William Albert Vinal
February 02, 1905, Maine — July 03, 1940, Seldovia, Alaska
Buried in Seldovia City Cemetery Plot #78William Albert Vinal was born March 14, 1860 in Orono, Maine to William and Katherine Cristy Vinal. He was educated in the University of Maine and followed the profession of surveyor and engineer for nine years. During a period of eleven years of his life he was engaged in the lumber business in his native state. He came to Nome in 1900 and engaged in mining on Hungry Creek. He was successful in this venture, and subsequently mined on Kasson Creek in the Solomon country. He has also operated on Anvil Creek. During the season of 1904 he co-operated with Mr. Olebaum in opening land developing No. 9 Solomon, which proved to be a very valuable property. Mr. Vinal has spent two winters in Nome and all the summers since 1900. He became the Nome representative of the Alaska-Boston Construction and Mining Company, a Massachusetts corporation operating in Seward Peninsula. In 1904, Mr. Vinal acquired valuable and extensive interests for this company in the Solomon River region. These interests comprise a group of claims on Solomon River at the mouth of Penny, and the Matlock & Beagle property, which includes a valuable water right and two miles of ditch already constructed. The property acquired for his company comprises thirty-four claims situated south of the mouth of Penny River and extending a distance up Shovel Creek. This property includes the Halla Bar.
Mr. Vinal was a member of an old and prominent family of Massachusetts who trace their lineage back to English and Scotch ancestors. He is married. Mrs. Vinal was formerly Miss Hattie Sutherland, a relative of Miss Sutherland, one of the efficient teachers in the Nome public school. Mr. Vinal is an enterprising and industrious man. Without any blare of trumpets he has made money out of the mines of the Nome country ever since his first season’s operations and the property which he has recently acquired for his company is unquestionably valuable, and under hydraulic operation will undoubtedly yield a large quantity of gold. Source: Nome and Seward Peninsula by R. S. Harrison. Seattle: The Metropolitan Press, 1905. 1929: William A. Vinal is a United States Commissioner at Seldovia, Alaska. Mr. Vinal writes—“Do not picture all of Alaska as a land of snow and ice— mighty glaciers and bitter cold. No— Think that here in an open garden. I picked the most beautiful pansies on the 18th day of February last and that the grass on the lawn was green until the fifth of March.” Source University of Maine Alumni Magazine 1929
Fairbanks News Miner: August 6, 1940 Death came to William A. Vinal, former United States commissioner at Seldovia and resident of lower Cook Inlet community for the past 12 years. Judge Vinal was born 80 years ago in the state of Maine and was graduated from the state university. He took pride in his adherence to New England traditions, was a staunch Republican in his politics and always said that his party would come back into power and be stronger than ever in the administration of national affairs. In his early life he was a school teacher, later he and Mrs. Vinal came west and finally to Alaska. They lived at Nome and also on the Kuskokwim, where their mines, operated on royalty basis, are still profitably producing. He went to Seldovia as commissioner, later investing in the Alaska Year Round cannery, an interest that he disposed of a year or two ago. The past few years Judge Vinal spent his winters at a home he purchased on the shores of Lake Washington. Perhaps it was a year ago that he was married the second time to a neighbor of the Lake Washington home-place. Mrs. Vinal was present at the last sad leave taking.
