Frances Walker (1924 - 1951)

Born 1 Dec 1924 in Alaska

Died 12 Sep 1951 at age 26 in Seward, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska

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Biography

In 1895, the Superintendent of Education for the Territory of Alaska (Sheldon Jackson) sent a teacher named Agnes Soule to teach in Unalaska. Agnes found herself dealing with homeless children in the Aleut village, so she contacted her father, a Methodist Bishop and explained the situation to him. He secured funding for an orphanage through the Women's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Church. The new orphanage was called the Jesse Lee Childrens Home (named after a prominent Methodist minister on the East Coast). Agnes was the homes first superintendent.

In 1898, Agnes married Dr. Albert Warren Newhall of Massachusetts. Albert worked at the new orphanage, that first year, as a medical missionary; he became superintendent of the home in 1902.

Agnes (Soule) Newhall died in 1917 and she was buried in Unalaska. Her husband then married a teacher from the orphanage named Emma Supernaw. They worked at the Jesse Lee Children's Home until it was closed in 1924.

The Spanish influenza of 1918-1919 decimated many coastal Native villages, causing overcrowding at the Unalaska Jesse Lee Children's Home. Not only were their buildings aging and in disrepair, but it was very expensive to transport children and supplies to remote Aleutian Island, so the Women's Home Missionary Society moved the Jesse Lee Home to Seward, Alaska in 1924. When that happened, Albert and Emma Newhall moved to Barrow, Alaska where Albert died in 1929.

Seward was a large deep water port that was open all year long, which made transportation of the children to the orphanage less expensive. The Jesse Lee Children's Home in Seward operated until 1964, when a massive earthquake severely damaged the Home and the children were relocated to Anchorage. [1]

Burial

Jesse Lee Childrens Home Cemetery, Seward, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, USA [2]

Sources