Seldovia remembers
Seldovia remembers
Johansen Family

Johansen Family

Gunnerius Anthon Johansen, “Anton”, was born in December 1865 in Bjugn, Norway. He filed for US Citizenship in 1887 in Pennsylvania. It is not known when he arrived in Alaska but by 1895 he was living on Kodiak Island and married to Alexandra Chichenoff when his first son John Victor Johansen was born.

In 1900 Anton and Alexandra and four children were living in Karluk, where he was farming. In 1906 he had a saloon in Afognak where he offered trade tokens.

In 1910 he was living in Seldovia where he owned and managed a general store, Seldovia Mercantile Company. The store was originally a general store and later was just for cigars and billiards. Aluminum 10 cent and 12 cent trade tokens were offered in the store.

He was already a widow by 1910 and his children were in a Protestant Orphan Asylum in San Francisco. In 1920 Anton was still in Seldovia and his son John worked with him in his store.

Children of Anton and Alexandra CHICHENOFF Johansen:

John Victor Johansen (1895-1960) later returned to California where he died.

Inga Anelina Johansen (1897-?) married Andrew Anderson in Seldovia on October 3, 1919.

Thomas Johansen, born in Karluck in 1898 and died in Seldovia in 1916 at the age of 18. He was first buried in the old Russian Orthodox Cemetery near the beach, but his grave was part of the re-burial in the City Cemetery as part of the urban renewal project after the 1964 earthquake. He is in Plot #1609.

Mary Johansen (1900-1992) became the wife of Frank Burgin in Seldovia in 1917. Their daughter Virginia was born in Seldovia in 1918. Soon after that they moved to Grand Junction, Colorado and their second daughter Leona was born there in 1920. Sons Herschel (1922) and George (1925) were born in Seldovia. Frank died in 1938 and Mary and the children were in Seldovia in 1940. She was living with her son Isam Hershell Burgin when she died in Costa Mesa, California in 1992.