Who is Kettleson?
Dear Editor: The Library Commission has invited public input on the name of our fancy, expanded library that is being built this year. Bill Foster has written several letters to the editor proposing a name change to “Sitka Public Library.” The deadline for weighing in on this topic is Friday, July 31. If you haven’t done so yet, call our City Librarian, Robb Farmer at 747-8708 or email Robb@cityofsitka.com. Your opinion and ideas are important.
Since April I’ve been waiting to hear or read something about Ted Kettleson. Now I realize not many others knew the Kettlesons. In the mid to late 1940s, I delivered The Sitka Sentinel to their home on Lincoln Street and to the Kettleson Building built in 1941. Now that downtown building is owned by Dirk and Trish White, and called Harry Race Building. There was a time in the 1950’s when I didn’t particularly like that two-storied Kettleson Building. My brother Chuck Yaw and I had to sweep, scrub, and wax the stairs and the hallways on the second floor when Les Yaw, our dad, bought the building when he was Superintendent of the Pioneers Home. Twas definitely not our favorite job.
But, here are a few facts about Mr. Kettleson, drawn primarily from the 36-page booklet written by the distinguished Robert N. DeArmond entitled “A History of the Kettleson Memorial Library, the public library of Sitka, Alaska, 1923-1998.’’ It is a wonderful read, a valuable document, and available for sale for a modest $3 at the library.
Mr. Kettleson was born in Wisconsin in 1874 and came to Alaska in 1905. He was a gold miner and business man in the Fairbanks area, ran a steamboat on the Tanana River and served as postman at Chisana for a while. In 1920 he was elected to the Territorial Legislature and moved to Sitka the next year. From 1921 to 1933 Mr. Kettleson was the superintendent of the first Sitka Pioneers Home, the one before the present Home, which was opened in 1934.
In 1922, Mr. Kettleson was Secretary of Sitka Fish and Game Club. In the 1930s he bought a lot on Lincoln Street, and sold the front half to Jack Conway. Mr. Conway owned the Conway Dock, served on the School Board in 1937 and was elected Mayor in 1941. Mr. Conway sold the back half of the lot to Jack and Sasha Calvin.
From 1933 to 1940, Ted Kettleson was a power plant operator at Sawmill Creek. He also served on the Public Utilities Board and the Library Board, and was a founder of the First Bank of Sitka. He also owned stock in the National Bank of Alaska (now Wells Fargo) and the Sitka Cold Storage. He gave those stocks, valued between $40,000-$60,000, to the new library built in the present location, and dedicated on Alaska Day, 1967: The Kettleson Memorial Library. Almost fifty years ago.
I don’t know why they included the morbid word “Memorial” in the name at that time. Mr. Kettleson wasn’t quite dead yet. He died the next year at the age of 94.
If the name change discussion can consider deleting “Memorial,” then a classy name for a classy building with a lot of historical connections throughout Sitka. The Kettleson Public Library.
It speaks well of the Library Commission to invite public input, even if it is only a name. I wish other commissions and “task forces” would follow suit. Let us know what is happening so strange new roof lines and parking lots and convention center designs do not take us by surprise.
Finally, be sure to view the magnificent, museum-quality, elegant quilt made by the Friends of the Library. Raffle tickets are for sale at Sea Mart on Aug. 8, and 22. Let’s support the library in as many ways as we can. It is our tradition, our history.
Nancy Yaw Davis, Sitka
