rving Leonard Kimball was born in Osceola, Pennsylvania in 1869 and as a young man moved westward to Oregon in search of his fortune. He left medical school there in 1898 and shipped out on a cargo ship that was plying Alaska waters as far north as Nome. He tried mining in Nome in 1899, but decided that trading was better for him.

Before his travels to the north, Irving had met a young lady who had moved to Oregon with her parents. He became engaged to Della Carpenter, who was born in Manson, Iowa in 1880. She spent her childhood on a farm, traveled with her family in a covered wagon to Oklahoma, and then moved on to Glenwood, Oregon. In 1901, Irving returned to Portland, where he and Della were married.

The young couple left for Kodiak the following year with a load of trade goods and started their career as merchants and traders. Following their jaunt to Kodiak, they moved on to Seward and established the first trading post there. Their first daughter, Vera, was born in there in 1903, and a second daughter, Decema, was born in Seward in 1906. In 1908, the boomtown of LaTouche attracted the Kimballs, and they established another trading post there, running it until the Guggenheim copper operators found a richer lode and moved on to the Cordova area.

In 1915, Irving and Della were looking for new territory, and the news of the construction of a new townsite and the Alaska Railroad attracted them to the tent city established by the Alaskan Engineering Commission. They put in a winning bid of $500 on Lot l, Block 51, and moved their tent operations “uptown.” They built their store on the lot, which was at the corner of 5th Avenue and E Street.

In 1921, Irving passed away, and Della continued to operate the store by herself until 1950. Della was also actively engaged in community affairs, and was one of the organizers of the Anchorage Womans Club. The Kimballs’ oldest daughter, Vera, graduated from Anchorage High School in 1921 in a class of five students, and Decema graduated in 1923 in a class of ten.

In 1925, Decema met and married Moritz Andresen, and they had two sons, Carl and Alfred. Moritz died in 1948, and in 1950, Decema joined her mother in partnership in the Kimball’s store. Della Kimball passed away in 1958, and her daughter continued to be involved in the store until her death in February, 2002. The store closed November 17 of that year. In 1986, it had been listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and was the only remaining private business on the city block that is dedicated as Anchorage’s Town Square.

Irving and Della Kimball are both buried in Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery. Vera Kimball Castles died in 1986. Decema Kimball Andresen Slauson is buried at Angelus Memorial Park in Anchorage.