- * (THE ORPHANAGE NEWS LETTER.)*
* * * * *
Published Monthly at The Kodiak Baptist Orphanage,
Wood Island, Kodiak, Alaska,
Under the auspices of The Woman’s American Baptist Home Mission Society.
Curtis P. Coe, Editor and Publisher.
Ten Cents a year. Entered at the Kodiak p. 0. as second-class mail matter.
Vol. II. JUNE, 1900. No. 1,
This portion of Alaska has just been undergoing an epidemic of La Gripp?
which has been very serious.
:a Cook’s Inlet especially the death rate has
been high. Kodiak and Wood Island have not escaped its ravages and there
have been many deaths. The Orphanage has had its full share. All the work
ers have boon sick, almost at one time, and nearly all of the children have
been on the sick list* The Grippe complicated with meningitis overcame one
of our number on the 13th - little Dick Thompson, the next to the youngest li
the Orphanage.
On the 23d the C,
Hill, a hunting schooner, carne in with
two of her h nters dead and the rest sick. The hunters are natives of the
southern end of Kodiak Island. We are fortunate in having the services of
Dr. F, Schneider of Brooklyn, N. Y, who has spent two years in Cook's Inlet,
and has been persuaded to remain here at least through the summer. All at the
Orphanage are improving at this writing.
The new home for boys is progressing as rapidly as possible. Carpenters
are hard to secure, and there is not enough lumber of some kinds needed to
complete the building. An order has boon made which we hope to receive from
Seattle ofi the July mail steamer. At present the frame is raised, the sides
sheeted, the roof sheeting on, and shingling begun.
Red salmon have been unusually plentiful this summer, and our boys have
been successful in securing our share of them. We have about two thousand
salted and dried* Later in the season the hump backed' salmon run, and they
are better for table use than the red although there is no sale for them as
they are not so pleasing to the eye.
We have plenty of milk now as we milk five cows* Besides these we have
yearling heifer, and four spring calves - one died.
On the last "Newport” from the Hast Hartley Williams of Orca arrived to
be educated at his father’s expense. Our number is now thirty.
We have been fortunate in securing the services of Hr, Craig of Kansas
City to take charge of the manual labor. He has been for nearly five years
in the gold regions of the North.
Our gardens have been planted for some weeks, but caving to the cold
weather they have not advanced very rapidly. We have had lettuce, radishes,
and onions, however. •
On the 2S§jfih Lire and Mrs. M. F. Wight left for Seattle where they will
probably make their future home. They have been among the best friends of
the Orphanage, and we shall miss them greatly. Our best wishes go with them.
For twenty five days in June the maximum temperature has been 70; min
imum, 39; mean maximum, 56,mean minimum, 41*5; mean 48.7. Precipitation 3.16
inches, clear days 9, partly cloudy 2, cloudy 14.