We arrived in the Easter season. We were assigned the Doane Cottage, which was the one overseen by Bill Stone and his wife. With our arrival, he and his wife and girls occupied the cottage reserved for the superintendent and his family. My duties as house parent at Doane Cottage included all the upkeep of the three mission cottages in Kodiak, the cottage in Ouzinkie on Spruce Island, and the cattle on Woody Island across the passage from Kodiak. We had a herd of twenty-five head of Hereford cattle. In the fall the men of the mission and the older boys would herd the cattle into the corral and separate the cattle to be slaughtered. We would kill at least four of the beef. We would return to the mission and cut the carcasses to usable sizes and store it in our large walk-in freezer. Each cottage had a portion of the freezer assigned so they could go and get whatever they wished. We also fished on Spruce Island for the winter supply of salmon.
One time when we fished we could not understand why it was so hard to pull the net to shore. Usually the salmon kept away from the net as it came in. This time it was different. As we pulled we saw that what we had was not only salmon, but a large halibut. It was against the net trying to escape. When we weighed it, it was over eighty pounds.
Besides cows we had two horses. The pilot of the Kodiak Airways had the two horses which he offered to Bill Stone for fifty dollars a piece. Bill wanted only one, so he offered me the other one. My horse was named Delilah and Bill’s was named Jezebel. The horses were sisters and were inseparable. Once I went riding alone in the woods behind the mission. When I got about fifteen minutes away, Delilah decided she had enough. She stopped and reared and threw me off, then took off for home. When I got back to the barn, there she stood with the saddle hanging under her stomach. Somehow she managed to loosen the saddle so it hung on. That was the only time she did anything like that.
We kept about fifty chickens on the ground. Leo Brownfield, a boy about fifteen years old was assigned to care for them. He had to feed, water, and collect the eggs each day and then distribute the eggs among the three cottages. About every two weeks he had to clean the manure out of the house and had to put dry hay on the floor.
We had a complete woodworking shop with machines donated by Mr Frank McConagly from Seattle, WA, a deacon in the First Baptist Church in Seattle. He was the superintendent of the Salmon Cannery in Kodiak. It was my job to set up the different machines. He had given the following: table saw, band saw, jointer, drill press, work benches, clamps, several each of saws, hammers, chisels, glue, nails, screws, and screw drivers, etc.. After I set up the shop I had the older boys to work with me. We repaired the several boats we had and I built two new ones. We had a fishing net about two hundred feet long which needed yearly attention. One year the boys and I painted the outside of the three cottages. We cared for and repaired the furnaces and cleaned them each year. Each year one or two of the older boys went to Ouzinkie to do any repairs that we needed there. One year we put new kitchen cabinets in at the Ouzinkie facility. We helped Norman Smith with the mission boat “Evangel”, caulking and painting and replacing planks. Through all these activities the boys where able to learn many things working in the shop.
Rev. John Molletti had arrived a few weeks before Ruth and I. John and Dorothy and three children had come from Colorado. John had his seminary training at the Eastern Baptist Seminary in Philadelphia, PA, and returned to Eastern after he left Kodiak Baptist Church to get his doctorate degree. Ruth gave birth the Ellen while Molletti was still in Kodiak. At that time, Ruth became ill and was hospitalized in Sedro Wooley, Washington. It was Dorothy Molletti who offered to care for Ellen, our newborn child. After we had returned to New Jersey, I went to Philadephia on the occasion of John receiving his degree. It was good to see my friends again.
After we left Alaska, John Molletti accepted a pastorate in Anchorage, where I also believe Bill Stone and his wife retired too. When we returned from Sedro Wooley to the mission, Dr. Johnson, our physician, advised us that he thought it best for us to return east to be near our families. He also told us that he thought it best that I should not accept a pastorate for it may be too stressful for Ruth. Upon our return in the fall of 1956, we thought it best to follow Dr. Johnson’s advice.
* The featured image for this post is a painting Stephen did of “The Three Sisters”, as viewed from Doane Cottage where he and Ruth were the house parents.
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