Paul (Slater) Holmstrom, son of Gus and Anna WALMUSSON Holmstrom was born in Alaska September 14, 1897. He was the biological son of Anna’s first husband, Slater but took her second husband’s last name when she married. He married Agrifina Socoloff in 1925 and they had two children. Agrifina later married Peter Kalifonsky.**
Fred Elvsaas: And up on the hill above me was a little, what was called a half-a-house, owned by a guy named Paul Holstrom. They called him Kid Holstrom because his dad was Paul Holstrom, too. And after his dad died, he worked, but he was – he’d gone to school a little bit and he was fairly smart. And he went to Dad Ritchie and he said, “I need to make a will.” He was about forty-some years old. And so he did. They drafted up a will.
And he went down to the commissioner at the time and had it recorded. You know, nobody did that in those days. And Kid Holstrom – our lagoon used to freeze, and people would go up there skating, and fish whiting, through the ice. It was a lot of whiting up there in the wintertime. And Kid Holstrom went early. About, like, end of November. The ice wasn’t thick enough. He fell through and drowned.
And so then the commissioner at the time decided to sell the house. You know, Holstrom kid, he had a daughter in Seward that nobody seemed to know much about. But Dad Ritchie knew. Had her address and everything.
And the commissioner, she decides to sell the house. Well, a storekeeper wanted to buy the house to sell to a guy who wanted to move here from Snug Harbor. And he was thinking he could buy it for a couple hundred dollars and sell it for a little more. And the house was – and the property was, with ten feet around it, was appraised at $200.
And so it was snowing and cold and miserable and the commissioner, she just insisted that the sale be held on the steps of the house. And the steps were about that wide. So one day she went there and about four other guys that were interested in buying the house. Even though it was only eight foot wide, and twenty-four foot – eight foot long and twenty-four foot wide, because it was built like this but he never finished the rest of it. He just boarded it off and lived in that.
And it was always called a half-a-house. Even – it wasn’t even a half a house.
But anyway, they started the bidding. And Dad was there, standing there. And he was pretty old by then and he told me, you know, you come up with me and walk with me.
And so they’re – they’re bidding and they get up to about three, four hundred dollars. And Dad said, “I’ll bid $400.” Well, the storekeeper went $450. Dad said, “I’ll go $600.” He went up to $800. And the storekeeper quit. And everybody else quit and said, you know, there’s nothing worth $800 in Seldovia. And so he paid off eight one hundred dollar bills. And just surprised everybody. Told the commissioner, make the title and give it to Gladys, my wife.