City Park Cemetery
🪦 Part of A Series On Wrangell Cemeteries 🪦
Unlike the much larger Wrangell Memorial Cemetery to the north of City Park, the so-called “City Park Cemetery” is a small collection of headstones inside the south end of the park.
Very little is written about this cemetery or how it began. Here’s what I was able to find.
(Photo credit: Ryan M. Long)
(Photo credit: Ryan M. Long)
A Place Set Apart
While this spot is sometimes called “City Park Cemetery” because of its location, it is a generation older than City Park, which was not established until 1919.
Only two of the three headstones in this cemetery show the name of the deceased: James Joseph Konk (died 1897) and Mrs. Emma D. Hoagland (died 1898). It’s unclear why these individuals were not buried in the Indian Cemetery, just a short distance up the coast, which was still active when they died. It may have been that cemetery was getting crowded, and this spot afforded more privacy and a better view.
Like the Choquette Family Cemetery and Deadman’s Island, this cemetery hearkens to a time before the Red Men Cemetery (later renamed Wrangell Memorial Cemetery) became the popular place for Wrangell to bury its dead.
Just as this small cemetery is shrouded in mystery, so too are the people buried in it.
James Joseph Konk
According to his headstone, James Joseph Konk was born in 1888 and died in 1897. Sadly, this inscription is the only written record I can find of his short life. His family name (sometimes spelled Konk, Koonk, or Kunk) appears throughout Wrangell history.
James father was likely Joseph Koonk, an early Tlingit member of the Christian mission in Fort Wrangel. As Reverend S. Hall Young wrote in his autobiography about arriving in 1878:
“...The most prominent and influential Christian adherents were Lot Tyeen, Koonk, Thomas Konanisty, Andrew, and Jake Johnson.”
In 1899, the Stikine River Journal announced “Konk” died and the local Presbyterian minister would administer his estate.
Shortly after Konk’s death, Lt. Commander J.F. Moser of the US Navy identified a lake and a creek on Etolin Island with the Tlingit Indian name “Konke Lake” and “Konke Creek.” Today, they are spelled as Kunk Lake and Kunk Creek.
As for James’ mother, she was likely Koot-ka-jáh, a Tlingit woman who lived in Wrangell to be over 100 years old. Her 1931 obituary recalled her early connection to the Presbyterians:
“When a Presbyterian mission was established in Wrangell about 55 years ago, Mrs. Koonk was one of the first converts, and her husband was one of the native elders of the church from the time it was built until his death thirty years ago.”
Her obituary said she had twelve children in her life, but only one was alive when she died: Eva Blake, the first President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood in Wrangell in 1915.
Mrs. Emma D. hoagland
As with James Joseph Konk, I could find no documentation about Emma D. Hoagland.
She may have been the wife of Willis Hoagland. He appears on the 1900 Census as a 30 year-old widower, living with his mother and step-father named Shadisty. It’s not clear that the Hoagland marriage produced any children, and Willis Hoagland never remarried. In the 1940s, Willis Hoagland became a prominent voice in a landmark government study of Tlingit land use entitled Haa Aaní. Willis Hoagland died in 1960 and is buried in the Sitka Pioneers Home Cemetery.
As a child, I played around these headstones. They were simply another feature of the landscape, sitting unobtrusively in the wide open spaces of City Park.
Having researched these graves, I’m now left with more questions than answers. If you know anything, please send an email!
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Wrangell Cemeteries
Researching history is amazing, but disturbing headstones is a bad idea. Before attempting to move or clean a headstone, consult with local government, tribal organizations, and next-of-kin to make sure you’re doing it the right way! You never want to be responsible for damaging a grave, even with the best of intentions. There are people in Alaska who are experts in this field, and you should seek out their advice!