JOHN ANTON KETOURAKIS, born November 30, 1874 in Kovna, Lithuania, was known as “Russian John” in Seldovia**. There were a number of “Russian John’s” in Alaska in its early days and there is even a Russian John Creek. Our “Russian John” was actually born in Lithuania in 1874, and depending on his ethnic background he may or may not have appreciated the name.
The few records we have found for him indicate that he came to the US about 1896, when he was about 21 years old. We don’t know a great deal about his beginnings in Kovna, Lithuania, and we don’t know exactly why he chose to leave his home, but we do know something about that place during that time. And given that he chose to list his birth place as Lithuania it is likely that he was not Russian.
The name of the city in Lithuanian is Kaunas. To the Russians it is Kovno, to the Poles, Kowno and to the Germans, Kauen. These are all the same place. It may be that Russian John came not from the actual city of Kovna, but from the district of the same name.
Lithuania is a small European nation that was ripped apart in the 17th - 19th centuries by Russia’s invasions and, subsequently, by more than a century of on and off wars on its soil between Germany and Russia. As a result, nearly a third of Lithuania’s population chose to escape to the west. A majority of them eventually immigrated to the United States.
At the end of the 19th century Lithuanians differed from most immigrant groups in the United States in several ways. They moved to the U.S. not only to escape poverty, but also to avoid bitter religious, political and national persecution, and compulsory military service in the Russian army. They did not plan to remain permanently and become “Americanized.” Instead their intent was to live in the U.S. temporarily to earn money, invest in property, and wait for the right opportunity to return to Lithuania.
Official estimates were that 30% of the emigrants from the Russian provinces of Poland-Lithuania returned home. When adjusted to include only non-Jews the number is closer to 50-60%. There don’t seem to be a lot of people
Prior to WWI, the vast majority of ethnic Lithuanians lived in small rural, agricultural settlements rather than towns or cities. In the Russian census of 1897, the ethnic Lithuanian population of the towns of all the Kaunas guberniya was only 8.9 percent. Lithuanians constituted only 6.6 percent of the population of the city of Kaunas. Of the ethnic Lithuanians living in all the provinces now covered by Lithuania, 93 percent were peasants, 4 percent city dwellers, 3 percent gentry. Only 14 Lithuanians identified themselves as merchants.
So, the first we know of John is that in 1897 he filed for US citizenship in Philadelphia , probably soon after he arrived. In 1902 he was living in Seattle, and was a member of the Cooks and Waiters Union. When he registered for the draft in WWI he owned a restaurant in Nenana. He was living in Seldovia in 1930 and 1940 and he was a restaurant operator. He again filed for US citizenship in 1941, from Seldovia, but he died before his application was completely processed. He was 69 years old at the time of his death of heart failure on February 19, 1944. He is buried in the Seldovia City Cemetery Plot #174.