Alaska Genealogy – Free Alaska Genealogy

Frederick Funston, the most distinguished soldier who had ever gone forth from Kansas, was born at New Carlisle, Ohio, November 9, 1865, a son of Edward H, and Ann E. (Mitehell) Funston. When two years old his parents removed to Kansas, and in 1885 he became a student in the State University. He also attended the University in 1889-90, after which he was employed as a newspaper reporter in Kansas City, and the next year was botanist with the Death Valley expedition. General Funston was commissioned by the United States Agricultural Department, in 1893, to explore Alaska and report on…

JAMES A. MASTERSON. – It now becomes our pleasant privilege to outline the interesting career of the estimable gentleman, whose name is at the ehad of this article, and who stands as one of the prominent and representative men of Union county, being also aheavy property owner, and having manifested since an early day here ability that was master of the situation and has acuumulated his holdings from the raw resources of the county, while also he has maintained an untarnished reputation and has done much for the advancement of the county, being really one of the builders of Union…

Orion Littell Rider, a leading attorney of Vinita whose professional ability is indicated by the large and distinctively representative clientage accorded hire, has served his fellow citizens in various capacities and has always done able and conscientious work. His birth occurred in Mason county, Illinois, on the 7th of January, 1874, and his parents were Dr. Robert G. and Harriet M. (Littell) Rider, the former born near Cleveland, Ohio, and the latter in the state of New Jersey. The father was a physician, acquiring his professional training in Pennsylvania, and he first opened an office at Mobile, Alabama, whence he…

Marcella Lucinda Skillings, 80, died Dec. 2 at Wallowa Memorial Hospital. The funeral will begin at 11 a.m. Dec. 10 at Bollman Funeral Home, 315 W. Main St., Enterprise. Mrs. Skillings was born June 20, 1924, to John and Eva DeClue in St. Louis, Mo. She lived in Alaska and California before coming to La Grande. She married Raymond Benjamin Skillings on May 21, 1955. She earned a nursing degree in 1968 and worked at Hot Lake for a while before settling in Wallowa. She enjoyed hunting, fishing, quilting and being with her husband and family. Survivors include her children,…

Enterprise, Oregon Leonard H. Brooks, 86, died April 6, 2005, in Surprise, Ariz. He was born September 26, 1918, in Tucson, Ariz., to Leonard and Elisabeth (Adams) Brooks Sr. As a child, he spent two years living in Mexico and learned to speak Spanish. As a young teenager, he spent a summer living with the Apache Indians and learned the art of bow and arrow making and shooting. After graduating from high school he worked as a cowboy and as a powder man in the mines. During World War II, he was a bomber pilot flying B-25s over Italy. While…

North Powder, Union County, Oregon John Thomas Dean, 22, of Kennewick, Wash. and a former North Powder resident, died May 27, 2005, from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident on Cabbage Hill. His funeral will be Saturday at 2 p.m. at North Powder High School. Interment will be at the Haines Cemetery. John was born Feb. 25, 1983, to Jerry and Eydie Dean. He attended grade school in Imbler and Ketchikan, Alaska. He moved to North Powder during his seventh-grade year and he graduated from Powder Valley High School. While attending high school, he played football and was an active…