It’s Memorial Day weekend and a good time to relate this story about someone who came from the southern Pinelands. I recently returned from the University of Alaska - Fairbanks, where I went to discuss Pine Barrens soils with permafrost experts at the College of Engineering and at the School of Natural Resources. While there I was also on a mission to find a copy of Last Letters from Attu: The True Story of Etta Jones, Alaska Pioneer and Japanese P.O.W. It was found at the school’s Museum of the North.
Anthropologist and Senior Collections Manager A. Linn with Etta’s biography
Jones was the first women captured on the North American continent since the War of 1812. She grew up in Vineland, NJ, and moved to Alaska in 1922. Etta fell in love with an ex-gold miner and ended up teaching on the remote Aleutian Island of Attu, which was invaded by the Japanese during WW II. Both become prisoners of war. The book provides a great feel for what it was like to pioneer in the Alaskan wilderness. Etta’s deep admiration for the native culture is particularly admirable.
I was surprised that her story was all but unknown until the book’s 2009 release. Little is mentioned about life back in Cumberland County, but I will try to fill in the gap to that part of the story this Summer. For more information, visit the author’s (Etta’s grand-niece) website:
S-M
