red Howe was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1870. He came to Alaska in 1897, first arriving in Nome where he spent several years mining. He moved on to Valdez in later years, prospecting in the Shushana district. His next move was to Sunrise on Cook Inlet doing prospecting in and around Hope. When the Alaskan Engineering Commission started work on the Alaska Railroad, he joined the construction crews and remained as a bridge foreman until his retirement in 1936.

Ellen Pukkila Stolt was born in Finland in 1880. She and her first husband immigrated to the United States and settled in Boston, Massachusetts, where their first child, William Stolt, was born in 1900. Ellen Stolt’s husband died the following year, and she stayed on in Boston working as a cook and baker. In 1909 she remarried and moved to Juneau, Alaska, where her second son, Paul, was born.

In 1917 Ellen’s family moved to Anchorage, and in 1918 she and her second husband were divorced. Ellen went to work for the Alaska Railroad in 1920, working as a cook on the bridge crew, of which Fred Howe was the foreman. In 1921 she and Fred were married, and she set up housekeeping at their home in Anchorage.

Two Anchorage pioneer families were joined in 1929, when William “Bill” Stolt and Lilian Rivers were married in Anchorage. Bill was a graduate electrical engineer, and Lily had a degree in business administration. The couple started on a long career in Anchorage as business partners in Bill’s Electric, later changed to Stolt’s Gift Center. Together they operated an electrical contracting business and gift shop for many years.

Bill Stolt served three terms as Mayor of Anchorage during World War II and also spent two years serving on the City Council. The marriage of Bill and Lily produced three children, sons William Edwin and Wayne Allan and daughter Elaine Stolt Waters. Son Wayne took over the electric portion of the business and named it Stolt Electric Supply.

Fred Howe died in 1943, and Ellen passed away in l962. They are both buried in Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery. Their son Bill celebrated his one-hundredth birthday in 2000, and died the following year.
Fred Howe and Ellen Pukkila Stolt Howe, married in Anchorage in 1921. They had no children, but their family included Ellen’s two sons, born in 1900 and 1915.     The Howe family home at 334 East 4th Avenue was built in 1916.
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William Stolt, son of Ellen Howe, born in Boston, Mass., 1900. Died in 2001.     Bill Stolt and his wife Lilian Rivers Stolt, King and Queen Regents of the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, 1965.
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Ellen’s second son, Paul Howe, born in Juneau, Alaska, 1915. Died in 1996.
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Photo captions:
  1. Fred Howe and Ellen Pukkila Stolt Howe, married in Anchorage in 1921. They had no children, but their family included Ellen’s two sons, born in 1900 and 1915.


  2. The Howe family home at 334 East 4th Avenue was built in 1916.


  3. William Stolt, son of Ellen Howe, born in Boston, Mass., 1900. Died in 2001.


  4. Bill Stolt and his wife Lilian Rivers Stolt, King and Queen Regents of the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, 1965.


  5. Ellen’s second son, Paul Howe, born in Juneau, Alaska, 1915. Died in 1996.