Jackson) stayed home sick with the flu! 

Don Huff said he was never going to forget the last day of school that year, 1933, which was October 6th, because not only did everybody pass up to the next grade, they all got a treat of candy as their  “honor”-  WOW! Pretty Special!

The school’s Annual Report says they had seven elementary and two high school for a total of nine  students. I only have eight of the names cause I think there is one hidden behind Don Huff in the back row!  The Promotion stats that year include that Polly Jackson, age 6, Gertie Jackson, age 8, Hannah (JoAnn) Jackson, age 12, and George Jackson, age 14, were all promoted!  The four Jackson Students moved into the “big city” in April, so the school closed in September. Cora Mills moved into Sitka and lived with our family so she could attend one more year!

The most “unforgettable, admired and loved by all the students teacher” was Miss Lorna Dickson from Sedro Woolley, Washington, who taught from 1931-1935. (Obviously the school board thought she was great too!)  Gertie remembers Ms. Dickson  was very young, nice, and lived by herself in the house next to the hotel. According to one of her reports she wasn’t provided a place to live and didn’t need one.  George said she didn’t have any husband and decided for some reason she didn’t want any contact with her family or anybody else in the “lower 48.”

She also said in her 1931 report that even though the school building was really small, it was secure and warm and fine for the number of children attending, and unless they had a big population increase, it would be good for many years and the location was satisfactory.

When she was asked about the community providing aid to the school - things like playgrounds, play sheds or a gym, other buildings, etc. - she said there weren’t any needs-- obviously the kids were just fine playing on the beach and in the trees.  

Obviously she liked the area. She said it was “very good fishing grounds near here” and, she was ok posing for a picture while holding a gun. (Very cool!)  Our Aunt Gertie also remembers her as being a very “excellent” teacher dealing with most of the students who did not have an easy time speaking English “properly” all of the time.

Basically, from our family records, all the teachers they knew were “so knowledgeable;” they had a very “holistic  approach” to education; always really good responding to the students; were liked and excited too with positive thinking and could hardly wait to get to their job at the school.

The government put out a contract to transport the kids (aka students) from all the islands in the area over to the school at Goddard from mid-April to mid-October. Nanny wrote to her cousin “George has to go to school in the summer, since out here, they have to go to school by boat all that time cause the course would be impossible to go to school in the winter because the seas are way too rough.”

We’re not sure how much Grampa and Nanny had to pay for the kids to be picked up by the school boat. They didn’t keep a record about that expense like Mr. Huff did.  Apparently CJ Mills had the contract to provide school transportation from 1926-1931 for $15 a month. Their teen-age daughter Ruth operated their boat named Midget. Sometimes her mom ran it.  Fuel cost in September 1927 was $1.24 a gallon.  I don’t know if the amount charged each of the families depended on how far they were from the school but if it was, the Thomsens would have had to pay the most.

In 1929, an Article 15 was added the Education chapter in the state Constitution that dealt with the transportation of pupils. It said the Board of Education would let a school board enter a contract for transportation to and from school for the kids who lived more than two miles from the school they were required to attend.  Going to school by boat was one added expense to the budget the Jacksons hadn’t planned for and there were a lot of days Grampa gave the Huffs fish when they were providing school transportation. Most impressive of all and obviously one of the best examples of the on-time transportation anyone could ever believe, boating students to the school was so effective for the Jackson students,  not one was ever tardy one day of the entire 1934 school year which lasted all the way to October 12th.

The Thomsen family lived on Biorka Island (the farthest away - about six miles to the west from the school) and Anna would have to row and anchor her skiff out a ways from the beach in front of where they lived to be picked up.  She told us there were a lot of days the water was pretty rough. One time it was so rough when she was waiting in the skiff, it capsized.  Her dad rescued her and she definitely didn’t go to school that day. Well, no kidding!  
 
Adolf Thomsen was the only one who bid for the school bus in 1932  and picked up all the other kids on March 28th on his way into Goddard. In 1934 Grampa and his brother Sig went over to Claude Huff and asked if he would take the kids to school. (Not sure why they didn’t think Mills should—maybe he was charging more ?) Claude said yes but it was going to be $5 a day more than last year.  (Really? $5 a DAY—no that can’t be right!) A week after school started on April 2nd, 1934, Sig hauled the children until Claude took over, after he had an exam for the contract on May 16th.

Don Huff wrote in his diary “took kids to school”, and it seems like there were quite a few days he had to because his dad had problems with the boat he ran. It was a 15 or 16 foot, steel, gas-powered boat which he bought from a Russian priest. Eleven times Anna stayed with the Huffs because the water was so rough they couldn’t take her home to Biorka.
 
School Bus Transportation Costs and Bus Drivers:
(From the Claude Huff Diary)
Contract with CJ Mills  1926-1931-- $15 per month  Fuel= $1.14/gallon
Operated by daughter Ruth
 
1927:
May 31st   Started taking Don Mills to school
July 12th   Paid $2.25 for hauling Don to school
August 16th paid $3 for hauling Don
 
1928:
July 21st  Paid CJ Mills $4.80 for hauling Don to school
Aug 21st  Paid Ruth Mills  $3.75
Sept 17th  Paid $2.65 for hauling Don 7 times
 
1929:  Huff-- $100 paid off in June
Claude November 13, 1929—got paid for last 2 months hauling to school
 
1930:  Put school route bid notices and take letters
 
March 18 1932:
Adolf Thomsen was the only one who bid for school bus in 1932 & picked up all the other kids on March 28th on his way into Goddard
 
April 13, 1933:  30 degree; hard storm; Thompsen school boat @ 9:30
 
1934:  Mills was going to take all the kids to school again
Claude said yes but will be $5 more a day than last year
(really, $5? A day?)
A week after school started on April 2nd Sig hauled the kids until Claude took over
 
May 16th 1934— Huff had a physical exam for school contract
May 28th—Fair Rough school run; picked up Anna Thompson at South Biorka Harbor
June 4th—Claude paid Mills $25 for first week of school run
June 22nd—surf bad—Claude had to get Anna off beach at Biorka
July 16th  Jackson hauled kids to school on Sea Star
July 24th—Huff driver into town for field trip in evening

MONTHLY REPORT CARDS
We have a few of Uncle George and my mom JoAnn’s Report cards:
First card was a 2nd grade in 1929 for Uncle George that shows he did really good and was promoted to Grade 3 when they finished in October; teacher Miss Julia McCaus signed. His first Report Card for Grade 1 in 1927, at the fancy school building described in the first section of this part of the story.  His first day of school was April 4th with a teacher named Ms. Smith. Even though he did get lots of excellent and very good evaluations in all industry and deportment, he didn’t get passed up to second grade. Obviously she thought his grammar should be better. So he just moved up to grade 1A.

Amazing that in Grade 1A, he didn’t have to take drawing; got three excellent and three  good and was still excellent in industry and deportment.  Industry probably included activities like woodworking, construction projects and trapping for guys and things like sewing, cooking and preserving food for girls.

Our Gramma, Nanny’s, # 1 priority, was the perfect attendance. They only counted ½ day of being absent and he only missed two the first year and three the second, most likely because of the weather.  Just to make sure he was evaluated correctly, Ms. Whitmore included a note on his grade 1A report card that “promotion was certain!”  Wow—maybe he took her cookies or a nice thank you card.

We don’t have all of Mom’s (JoAnn’s)  We also found out that “Deportment” probably meant things like behavior and hygiene because they said there was a big emphasis in Territorial Schools on promoting cleanliness.

Children were expected to be well groomed, wear clean clothes, and sometimes teachers would even inspect their homes. “We never did hear about that happening out here at Goddard.”  Wow! And Check this out—our Mom, JoAnn, was identified as Hannah. That was her name in the 1929 Census, and three years later when she was in the 5th grade at the Goddard School in 1932 that was her name,  and I think it was listed that way because that’s how folks said the Norwegian name- Yohawna.  

Next post: The Jackson Family Moves to Tava Island

Food
Berry picking back then and even today usually takes one person an average of an hour to pick one full container of the smaller berries.  Blue huckleberries tasted sweeter than the red ones and made the best pie you could ever imagine. In fact, that was the first choice all ages believed was the best birthday pie of all!
Sometimes in April, (usually in May) they would also find clusters of tight fiddlehead ferns they could pick early in the season.  It was one of their very favorite “natural veggies” that tasted really good when fried with butter and it was a great source of nutrients and high in iron.

After the first frost (usually early September), they picked high and low bush cranberries, crabapples, as well as currants. George always got away with just eating berries instead of picking them because his job was carrying the gun to protect everybody in case a bear came. Usually the berries were canned and if they had sugar, they made jelly or jam. JoAnn always said jars filled their shelves with all these beautiful glasses in different berry colors.  Awesome!

Today, organic veggies cost more because they are grown “naturally.” The veggies most of the fox farmers raised (potatoes, carrots, turnips, lettuce, radishes and peas) were planted in the spring. Nanny mixed potash with crushed shells, fish guts, dish water and coffee grounds to use as fertilizer. The kids liked to pick up a bunch of shells and smash them and they looked really pretty. She also used seaweed but it didn’t look as nice as the shells. Scrunching a bunch of it together and squeezing the little pockets of smelly water was an “old fashioned” squirt gun. We still use those today.  
   
Agricultural Professor Darren Snyder, at the University of Alaska in Juneau, said Nanny would have used shells or seaweed or both because “both shells and seaweed have important contributions to successful garden soils in Southeast Alaska.” Shells are calcium carbonate (same as bone) so they provide calcium but more importantly they are a great "liming" agent. Liming agents bring up the pH or "sweeten" the "sour" soils to the range that garden plants can uptake nutrients properly. Seaweed contributes Potassium and micronutrients as well as general good structure to the soil by way of it breaking down and being composted. It can also work well as a mulch on top of the soil to insulate perennials in the winter. Sounds scientific and impressive and Nanny (our Gramma Anna) wouldn’t have understood that language, but she did know it worked and that was what was important. 
 
A lot of food the family ate was canned but veggies like potatoes or onions were kept in a root cellar. They didn’t have a freezer for meat so they dried that and pickled it in a barrel. Fish was either dried and salted or canned and sometimes they burned alder to smoke some of it.  Seafood that was part of their everyday diet is outrageously expensive today, delicacies like halibut and salmon or crab. They would also catch a lot of red snapper and ling cod, which are other favorite fish to order as a “special” in a restaurant today, but back then, they used those for fox food.  When the tide went out really far they did get abalone and loved eating those fried.  For the first few years, every time they had a minus tide during the day, George and JoAnn would go out and dig clams.  When Gertie, Polly and Chris got old enough they would also help dig because Nanny’s great clam chowder was a huge part of their diet. She always made sure they had plenty of fiber.
 
The other main dish was venison (only 31 calories for one ounce) which was usually fixed into rullepolse. A round steak cut was beat to a pulp. Seasonings like salt, pepper, sage, and whatever else available were sprinkled over the meat.  Then a piece of pork was placed on top, rolled up as tight as possible, and held together with strings. After roasting for a couple of hours and cooling down it was sliced about ¼ inch thick.  It was a great way to make a smaller cut of venison feed a family of seven.
  
Nanny’s cousin in Kansas really wanted to come up and visit so he could hunt or fish and help feed the family. He wrote and asked if he did come to Alaska, would it be ok to bring his gun?  George explained “you have to pack it down and you are supposed to have a license for hunting which cost $50 for outsiders. Actually lots of people don’t have one.” The license for nonresidents covered them for hunting big game, small game, fur-bearing animal hunting and a trapping license.  The other thing he could do was get a non-resident small game hunting license for $10.

Officially deer season was open September 1st (from 1927-1929) while they lived on Legma and stayed open until the 30th of November.  They could kill three bucks with horns at least three inches in length above the top of the skull.  Today the islands are in Game Management Unit Four and it opens August 1st.  Until September 14th hunters can kill three bucks and if they don’t get three, starting September 15th they can kill either another buck or a doe up to a total of three deer, and closes on December 31st.

There are notes from records by other fox farmer who were here before our family came to live on Legma about hunting for and killing deer when it wasn’t open season. One guy who was hired to work on a fox farm was told to kill at least 20 deer for the fox farmer so he could put the meat up.  He also cut up the deer hides and fed them to his fox to help them with their digestion system. When a Game Warden visited the fox farm and searched their boat he found a hind quarter of a deer but he did not make an arrest.  That’s because when folks ran out of meat it was ok (not against the law) to kill a deer.

Realistically it is very hard to believe that our family with five kids, and the Mills family with six, could have lived on the limit of deer allowed back then.  Even if Grampa had hunted and taken a total of twelve (three each for himself, Nanny, George and JoAnn) during the three-month hunting season it wouldn’t have fed the family the entire year.  

Another dinner item they hunted was certain game birds. In one day, they could kill 25 duck (except elder duck) or 8 goose, and 20 snipe (yeah right J) September 1st to December 15th; they could keep these till Christmas day.  Better tasting birds they could kill included 15 grouse, 25 ptarmigan, or 8 goose from September 1 to February 28th, and they could keep these until March 10th. They could keep a total of both kinds as long as they didn’t have more than 75.  For certain folks goose was a real “special” holiday dinner.

One of the most important game animals they had to deal with were the bear. There was a limit of killing three large brown and grizzly during the season from September 1st to June 20th. If at any time the bear was about to attack or molest a person or property, or if one was found within a mile of their cabin, they could kill it at any time or place when it looked like it was going after (considered a menace) a person, livestock or property.  It was not a menu item for the family for sure but was included in the feed for the foxes. George always felt that CJ Mills was the most experienced and wise hunter he ever knew. Today, folks are only allowed one bear every four years, by permit, from March 15th to May 20th, or September 15th to December 31st.

Two times a year they ordered canned food from Seattle. Items like fruits that don’t grow in Alaska, like peaches or pears, were a real treat. There was also peanut butter and butter in brine along with lots of sacks of flour, sugar, beans, and coffee, which was one of the most important. The supply ship would come into Sitka, tie up at the Standard Oil Dock, and Grampa would go in town and pick up the order. This six-month supply of cases of cans would be stacked to create their walls. When the “walls” were gone, it was definitely time for another trip to town (Sitka) to pick up an order.

The 1929 Alaska Game Regs said a Native-born resident, Eskimo or half-breed who had not severed his tribal relations by adopting a civilized mode of living or exercising the right of franchise, and was a hunter or trapper, could sell the skins of fur bearing animals which he had lawfully taken without a license.  If somebody wanted to buy the fur for his own use he didn’t need a license either, but couldn’t sell it.  Anybody who did have a license could buy and sell the skins but they had to have it posted in an established place on premises where a game warden could check it out or everybody could see it. 

Fox farmers traded services and labor.  Grampa made deals quite a few times with the Huffs, the Millses, Thompsens, and the folks at the Goddard Resort. Money made when he sold fish, trees, or raising fox would help buy staples like flour, sugar or coffee.  They also needed money for fishing, to pay for fuel and parts to keep the boats running.  One of the largest expenses of course was fox and mink feed.  Several times they would run out of supplies before they got money for selling fresh fish or fox fur, and would have to use their “charge card” to purchase supplies from a supplier in Sitka.

Sometimes in the spring Grampa was fishing for salmon in Icy Straits. If he did really good and got lots of red king salmon (which sold for more than white kings), he would go into Juneau and buy a “special treat” at the Piggly Wiggly Store to bring home as a surprise. Polly remembers one time he brought some yellow marshmallow ducks for Easter- the first time they had ever seen anything like that. Gertie also remembers that when Grampa was back to making money and could pay off his “charge card” in town, he would celebrate by buying a Hershey bar which was so expensive that it was truly a very rare and “luxury” item. And oh yes, tasted so good!

Usually, every week or so, George and JoAnn rowed over to Goddard (a few miles from Legma Island, about 16 miles south of Sitka) to send letters, packages or pick up their mail & they always got special treats like a handful of fig bar cookies or other goodies.  If they happened to get stuck over there because of a storm, the folks at the hotel would “put us up and feed us breakfast!” George said, “and there was no doubt they treated us kids real good.”   

The Goddard hotel

Indeed the Goddards were very good hearted people who always helped fox farmers. If somebody had to get to town to pick up boat parts or go to the doctor, and couldn’t run their own boat or get a ride with someone else, Business Manager Carl Hills would give them a free ride on the old Edie M. He would also give the fox farmer a ride back from town on their mail boat for No Charge! (WOW!) 

When an order of groceries came in for the restaurant, the boat would go into the cove and pull up to the float that was right next to the bridge that went across to the island. Carl would drive the Hotel Model T down the hill and over to the float, load the groceries and drive back up the hill with all the “goodies” loaded into the hotel’s Ford truck.

In 1961, the Jacksons’ first grandson (actually Nanny’s favorite) Dickie was beachcombing out at Goddard and found the Model T covered under the remains of the Hotel.  He thought it was very cool and wanted to find out who owned it to see if he could buy it.  It was owned by the State of Alaska.  His boss, Mrs. Doucett, at the Pioneer Home, was in charge.  She offered to sell it to him and of course he got an awesome deal, just $6 (with the title)! His best buddy Fred Karl had a 14-foot skiff, and agreed to follow my brother Dick in his 17-foot skiff and haul it home in to Sitka.

So they picked a really nice day to run over to Goddard, and scheduled it so they got to the beach at a really low tide. Fred took the frame in his skiff, and loaded it upside down. The wheels were half in the water but it was balanced pretty good.  Dick loaded all the body parts, three engines, transmission and radiators in his boat.  When the tide came in, the water was almost flat calm (so nice) that it only took them three hours to get to the beach in front of Aunt Polly’s house on Halibut Point Road.

Note—Polly - the Jackson girl who was born out there on Legma Island - was very impressed.  In fact, all the folks who found out about them bringing it to Sitka were amazed. He worked two years repairing and renovating the vehicle and gave it to Polly’s son David (our cousin) as a wedding gift in 1972.

From all memories shared and diaries kept, the Jacksons didn’t go to town as often as other fox farmers. Other than going into town to have baby Chris and going to Glenn Mills’ funeral, we didn’t hear about Nanny taking any other town trips like going to parties or shopping at the mall.  Thank goodness there weren’t any serious injuries so they didn’t have to go into an emergency room to see a doctor or need a dentist to pull teeth.

Most likely some fox farmers and fisherman knew which island(s) was the best to buy moonshine from for special occasions.  Sometimes yacht passengers would spend a lot of time at the hotel and run out of their “liquid” supplies. Some of the fox farmers who were also running a distillery ordered grain they needed for feed and brown sugar because they thought that also made fur shinier.   One source of information said 550 pounds of food per year was how much each fox would eat. (Wow—that is a lot!)

 Liquor sales competitors included Scotty Jennings on Gornoi Island (George found some remains of a still there) and Charlie Pinkston, on Long Island, who was supposed to make the best moonshine in the country.   Claude Huff mentioned in his diary that on January 12th 1929 they chased an “odd acting boat” in the morning. Grampa told them it was Shorty Abrahamson who had been Boozing Heavily!  December 2nd the next year, they saw the Sunbeam of Seattle going by “so often”, they knew it was in bootleg business!

Carl Peterson, who operated the Legma Island fox farm before the Jacksons did, had already stored first aid remedies for fox so they had an awesome supply in the medicine cabinet which folks could use for themselves, too. The US Department of Agriculture put a bulletin together about Blue Fox Farming in Alaska in 1922. A veterinarian was sent for a Biological Survey to check out blue fox farms (particularly the ones on islands) with special attention to the matter of sanitation and disease.
 
Here is what and how much D.E. Buckingham (the vet) said you should have on hand for the fox you were raising:
One pound each of:

1. Boric acid to use as powder for open wounds, or dissolved in hot water for inflamed parts. 
2. Epsom salt: 1 teaspoon in half a glass of warm water to use as a laxative (really?) 
3. Peroxide of hydrogen (we know it as hydrogen peroxide)
4. Sulfur (powdered) which you can use with one part sulfur and 4 parts lard or other pure fatty base for skin disease and bald spots
5. Flaxseed: for warm antiseptic poultices for boils, abscesses and swollen feet- boil in water until it assumes consistency of a thick mush and apply while warm and moist.

  Four ounces of:

1.   Alum (dried) - used for light bleeding, added to boric acid 1 part to 4- makes a non-poisonous dusting or wound powder.
2.   Iodine- used in full strength just as for human cuts and wounds.

And eight ounces Lysol (1 to 2 %) disinfectant and antiseptic (follow directions on the bottle).

One of the most important items on Grampa’s list of “things to do” was file a Declaration of Intention with the US Department of Labor Naturalization Service saying he wanted to become a citizen.   Kristoffer Benjamin Knubedal, 32 years old with an occupation as a fox farmer, declared his personal description:
He was white with a medium complexion, 5 feet 9 ½ inches tall and weighed 174 pounds.  His hair was brown; eyes were grey and there was a scar at the bottom of his left thumb. 

He was born in Sokndal Norway on the 18th of November 1894, and emigrated from Vancouver B.C. on the Great Northern Railroad.  They had lived in New Westminster, B.C. and his wife Anna was also born at Sokndal, Norway and Sitka was their residency. 

It was his bona fide intention to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty and particularly to Haakon VII, Kind of Norway, “of whom I am now a subject.” He arrived at the port of Blaine in the state of Washington on or about the 17th day of September in 1926.  He swore that he was not an anarchist, polygamist or believer in the practice of polygamy and it was his intention in good faith to become a citizen of the United States of America and permanently reside therein: SO HELP ME GOD.   (Wow-impressive!) Sworn to James ? in the Office of the Clerk of the US District Court June 27th, 1927. This was required to keep while living in the US for at least five years in order to become a naturalized citizen. 

Two months later, in August of his first year as a fox farmer here, one of Grampa’s new friends C. Jay Mills who was in the same business over on Maid Island was generous enough to share a radio. When C.M. Cook opened this Sitka radio station he provided some “outstanding” service to his listeners as a “fellow fox farmer” and was also a radio builder. This was one of the best ways to hear about and focus on how to dedicate and prove his lifestyle and beliefs in his new country.  

We aren’t sure why Grampa decided to move the family over to Tava Island on March 29th in 1929. One very good reason could have been the opportunity to move into a much larger house. This was definitely an advantage since now, along with two older kids, they had two baby girls and were expecting another baby in a few months.  George and JoAnn would be starting school in a couple of weeks and would be very glad about not having to spend their “free time” feeding fox. The island was about ¼ mile farther away from the school but they were still on the bus route so there was no problem with that.

There could also have been some issues related to running the fox farm for Len Peterson that didn’t work out.  Maybe he was not satisfied with the way Grampa ran the fox farm or how he took care of the fur selection and sales. In the records we have found there are no reports or papers that show who ran the Legma farm from 1929 up to 1936 when Mills’ son-in-law Baggen became the operator.  In 1937 Grampa worked skinning fox, for $75, which Peterson had to pay before he could close his papers on the island.

Next: The Goddard School

Chris Jackson Family First Fox Farm on Legma Island (1927-1929)
 
In May, 1926, my grandfather left Norway as Kristoffer Knubedal, with wife Anna and children George and JoAnn. The next year, in March 1927, he left Juneau as Christ Jackson, with the addition of new daughter Gertie, and boarded the M.S. Northland for a ride to Sitka.  George was six and JoAnn was five, definitely going through a change of life just like their mom.

After spending a few days in town at Len Peterson’s house, it was time to be getting on the move. There was no messing around. Uncle Jacob’s (who was known as Happy) boat was loaded with all the trunks brought over from Norway. Some groceries and beer were also packed. Actually, it’s very doubtful there was any beer since the Bone Dry Law had been in effect for nine years, and even if they had known one of the “moonshiners,” it would have cost way too much. They definitely did not have extra money.  
 
So, everyone and everything was on board and they headed out to the Legma fox farm (16 miles south of Sitka) in weather folks figured was pretty normal in Southeast. The first part of the ride was in open seas. Usually, this time of the year there were always swells and it didn’t take much wind to create some rough choppy waves, plus, it was definitely cold. However, no matter what the weather was like, they needed to get out there because six-year-old George had to check in on the first day of school, April 4th.

George, JoAnn & Gertie, First Summer on Legma Island 1927
This was the first time Grampa had brought the family to move into this cabin and he knew he was going to need more room. His brother Ole was a good carpenter and had worked for Len Peterson, the guy who owned this fox farm lease. They got permission to add a master bedroom downstairs for Nanny and Grampa, and one for George and one for JoAnn and Gertie upstairs. That was a good thing because even though the cabin was still small, it had awesome views and was protected from storms.  Grampa was also provided a 35-foot gas boat, the FV Alpha, which they used to hunt, fish, travel around the islands to visit, work at other fox farms or go into Sitka for supplies or party. (I don’t think they could afford to go to parties.)
 
The cabin was on the northeast end of the island, which was the most protected place to anchor. As a boat turned into the cove, there was a deep channel so you could get to the beach without hitting the rocks.  The Natives who had lived on the island (before the Forest Service started leasing it for a fox farm) named it Legma. (Editor’s note – according to the Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, the Russians reported Legma as an Aleut word for calm. Hundreds of Unangan, Alutiik and other Alaska Native people from southwestern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, all called Aleut by the Russians, lived at Sitka in the Russian days.) That was their word for calm and after they did all the work to dig the channel, it always was calm near the beach.  However, you didn’t have to row very far to be in swells where it could be damn rough and no fun at all. 

Legma Island Fox Farm Forest Service Fox Farm History Bin 95-30
 
Obviously, Kristoffer and Anna had been pretty excited about finally moving to their new home, and had some “private time” to celebrate in Sitka before they left for the island. Exactly nine months later, on Christmas day, Anna (Polly) was born!   

Mrs. Greta Mills and her daughter Ruth, who lived about a quarter mile away on Maid Island, came over to help with Polly’s arrival. We can’t figure out why but for some reason even though the Mills ladies were the ones helping Nanny, it was Grampa who signed the certificate as the attendant (I guess guys are the only ones who could be “in charge”).  However, it doesn’t seem like he would have been the one assisting with the birth.  We’re sure he was happy about having a healthy baby but just a little disappointed that it wasn’t another boy who would be a fisherman or fox farmer or both.

The pipe that went from the cabin to the top of the hill had a good flow of water, and part of it is still there.  It was a very nice way to use a natural resource and here they had a faucet inside. The cabins they lived in on the other islands (Tava, Elevoi and Torsar) were built close enough to a stream so they wouldn’t have to fill and carry buckets too far. Like everybody else, they put a barrel at one corner right under the roof to catch rain water.  Nanny always covered them with cheesecloth to keep mosquitoes and ashes from flying into it. Then she could use the clean water to cook, or somebody would use it for a bath or they could just drink it.  Today folks have to pay a good price to wash their hair in pure rainwater or for a bottle of “pure” drinking water like the family got every day for free.

Nanny was a “rest equals energy” advocate.  During winter when days were short and it got dark about 6 pm the family would go to bed earlier to make sure they got a good night’s sleep.  They had electricity in the old country and no doubt there were some times in this new country that it was really missed. Instead of flipping a light switch, they burned an Aladdin kerosene oil lamp. This was the best light for the least cost. In the winter usually a gallon would last up to 2 ½ weeks.  Plus it was safe, didn’t smell, and was quiet.

JoAnn, Nanny holding Gertie, George & Polly (in the high chair)  Summer 1928
 
Apparently there was a store-bought wood stove in the cabin on Legma because when we visited the site in the fall of 2011, we found rusted parts. We couldn’t read the brand name but it was probably Sears.  Some of the fox farmers who built their own cabin saved some money by making a heater from a 50-gallon drum. They’d lay it on its side, fill it with gravel or sand, and put it into a metal frame.  Then they cut holes in the top for a stove pipe, another one on the end for a door and a little one below for the draft.  Scraps of the leftover metal would be used to make a knob.

One week in the fall, all the neighbors would work together to get their winter supply of wood. Jack Clausen on Torsar Island had rigged a winch so he could pull logs from the beach up to the wood shed, and Adolf Thomsen on Biorka had a wood cutting machine. 

Fox Farm cabins heated by wood stoves: Biorka Island August 1929
Adolf & daughter Ann Thomsen (Anna Baggen) on the wood cutting equipment designed by Adolf
 
Neither Gertie nor Cora Mills remembers their family having a power saw. After the trees were down, there had to be one of the guys on each end pushing and pulling the saw to cut a log the right length to fit in the stove.  Then they would have to take them up to the chopping block and cut them into quarters that would be the right width. Those pieces would be hauled, stacked and covered.  By the first week in September, they were set for keeping the cabin warm, almost always with a pot of coffee on the stove, and the oven was usually baking something (like bread in the empty coffee cans) which helped keep it nice and toasty.

Breakfast pastry along with coffee was one of the things young George missed a lot. Back in Norway he was able to have a cup every morning with his favorite Gramma. In this “new life” they usually ate rolled oats (called mush) with hotcakes, and prunes mixed in for regularity.  They ordered “economy scale” large sacks of oats and their dried prunes came from CJ Mills’ dad, who lived in Oregon. The order was usually for 200 pounds (about 9,000 prunes) for $12—a real deal!  And- even though it tasted real poopy, everybody took cod liver oil too because they needed vitamin D.

One of the best breakfast specials were the berries. As early as the 4th of March one year they saw the first huckleberry blossoms.  In July they would spend entire days picking red and blue huckleberries, blueberries, as well as salmon berries.

Next post: Legma continued: food, drink, citizenship and Goddard

Kristoffer, Anna, Gerhard & Johanne Knubedal - Our Grampa, Nanny, Uncle George and Mom (JoAnn) Jackson - Left Norway & Traveled for Alaska in 1926.

Any folks who traveled from one country to another with their spouse and/or children in those days were issued a “family passport.” Grampa was identified as a fox farmer; Anna as a housewife and there must have been an “under five” discount fare (free?) because even though Gerhard (Uncle George) was six and Johanne (my mom JoAnn) was four, their passbook and the passenger list say he was four and she was three years old. 
 
Obviously, they did need to save every dollar they could because Grampa had a huge stack of bills to pay and needed a lot more money to travel and settle into their new, targeted, unique island home. In an interview he had with Forest Service ladies Rachel Myron and Megan Pasternak, here’s some of what Uncle George said about his family moving to Alaska in 1926:
 
On May 12th, Kristoffer (Grampa), Anna (Nanny), Gerhard (our Uncle George) and Johanne (our mom JoAnn) left their home in Myssa which was a subdivision of Sokndal, the “big city” (with its administration center in Hauge i Dalane), on the southern end of Norway. They needed to get transported to Stavanger for their connection to Newcastle, England--a train that took about four hours and 40 minutes. From there they had to go about 124 more miles (about 2 hours and 53 minutes) to get to Liverpool, England. That’s where they boarded their “final connection” to reach Halifax in Nova Scotia.
 
The Canadian Immigration Service’s Passenger List on the SS Baltic II manifest lists Grampa as a farmer in Sokndal, Norway, who intended to be a fisherman when he got to Canada.

RMS BALTIC II  (White Star Line)
 
This ship they came over on could carry up to 2,875 passengers. There was room for 425 in First Class, 450 in Second Class and the rest were in Third Class, which is the one our family rode in. Six-year-old George was feeling very homesick and angry because he had to leave his best friend and favorite Gramma. Aunt Gertie remembers George describing the ocean trip and “accommodation” on the boat as not being very good—he said it was more like “steerage-crowded, noisy, and miserable—those were his descriptive words.” My mom JoAnn was also wishing she could have stayed home with her cousin Hjordes. She got lice in her hair and almost had to have a total shave. Anna (Nanny) was also homesick and pretty much constantly seasick because she was five months pregnant and her stomach was kind of “gentle.”
 
They also had to deal with one of the most important issues when traveling with two little ones- the availability of a potty. The description of the Baltic II said if a room didn’t have a private bath, there was a generous provision of conveniently located public bathrooms that were kept immaculate. Plus, if passengers wanted a bath, a steward or stewardess would make arrangements. Even though it was the lowest ticket price, Third Class looks pretty nice; it had a playroom for the kids and check out the dining room—where most of the passengers did end up taking their meals. The average table had seats for four to six people. The ship did have electric heat and lighting and if you wanted shoes cleaned and polished you could just leave them outside your door for pickup & they would be returned the next morning.
WOW! Impressive.

The Knubedals were on the May 15th, 1926 RMS Baltic Passenger list when they “moved” cross the world on this boat from England to Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada. They had to pay either $637 or $63 (can’t tell if it’s a check mark or a 7).  Seems reasonable to assume it was $637 because my Uncle George remembered his dad was always carrying a roll of bills that just happened to keep getting smaller.
 
Uncle George said, “We arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the eastern coast of Canada then we were going clear across Canada on a train and stay over on the Western Coast till we could uh, emigrate. It had something to do with the quota system on May 24th.  A lot of the other passengers on this ship were Englanders leaving their country because of the miners’ strike; most of them probably thinking they could get coal miner jobs in Canada or America.”
 
Grampa had gotten an ok for the family to stay with Mr. R.J. Verne, a friend who lived in Vancouver, British Columbia.  And one thing for sure is our Grampa had no intention of living there or anywhere else in Canada.
 
Even though it was May, they were going across the Rockies, which meant traveling in snow. He also had to pay for four trans-country tickets to the West Coast--- And incredible as it seems, this was 2,752 miles by train (more miles than they sailed to get across the ocean) to get over to Vancouver. They said this trip usually took about a week.
 
Today, certain of these westbound train trips from the colorful, lively Halifax on the east coast of this enormous country experience the best of cross-country Canadian travel. From this fishing village in Nova Scotia, through the history of French-speaking Quebec, across prairies and through the breath-taking beauty of the Canadian Rockies takes 16 days, and costs $7,719 per person, according to Canada Rails Vacation.
 
For the next few months, Kristoffer worked at a lumber mill. Every day they all learned more English (which actually turned out to be really helpful when they did get to America).  However, the more time they had to wait, the more they worried about spending all their money. Obviously they were going to need some when they got to the USA and up to Alaska.
 
One of the experiences (stories) they told about these trying times was when Anna was going to the market to buy some fresh salmon. She got in the “three items or less” line and didn’t think she had to look inside the wrapping before the fish was bagged. When she got home and discovered it was lingcod and she had paid twice the price for it, Grampa was pretty ticked off. 
 
He had been doing everything he could to make sure they weren’t spending more money than they had to so they would have enough to get up to Alaska.  He definitely didn’t appreciate anyone taking advantage of their situation. So, he went to the “return” manager at the market and asked for his money back or twice the amount of fish he had paid for!
 
It was about four months after living in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada when the family was allowed to cross the border into America, at Blaine, Washington, on the 14th of September 1926. Three days later, after settling into a hotel room, Nanny went into labor. George and JoAnn remembered being very scared because they were left in such a “strange” place all by themselves.
 
Well, Grampa did have to get Nanny to this hospital and sure enough Grethe (Aunt Gertie), arrived on the 18th - so she was their first child born in America!  Nice!

St. Luke’s in Bellingham Washington
 
AND, these “other two” were very happy when their mom and dad came back the next morning with their new baby sister.
 
The Alaska-Juneau (AJ) Mine was a big camp about 1½ miles east of Juneau with a bunk house and mess hall. There were cabins, a post office and even a school.  There were about 600 workers and right then it was the main economic engine for Juneau. It wasn’t until 1944 that it was declared a “nonessential wartime activity” and closed.
 
Grampa was able to find and rent an apartment located above the funeral parlor and JoAnn (mom) remembered it was very very cold. Over a funeral parlor? Not surprisingly, staying in Juneau throughout the winter, and working in the Alaska-Juneau (AJ) Mine, most likely it was.  He probably stayed out there at the mine while he was on shift which was definitely ok because most likely the apartment they were renting was pretty crowded.

To be continued: Part 2: The Chris Jackson Family on Legma Island