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JOSEPH AND JAMES DUKE PASSED AWAY ON OUTSIDEThai Joseph and James Duke, pioneer residents of Nenana, died within a month of each other ut Hot Springs. Ark., is the won! brought to Fairbanks from the new railroad town by District Attorney R. F. Roth, says the Fairbanks Citizen of March 5. The | elder Duke died some time late in January, but James Duke, the better known of the two. died only last Sunday, his wife, who is at Nenana, having received a wire to that ; effect. The body of Joseph Duke wcs buried at Hof Springs immediately after he died, and James Duke was laid at rest at the side f his father, at his own request.But little can be learned of the history of Joseph Duke, the elder of the two men. j It is stated, however, that lie came to | Alaska about 1903 and became associatedwith his son, who was tin* first white rest dent of the new arid prosperous railroad | town.James Duke established a trading post at • Nenana about 1902 Prior to that time he had had a rather tempestuous career. He was first in Dawson in the early days of that camp, going later to the Koyukuk. 1 Leaving the Koyukuk. he struck out for the Yukon. Arriving on the banks of the river. ! he heard of the Fairbanks gold stampede. . and started toward this camo. but winter ; caught him at Nenana. a then good sized | Indian settlement, and it was there that he decided to locate. He afterwards home steatled the ground on which he built hi^ trading post, and after it was seen that the I government railroad was to pass near his iroperty. placed a value of S 10.000 on it.It walt; later decided, however, that his homestead was not valid, but when the present town of Nenana wa* platted off and the lots sold the government gave him two of the most advantageously located half-block lot in the town in payment for tin* buildings which he had put upDuke had been in poor health for a number of years. Diabetes is said to have been the cause. A* a consequence he spent considerable time during his later year- i.n the Outside. He left Nenana last full after the government sale of hf was over He i ( *uid to have been about oil years of ;!g
Newspaper Details
Iditarod Pioneer
Iditarod, Alaska, US
Sat, Mar 31, 1917
Page 7
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 11 Nov 2024
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