Daily Sitka Sentinel from Sitka, Alaska • Page 3

News Notes from Sitka's Past: EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one of a continuing series on early-day Sitka by Alaska historian Robert DeArmond. BY ROBERT N. DeARMOND weekly newspaper, The Alaskan, reported these events during February and March, 1891: --The Pacific Coast Steamship will bring up Sitka's fire engine and ladder trucfc at half the usual rate, according to word received by Edward deGroff, the local agent. --Collector of Customs Max Pracht has received notice from the Internal Revenue Department that it has decided (o start collecting the special tax due the United States from saloonkeepers in Alaska. Despite this decision, it is pointed out, under the provisions of the Organic Act sales of alcohol may be made only for medicinal, mechanical and scientific purposes! --The new appointees to the local School Committee are N.

R. Peckinpaugh, John G. Brady and Edward deGroff. --A second son was bom to Mr. and Mrs.

John G. Brady on Thursday, February 19. He has been named Hugh P. Brady. --The Bartlett Salmon Packing Company of Bartlett Cove in Glacier Bay and its tug boat, the Chinook, have been sold by A.

B. Ford to Williams Brown. The Chinook was built at Astoria and was used at the cannery last season. --The new "Shepard Hospital" for boys at the Mission is now open and the first patient is William Bailey. The matron and nurse, Tillie Paul, has quarters in the building, and it is also the temporary residence of Dr.

Clarence Thwing. The kitchen and wards with eight beds are also on the first floor. The second story of the building is still unfinished. The building is named for Mrs. Elliott F.

Shepard of New York who provided a large part of the construction funds and most of the furnishings. Mrs. Shepard has also defrayed the expenses of a number of young Tlingit women at Eastern schools. --The schooner Adventure, Captain J. D.

McDonald, returned to Sitka on February 22. She left here on October 10 with a load of lumber for the Swedish Mission at Yakutat. She left that port on New Year's Day, with James McKean as crew, to return to Sitka but ran into a series of gales and was driven northward. Captain McDonald attempted to get to the salmon cannery on Kayak Island but was unable to do so and ran for Kodiak because they were out of fresh water. There was no drinking water for the last five days before they arrived at Kodiak.

The schooner remained there for three weeks. McKean left and was replaced by Peter Malone, who has been at Kodiak for the past two and a half years. The weather finally became favorable and the Adventure sailed from Kodiak to Sitka in six days. The schooner has now been chartered to take a load of supplies to the trading post owned by the Messrs. Mills at Yakutat W.

P. Mills will make the trip. --The last steamer brought word of the marriage of Miss Clara Gould and W. D. McLeod at Howkan.

She is the sister of J. Loomis Gould, the Presbyterian missionary at Howkan and came there in 1882 to teach school. McLeod, a machinist, came from New York a few years ago to install and operate the sawmill that had been furnished for the mission by a New York woman, Mrs. J. M.

Ham. In 1880 Dr. Sheldon Jackson named Ham Cove, near Howkan, for Mrs. Ham, who had long supported Presbyterian mission work. --The old Russian sawmill, now owned by Theodore Haltera, has been rented for the coming summer by Stephen A.

Gee and William Lee. They are ready to start cutting their raft of logs which contains an estimated 75,000 board feet. --J. C. Clement ships a thousand pounds of fish to Juneau every month.

He catches them with set lines which have from 25 to 150 hooks, depending upon the area being fished. --The Tlingit known as Dick the Dude has had a large house built in the village by James M. Shields. It measures 30 by 40 feet and has four rooms on each its two floors. In 1879 Dick shipped aboard the Jamestown and remained with her until she sailed away in August, 1881.

Since then he Aleutian Goose Said On Way to Recovery Alaska (AP) -The U.S. Fish Wildlife Service in Alaska is recommending the Aleutian Canada goose be removed, fronii.the endangered species list, its population has improved significantly, afterdacing-extinction 20 years ago. The agency's regional director, Walter Stieglitz, signed a recommendation that the goose be moved from the "endangered" classification to the less critical category of "threatened." The reclassificau'on proposal has been sent to the Fish Wildlife Service headquarters in Washington, where a decision could take a year. "The return of this tough little goose could be the best wildlife news for Alaska this year," Su'eglitz said. "This has been one of our most rewarding programs." iThe Aleutian Canada goose, a white-cheeked, pale-breasted bird about the size of a large mallard, was placed on the endangered species list 1967 when there were fewer than 800 of the geese.

Their known breeding area was Buldir Island, in the west end of the Aleutian Islands. Their wintering grounds were unknown. Surveys show that the population now exceeds 5,800, that nesting occurs on six islands within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and that the birds go to California for the winter; Nesting sites include islands south of the Alaska Peninsula as well as some in the Aleutian chain. "A lot of people are just sort of ho -hum about but these birds in the Aleutians are unique not only for (heir small size but because they've chosen the breeding habitat that they have," said Mike Amaral, an endan- I gered species specialist for the Fish Wildlife Service. The birds nest on steep slopes.

-They go from "tolal wilderness in their.breedingJiabitat-to. a'very meslic, or manipulated, habitat iii winter" when they reach California, he said. Efforts to rebuild the population involved killing arctic foxes descended from those introduced to the Aleutians in the early 1900s for fur enterprises. The Aleutian Canada geese on Ihe islands became easy prey for the foxes. Biologists working in the recovery program began moving some geese from Buldir, left uninhabited by the foxes-because of its isola-- tion and lack of a harbor, to other islands that were made fox-free.

Geese raised in captivity also were released on selected islands. Protection measures were instituted in key migration and wintering areas. Reclassification of the Aleutian Canada goose would continue to provide the bird with protections under the Endangered Species Act. "A recovery program will be continued until this species has recovered enough that it will not be considered endangered or threatened," Stieglitz said. "The service intends to continue efforts to remove introduced arctic fox from former nesting islands and reintroduce wild geese to fox-free islands." Sitka Hospital Savpnen was admitted to Sitka Community Hospital Wednesday.

Woodcut by Dale N. DcArmond has engaged in trading among the villages and since 1882 he has worked each summer in the mines at Silver Bow Basin, near Juneau. He saved his money for this building and a potlatch which lasted four days and reportedly cost a thousand dollars. --At the meeting of the Alaskan Society of Natural History and Ethnology, held Monday evening, March 9, Fred E. Frobese laid before the members a plan for exploring the interior of Baranof Island during the coming summer.

The proposed route would travel northeast from Silka to Chatham Strait, ihen south to Ihe head of Whale Bay, and relum to Sitka via Ihe eastern side of Redoubt Lake and Silver Bay. A beautiful lake, surrounded by hot springs and a geyser, is said to lie inside the mountain ranges, near the center of the island. --An exhibition of his water colors was shown for Sitka residents by T. J. Richardson at the home of Dr.

and Mrs. Briggs. Mi'. Richardson, who has charge of the art department of Minneapolis Public Schools, has spent four summers in Alaska and has painted many Alaska scenes. Mrs.

Richardson is wilh him. --The mail steamer City of Topeka brought news of the passage into law of the bill extending the townsite laws to Alaska and legalizing the purchase of timber lands for commercial purposes. Captain James Carroll, Alaska's unofficial delegate to Congress, also writes that he has succeeded in having all prosecutions for timber cutting in Alaska dismissed. And he has induced (he Post Office authorities to advertise for mail service between Sitka and Unalaska. Well done, Captain Carroll! --The schooner Active was brought into port on March 14 by Robert E.

Dixon who reported the loss of die owner, Captain William Murphy, and Charles Ward at Murphy Cove, northwest of Cape Spencer. The Active left here on December 5 for Yakutat and ran inlo heavy wealher. She anchored in Murphy Cove on December 30 and stayed there while gale after gale coast. One night Ihe skiff, fast astern, filled wilh water, causing the oars to float out. Murphy and Ward bailed out the skiff' and went in search of the oars, using wooden -shovels as paddles.

They, rounted i eritrance poim, and, were, not -seen again. The day Dixon beached the Active and began a search of die shore for some distance in each direction from die cove but found no sign of die missing men. He finally managed to get the. Active afloat again and on February 28 sailed for Silka. He slopped at Idaho Inlet and Hoonah on the way here.

--On Wednesday two large canoes decked with American flags arrived from the villages in and around Taku Inlet. Their mission was not a joyful one and their arrival threw members of Sitka's Kak-si-ti tribe into a stale of great excitement. It appears that 14 years ago several Takus and Kik-si-tis met at Wrangell and indulged in a Hoochinoo tee-hee and as a result one Sitkan was killed and one Taku severely wounded although in time he recovered. The Takus paid the Silkas 65 blankets for the death. Now the Taku man has died and it is claimed he would still be living had he not been wounded.

The Takus want the 65 blankets back. Governor Knapp sent George Kostrometinoff to try to setde the matter and he ruled that no payment need be made. After some lengthy pow-wows, 60 blankets were paid to the Takus; 5 were retained because a Sitka man had also been wounded. It is understood the 60 blankets paid to the Takus were the identical ones received from them 14 years ago. After it was settled all hands took part in a big dance in the Ranche.

Behrends Bank Sale Approved JUNEAU (AP) Directors of B.M. Behrends Bank and Key Bank of Alaska have formally approved Key Bank's proposed purchase of the slate's oldest bank. The purchase of Behrends'still must be approved by Behrends shareholders and slale and federal regulatory agencies. Completion of Ihe transaction is cxpccled by year's end. Key Bank's proposed purchase was announced in April.

Under the proposal, all branches and staff of Behrends will be retained under the name of Key Bank of Alaska. No purchase price has been disclosed. Slaying Victim's Safe is Found JUNEAU (AP) A safe stolen from an elderly man who was shot to death in his home late last year recently was found dumped at the end of a rural road, police announced this week. The body of Harold Gallanl, 73, was found Dec. 30.

His safe, containing at least $10,000 in cash and odier valuables, was slolen, police said. Passersby found the 600-pound safe at the end of a road last month. It had pried open, and police found a few coins and papers belonging to Gallant scallered about die sile, Chief Michael Gelslon said. Mosl of the rare and expensive coins believed to have been stored in the safe remain missing. There have been no arrests in Ihe case.

Gallant mistrusted banks and kept his money and other valuables in the safe in his bedroom closet, police said. Two Killed MCGRATH (AP) A Fourth of July murder-suicide left two people dead in McGrath, the Alaska Stale Troopers reported Wednesday. Sgt. John Glass of Ihe Belhel detachment said the bodies of William Anderson, 28, and Shelley Gregory, 18, were found after Anderson's neighbors reported hearing a gunshot early Tuesday. Glass said Anderson died of a self- inflicted gunshot wound.

He said the cause of Gregory's death's was undetermined, and (he body bore no obvious wounds. He said both bodies will be sent lo Anchorage for aulopsies. Fisherman Dies DUTCH HARBOR (AP) A man from Friday Harbor, was killed Monday night while working on a fishing boal in Ihe Bering Sea, Ihe Alaska Slale Troopers say. Larry T. Roc, 30, was pulling nets aboard the Arctic One when he was caught in a winch and crushed, troopers said.

The vessel was fishing near Cold Bay when the accident occurred about 8 p.m. Monday, authorities said. Advisory Meets Members of the Sitka State Parks Advisory Board will meet 7:30 a.m. Tuesday in die Swan Lake Senior Center. Agenda items will include a report and discussion on the status of current projects.

Daily Sitka Sentinel, Sitka, Alaska, Thursday, July 6,1989, Page 3 Mom of Missing Boy Faces Cut in Welfare ANCHORAGE (AP) A woman whose son vanished from the area of the family's Kashwitna River home two months ago has been told her welfare benefits will diminish because she's caring for one less child. Linda Borer has spent most of the last two months tying to locate 8-year-old David, who disappeared in late April after he went to play by the frozen river. Meanwhile, the bureaucratic wheels have continued turning in the agency that channels the state and federal aid for the Willow woman and her five children. Last week, the Alaska Department of Social Services notified Borer her benefits would be cut because David no longer is in die house. It also Was mentioned that community donations to fund Borer's search for the boy might be subtracted from her income.

The news added one more wony to Borer's load. "I'm having a very hard lime keeping everything together," she said. "I want my son back just don't give me any more roadblocks. They're punishing me for something I could not control." The people who sent Borer the letter said they feel badly about the action, but they added the federal regulations under which they operate don't make allowances for missing children. "We're getting heartaches, too" said Barbara Howard, manager of the Public Assistance office in Wasilla.

"Our hands are tied." The staff added a line to the end of the form letler the office mailed to Borer. "Please let us know when he returns," the note read. "Our prayers, are with you." The Department of Social Services has asked federal regulators of the Aid to Families With Dependent Children and food stamp programs to determine whether special consideration can be given Borer's situation. As things stand now, the only time Aid to Families with Dependent Chil- dren can continue while a child is. gone is when that child is in the hospital.

Howard said Borer's situation isn't too different because a home for David is being maintained and: his mother expects him to return. Howard said she didn't know how donations for Ihe search would affect Borer's benefits. The administrator said she intended to interview Borer about her access to the money. Borer's new monthly welfare pay-. ments total $979, compared to $1,079 previously.

She now qualifies for $267 in food stamps instead of the. $280 provided before David's disappearance. Borer became a user of the welfare: system three years ago when she left her husband. The two are in a custody battle over their four children and still, are in the process of divorcing. Borer's 21-month-old son is from a later- union.

Expenses have not dropped since David's disappearnce. Borer's rent still is $275 per month. She also has the cost of trips to Anchorage, where she assembles information mailed to points in Alaska, other states and Canada as part of the effort to find the boy. No solid clues have turned up since David vanished. The night of his disappearance, Alaska State Troopers conducted air and ground searches, including the use of a trained dog, but found no trace of the child on land or on the river ice, which was open at the center of the channel.

Lawsuit Accuses Counselor of Trying to Recruit a New Wife HAMILTON, Mont. (AP) The parents of a Corvallis lecn-agcr allegedly groomed by a school counselor to become one of his wives in a polygamous family have sued the counselor and the Corvallis School District. David and Linda Seed, the parents of 18-year-old Caraway Seed, say that former Corvallis school counselor Stephen Rundquist tried to indoctrinate Caraway with his fundamentalist Mormon views on religion and sex. Rundquist, who has since moved to Alaska, has denied (lie works.jn Tok as a school counselor. The lawsuit filed Thursday in state district court at Hamilton seeks actual and punitive damages from Rundquist and the school district, which the suit says was negligent in hiring Rundquist.

"When trust your kids to teachers and they subvert that trust to their own ends, that's outrageous behavior," said James Haynes, the Seeds' attorney. The Seeds said Rundquist began indoctrinating their daughter while she was in the eighth grade, and that those efforts continued after he moved to Alaska and into mid-1987. Since then, the Seeds have hired an "exit counselor," or deprograinmcr, to persuade their daughter that Rundquist was not acting in her best interest, the parents said. Caraway Seed, a National Merit scholar in high school, has been awarded a full scholarship to Harvard College and plans to attend the school beginning this fall, her family said. Many of the lawsuit's complaints are based on a cache of tapes and letters Rundquist and women alleged to be his wives sent to Caraway Seed.

The suit said the tapes and letters prove that Rundquist was trying to seduce Caraway into becoming one of hi? several In interviews newspaper ih 'recqhb 'months), Rundquist denied he is a polygamist or that he to persuade Caraway into joining his family. In the tapes, Rundquist engaged in lengthy discussions about sex and urged Caraway to leave her parents' home and attend either a Mormon college or one in Alaska near Rundquist, the Missoulian reported. "Rundquisl's wrongful acts, surreptitiously grooming Caraway Seed while a minor to become one of his wives, constitutes extreme and outrageous conduct which went beyond all possible bounds of decency and must be regarded as intolerable in a civilized community," the lawsuit said. Canadian Wants to Pressure Oil Industry on Spill Safety NANA1MO, British Columbia (AP) Consumers should boycott oil companies such as Exxon to persuade them to implement safeguards against oil spills, a public forum was told Tuesday night. "Their present cavalier atliludes towards Ihe environment are no longer tolerated," said Wayne Harling, a spokesman for the Vancouver Island region of the British Columbia Wildlife Federation.

"What is lacking is the political or i a i Fri, July 7 to Tues, July 11 7 nightly Brought to you by Sitka News Bureau, All-Alaska Logging Championship Committee and Alaska Pulp Corp. corporate will to implement improvements," he told about 30 people at the meeting. "Politicians have done virtually naming lo protect (he environment" Harling was one of Ihree people who made presenlations lo David Anderson. Premier Bill Vander Zalm appoinl- ed Anderson oil spill adviser in May on a six-monlh contract after Ihe spill of bunker oil from a barge off Grays Harbor, and Ihe Exxon Valdez spill of crude oil March 24 in Alaska. Anderson is to compile a report on preventing and responding to oil spills.

He told the meeting he believes thai if a spill affecting Ihe British Columbia coast occurs again, federal and provincial government would respond faster tiian they did lo Ihe Grays Harbor spill. Soldier Dies FAIRBANKS (AP) An Eielson Air Force Base airman was killed and another seriously injured when the pickup Iruck diey were riding in overturned on the military reservation. The accident occurred late Saturday, authorities said. The dead man was identified as Airman 1st Class Jeffrey L. Lowry of Minden, La.

Investigators said he was driving the pickup truck. He was thrown from the vehicle. Child Drowns FAIRBANKS (AP) A 4-year-old child apparently drowned in Honolulu Creek off the Parks Highway on Sunday, the Alaska State Troopers reported. Troopers said searchers using a boat found the body of Ederardo Balderas HI after he was reported missing. Moose Lodge oooooo Thursday Dinner: Sukiyakiby Louie Howard Saturday: WOTM Officers meet at 2 p.m.

Monday: Lodge Officers meet at 7:30 p.m. Steak Dinners salad bar Sunday: Tacos Burgers Thursday-Sunday: Music by the Timber Tramps Moose Cruise July Moose members Invited guests only..