harles Albert Berg was born in Dalarna Province, Sweden in 1871. He came to the United States in 1882 with his parents, who settled in Lake Park, Minnesota. He first entered Alaska in 1906 at Valdez and traveled over the Valdez Trail to Fairbanks. He left Fairbanks for Nome in 1908, and in 1910 he landed in Iditarod after pretty well covering most of the major gold camps of the time.

In 1915, Berg moved down to Susitna Station, where he bought a small sawmill from Oscar Gill. At Susitna Station he met Phoebe Jane Nagley, and after a short courtship they traveled to Knik via dog team and were married there by the Rev. T. P. Howard. Phoebe was born in Anacortes, Washington in 1884 and grew up in Marysville and Cashmere, Washington. She attended normal school in Ellensburg and Bellingham and became a teacher. She came to Susitna Station in 1915 to help her brother H. W. Nagley in the operation of his store.

Ora Dee Clark had a contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to teach school at Susitna Station; however, she was also offered a teaching job in Anchorage, and asked Phoebe to take over the Susitna School. Ms. Clark held a master’s degree and was qualified to organize the public school system in Anchorage, which she preferred to do.

In 1916, Charles moved his sawmill to Talkeetna where he took on a contract to cut ties for the Alaska Railroad. In 1920, the family moved to Anchorage and built their home at 647 L Street. Charles operated sawmills at Caswell, Indian and Portage during the railroad construction days.

Charles and Phoebe Berg had three children. Daughter Virginia and her husband, Earl Lagergren, had four children; Eric, Edwin, Arne and Jane. Son Carl Albert Berg and his wife, Elsene, had a son, Kimberly Chris. Daughter Mary Frances Berg Snow had four children; Sandra Louise, Geoffrey Eugene, John Palmer and Judith Eileen. Charles Albert Berg died in 1959 in Seattle, Washington, and Phoebe Jane Berg died in 1993 in Renton, Washington at one-hundred and nine years of age.