The story of the Elvsaas family in Seldovia begins with Herman Marius Elvsaas, who came to Alaska from Norway.
HERMAN MARIUS ELVSAAS was born in Aaslund, Norway February 1, 1900. He became a US citizen in 1939. On March 26, 1928, in Seldovia, he married AGNES PONCHENE, born 1906 in Kodiak. They are the progenitors of the Seldovia Elvsaas family. Both Herman and Agnes are buried in Port Blakeley, Washington, but many of their descendants are still in Seldovia.
From son Frederick Hans Elvsaas:
My father came from Norway…on a sailing ship. My mother was born in Kodiak and came to Seldovia when she was young….We had a house that was two stories over a basement, which in Seldovia at the time was a fairly large house. And we had a shop, and underneath the shop was a woodshed and a banya. And of course on the outer side was an outhouse, and we had a boardwalk. We had our own, right within our little compound, and we had a wire fence on the street side. So we had a nice yard. And we had two places where my dad put sawhorses in the ground, where we could saw logs for firewood. Us boys would saw wood and split wood, and pack wood. It was always important to pack wood for not only the house -for the cook stove and for the heat, but also for the banya. We had at that time a large banya which a lot of people, when they saw smoke from the banya, they’d come and visit….As we got older my parents would move from Seldovia across [Seldovia Bay] to Hoen Spit, and we had gardens over there. My mother grew a lot of vegetables, and we had two potato gardens….My mother went to school in Chemawa, Oregon, and learned how to preserve foods. And my dad was a fisherman and worked on the fish traps in Cook Inlet, so he would put up salt fish and smoked fish….My mother’s goal for canning king salmon was 200 quart jars every summer….My dad bought a cow and a bull from somebody in Homer….In the fall of the year my dad had a big red dory with oars…and he’d back the skiff up to the beach and the cow would step in and he’d row across the bay with the cow, and bring it in to town, and let it off on the beach and then the cow would walk up to where the airport is now – where there were hay fields. At that time Bill Goyer had cows there and we’d put our cow in with his….
At the time of the boardwalk, the beach - when the tide was out - was our playground. We didn’t have a playground as people know it today. When we played baseball, if you batted the ball in the water, you were out. That was a strict rule, because then we had to get a skiff and get the ball and it would stop the game. We also played football on the beach….On the boardwalk itself was several places where people marked off with chalk for hopscotch….As a kid it was a real thrill when the steamship would come in. It would bring the freight in and take the canned salmon and salt fish and halibut out, fish meal and fish oil (I believe there was a separate ship for that)….Most of the town would go down to the dock when the ships came in because they were passenger/ freight ships and they would see people who were traveling to western Alaska and visit….Along the boardwalk was a railing that was just right for sitting on, so the whole boardwalk was a meeting place….We had a lot of fun playing under the canneries….
PETER IVOR ELVSAAS August 15, 1930 Seldovia - June 2, 2003, Seldovia
ALLEN MARIUS ELVSAAS October 24, 1931, Seldovia – February 26, 1984, Seldovia
FREDERICK HANS ELVSAAS May 28, 1933, Seldovia –September 25,1917, Seldovia
HERMAN ELVSAAS - October 14, 1934, Seldovia – April 5, 2019, Seattle, WA
PATREENA MARIE ELVSAAS STYBOR GETTY - May 22, 1936, Seldovia –September 12,2005, Homer
LOUCAIRIA MAY ELVSAAS HAMPTON - April 13, 1944, Seldovia – December 1, 2007, Anchorage
Loucairia May Hampton, 63, died Dec. 1, 2007, of natural causes at her Anchorage home. A funeral was at Evergreen Memorial Chapel. Burial was Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery. She was born April 13, 1944, in Port Orchard, Wash. She received her GED and attended school in Seldovia in the 1950s. While living in Alabama, she was a nurse’s aide and a bank accountant. She lived in Seldovia during the 1950s and 1960s and returned on July 1, 2000. She enjoyed sewing and loved being on her computer and socializing with friends and family. She was a Baptist. She was a beautiful, sensitive friend to all she knew and was always willing to help people in need. She was always smiling.
INGA ELVSAAS CAFFREY May 28, 199, Seldovia – May 30, 2013
FRED ELVSAAS
Probably, the earliest I can remember with a lot of certainty is my sixth birthday. I recall it was a nice sunny day and my grandmother was at our house and my mother was there. And they told me to – not to leave home, that they were going to have a big surprise for me. And I really wanted a bicycle. And I just knew, because my older brother Allan had a bicycle, that I would get a bicycle. And after a while I was on the porch and just sitting in the sun. It was early morning and my grandmother came out holding what I thought at that time was the ugliest thing I ever saw. Was my younger sister, Inga. And so we share the same birthday. And now she lives in Lakeside Terrace and I still call her my bicycle.
SUZANNA ELVSAAS KEEZER , Seldovia –