Nay'dina'aa
Na'
CHICKALOON, ALASKA
Athabascan Nation
(population in 2011: 270)
Information
extracted by Coleen Mielke 2005-2012
It is obvious that the census takers were
using phonetic spellings for the following census records (use your imagination)
**Letter dated 1/29/1945
by Dr. Hoehn, titled: Valley Native Families
1. Eli and Mrs. Howard live in Palmer and I believe they are Eskimo's. He is 29 years old and she is about 26. Mr. Howard works for the Alaska Road Commission. They are self supporting, keep a nice home and are very desirable people.
2.Mrs. Olga (Grandma) Ezi, the mother and grandmother of all of the Ezi's around here and Eklutna, lives at Matanuska. She is very old - probably about 70. I do not know very much about her.
3. Bobby Prince of Matanuska is about 28 years old and works for the railroad.
4. Mr. and Mrs. Charlie (her name is Gravia) Roussau live at Matanuska and he works for the railroad now and then. She had a baby on 4/5/1944 and has been in to see me several times.
5. Johnny Toughluck living at Caswell is married to a Native woman who already had several children. The seven year old child is not able to walk or talk.
6. Joe Chilligan of Houston has two children by his first wife who are not at Eklutna. He is married to a Stephan girl and they had a child born in the summer of 1943.
7. Mr. & Mrs. Ruf Stephan, the parents of a large family of children whom I shall refer to several times in this letter as the Stephans. He works for the railroad in the summer time. The only girl left at home is Doris age 14. The daughter Jessie age 6 is at the El Nathan Home in Valdez.
8. Theodore Wasilla, age 72, lives about four miles from Wasilla on the Knik Road. His wife Katie (Stephan) Theodore is 24. They have three children.
9. Nick Stephan (Ruf's brother) lives at Knik and has a large family of children. One of the girls, Madrona, age 12 is living with the Jack Larsen family. I think that the rest of the children are living at Knik. Nick is about 40 and his wife Dalia is about 35. Nick used to work on the railroad but has not been well for about 3-4 years.
10. Mr. & Mrs. Bailey Theodore also live at Knik. They have about six children. They seem to be quite nice people and I think they take care of themselves very well.
11.Mr. & Mrs. Shaginoff and their three children live at Chickaloon. The oldest boy, Paul Goodlataw is in the Palmer hospital. John works for the A.R.C. and keeps quite a good house.
12. The Jack Corey family live on the highway near Chickaloon. Jack is a white man and makes his living hunting and trapping as well as acting as a guide. He is sort of a foster father to all the abandoned Native children in the district. I don't know how many children they have but probably there are eight or ten. I don't know how many of these children are Jack's but I do know that the oldest two were her children before Jack married her, and I believe the next three are his own. However, I think the others are foster children - some of them Harrison or Wickersham children, the younger brothers and sisters of the Louis Harrison that you have at Eklutna.
13. Mrs. Wickersham married Mr. Harrison and she had a large number of children. She is now deceased and the little children were taken by the Corey family and I think they are still there. There are four Wickersham girls between the age of 25-30. Three of them as far as I know are very nice girls and have married and are keeping good homes. One is Mrs. Jack (Helen) Larson. They have four children and live at Buffalo Coal Mine where Jack works. Helen was in the hospital for several months. Jack is a full Native and they keep a good home.
14. Mrs. Jack Wade, a sister, is married to a white man who works at Buffalo Coal Mine. They have one child with another due in a few months. Their boys name is Lawrence. They keep a good home.
15. Another married Wickersham girl lives in Anchorage but I do not know her name. I have heard that they are nice people.
16. The fourth Wickersham girl is married to a man in the Marines. I do not recall her name at present time. She lives in Anchorage also.
17. At Sutton about 20 miles on the Glenn Highway from Palmer lives old Mr. Stickman. He is almost totally blind and is helped by his 14 year old dwarfed son.
18. Near Jack Corey lives an old Native, Frank Nicolai, who is about 70 years old.
19. Mr. and Mrs. Pete (Annie Stump) Stephan live at Montana Creek. He is 30 years old and she is 18. They have one child, a boy age 6 months. He works for the railroad and they paid their own hospital bill.
20.
Bill and Lucy Ezi live at Montana Creek. She is 32 years old and
he is about 40. I believe they have 5 children.
Anchorage Times: 3/1/1921 page 5
Dr. J.B. Beeson
reports the death this morning of a Native woman known as "Chickaloon
Mary". The deceased has been an inmate of the government
hospital for two months. Death was due to consumption.
Frank
Nickolai, born about 1882 in the Copper River area and his wife Mary
Balasculya Stickman, born about 1880 in the Chistochina area had three
daughters and two sons according to the 1920 U.S. Census for Chickaloon.
In the Shem Pete's Alaska book, Frank and wife Mary are described as
very hard workers, spending the summers in the Talkeetna Mountains, harvesting
(meat and hides) from caribou, moose, goat and berries which they dried
and stashed in various caches they built on Boulder Creek. When winter
came, the Nickolai's would sled their cached food down to Chickaloon
where the family lived. Frank Nickolai died in 1945 in Seward, his wife
Mary Balasculya died pre-1940 in Chickaloon.
Present
day Chickaloon Village Chief Gary Harrison is the great grandson of Frank
and Balasculya Nickolai.
1.MARY NICKOLAI(born 1902 died 1983) (oldest
daughter of Frank and Mary Nickolai)
She
married:John Goodlataw (he died about 1936)
Children:
Paul Joseph Goodlataw born about 1926
She
married (1938): John Shaginoff born 1909 Hughes Creeks (son of John
Shaginoff and Mary Tyone)
Children:
Burt Shaginoff
Don Shaginoff
Jim Shaginoff
Lloyd Shaginoff
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2.OLGA
NICKOLAI (born 1903 died 1954) (second daughter of Frank
and Mary Nickolai)
Married Jack J. Corey
I've been
told that Olga had 2 or 3 children when she married Jack and then they had
7 children together. On the 1940 US Census for Chickaloon, ther were
3 children in the home:
Herbert Corey born about 1931
Elsie Corey born about 1933
Danny Corey born about 1939
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3.ANNIE NICKOLAI(born 1905 died 1975) (third daughter of Frank and Mary Nickolai)
Her
first Husband: Jess Wickersham (1883-1924) (see story below)
Children:
*Katherine "Katy" Wickersham 1922-2009
*Helen Wickersham 1922? - 1999
married: Jack E.Larson 5 children: Robert
and Ronald (twins) Alan, Alvin and Janet.
*Jessica Belle Wickersham 1925-1966 married John Barr
in Oregon
Her
second Husband: Lee Harrison born 1873 in Minnesota died ____.
Children:
*Angeline Harrison born about 1927 married _____
Stevig
*Louis Raymond Harrison (1931-1969) married Reta
Hubbard
*Shirley Harrison born about 1934 married __________
Sorenson
*Albert Harrison born about 1936 married __________
*Annabell Harrison born about 1938 married _________
*Harold? Harrison born about 1940 married _________
Other
Children of Annie Nickolai??:
*Norman Oleson
*Harold Oleson
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.Niketa
Pete Nickolai born about 1908 (4th child of Frank
and Mary Nickolai)
5.Hecky
Nickolai born about 1915 (5th child of Frank
and Mary Nickolai)
This is a summerization of
an Anchorage Times newspaper article, dated 8/18/1924. It describes the death
of 48 year old Jess C. Wickersham, first husband of Annie Nickolai. It tells
the story of how his common-law Native wife, killed him, in self defence while
at a cabin, two miles above Chickaloon, on the Chickaloon River.
The article says that the woman reported that she had been originally attacked by Mr. Wickersham on July 4th. She told him at that time she would not allow him to beat her again. On August 16, Mr. Wickersham, who was drunk, started to attack the woman with a sheaf knife. After being cut on her hands, she shot her husband with a .32 Savage automatic three times. One shot grazed the left side of his head, the second shot entered the neck and lodged in his spine and the third shot entered his hip. Lee Harrison contacted the Deputy Marshal, Frank Hoffman, and told him of the shooting.
A coroners jury produced a verdict saying that Jess Wickersham had been killed by gunshot wounds at the hands of his common-law wife. The body was taken to Chickaloon and placed on the railroad speeder car and sent to Anchorage. The Marshall found a still at the cabin that was not in use, as well as four gallons of moonshine, both were destroyed immediately.
The newspaper article gives a brief description of Jess Wickersham. He was reportedly well known in Anchorage and the surrounding territory and was a veteran of the Spanish American War and had wealthy relatives in Arkansas. He was survived by his common law wife and their three children, the oldest one being 2 and the youngest being 6 months.
The
Native woman was arrested and brought to Anchorage and lodged in the
federal jail, along with her youngest child; she was to face a grand
jury for the shooting. Jess C. Wickersham was buried at the Anchorage
Cemetery.
NOTE: I searched the Anchorage criminal files for 1924 and found NO mention of a trial, so I'm assuming that Annie was not charged with a crime.
Jess C. Wickersham's birth date (according to his WWI draft registration papers) was 10/13/1883 and his next of kin is listed as: "relatives in Yellville, Marion County, Arkansas".
After
Jess Wickersham's death, Annie married Lee Harrison(son of Waburn A. and
Sarah Harrison, according to the 1900 US Federal Census for Stillwater
Co. Montana). Waburn Harrison was born in September of 1836 in Canada
and came to the United States in 1864. His wife Sarah was born in
March of 1849 in New York. Their oldest son Lee Harrison, was born in
1873 in Minnesota. He had 2 brothers: Delbert D. Harrison born 1872 in
Montana and Cecil P. Harrison born 1878 in Montana.
This Harrison family lived in Lower Yellowstone and White Beaver, Galatin
County, Montana in 1880. In 1900 and 1910, the family lived in Sweetgrass,
Stillwater County, Montana. Lee Harrison registerd for the WWI draft
in 1918 in Anchorage. Those records give his birth date as February 14,
1873 and his occupation as miner for the Alaska Engineering Commission.
Those papers list Mr. Harrison's brother Cecil as his next of kin living
in Gray Cliff, Montana. About 1926.