JOHN GUSTAV JOHNSEN ROE was born July 11, 1893 in Trondheim, Norway and he immigrated to the US in 1907. He first arrived in Quebec Canada, entered the United States at Valley City, North Dakota and then by train to Detroit, Michigan.
At his Naturalization hearing in 1937 his name was officially changed by order of the court to John Roe.
He enlisted in the US Army in World War I and served for 5 months until November 13, 1918. In 1920 he lived in Kodiak.
He came to Seldovia in 1924. In 1930 he was married and owned a cigar shop. He owned the Polar Bar until 1945 when he sold it to Joe Hill. He and his wife, Anna, lived on the property and paid rent to the Fulmore Estate. Roe testifies that he and his wife occupied the land since 1925 and that he succeeded her after her death in 1941 until he rented it to Joe Hill. Roe and his wife also paid rent to the patentee for another piece of land adjacent to the land in question for many years; that he heard the land had been patented in 1930 and that he consulted an attorney about it in 1934; that the patentee requested rentals for the land and that he refused to pay; that in 1941 he rented the land to Joe Hill; that on January 3, 1945, he gave Joe Hill a bill of sale to the buildings on the land and that he did not give the defendant a deed to the land until after the action was commenced. The evidence also shows that Roe’s predecessors did not transfer the land to their successors by deed, but that each of them gave bills of sale to the buildings thereon. The evidence further shows that Roe occupied adjacent property, paid rental thereon to the patentee and acknowledged patentee’s title thereto; that his wife also acknowledged title in the patentee. This acquiescence on the part of the Roes extended over a long period of years and continued until 1941, when Roe rented the land in question to the defendant.
In 1922, John married ANNA J. DARTIGUE. She was born April 17, 1877 in Tours-sur-Meymont, France. She died in Seldovia of heart disease, and her death certificate lists her father as Anton Dartgige. Anna died September 30, 1941 in Seldovia and is buried in Seldovia City Cemetery, Plot #81. At her husband’s Naturalization hearing in Seward, Alaska in 1937 his wife was given as Anna Fause born 1897 in Tours, Sur Meymont, France.
On May 10, 1943 John Roe married VELMA EVELYN SHAFFORD, born December 6, 1913 in Rocky Ford, Colorado. Velma died May 27, 1945 in Seldovia. She is buried in Seldovia City Cemetery, Plot #81.
John Roe died December 1, 1972 in Seldovia, Alaska and is buried in the Seldovia City Cemetery, just above both of his wives in Plot #102