Peterkin, Thomas "Tom, " Sr.
1882-1947 | Locomotive Engineer, Alaska Railroad, and Dairy Owner and Operator
Thomas “Tom” Peterkin was born in Bobcaygeon, Ontario, Canada on September 25, 1882.[1] He grew up in Verulam, Ontario, Canada.[2] In 1905, he immigrated to the United States.[3]
He started his railroading career with the Canadian Pacific Railroad prior to moving to Anchorage in 1915. Peterkin was employed by the Alaskan Engineering Commission (AEC) as a locomotive engineer from 1916 to 1923 and by its successor federal agency, the Alaska Railroad, from 1923 until his retirement in 1944.[4]
Peterkin purchased a lot on the first town lot sale in Anchorage, left Alaska for a while, and married Anna Packebusch in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on January 20, 1918. Anna Packebusch was born on November 11, 1893, in Pender, Nebraska.
Thomas and Anna Peterkin returned to Alaska in 1920, the year their first son, Thomas Jr., was born. The family lived on a homestead east of Anchorage until 1928, when they purchased the East Side Dairy from the Suomela family in 1928. The Peterkins owned the dairy until 1940, when it was sold to the Matanuska Valley Farmer’s Cooperative Association, which then operated it as the Anchorage Dairy.[5]
In the 1930s, Peterkin established a homestead in the Mountain View area, a community then on the outskirts of Anchorage. In Patterns of the Past: An Inventory of Anchorage's Historic Resources (1986), Michael Carberry and Donna Lane gave this description of the Thomas Peterkin Homestead House (4311 East Third Avenue):
"This log house is a good example of the well built, permanent homestead cabin. The one and one-half storied house was completed in 1937. Its round logs are notched by very tight dovetail joints. Peterkin's homestead adjoined the Lang and Klevin homesteads. The house originally sat where the Mountain View Shopping Center now stands."[6]
The Peterkins had three more sons: Ernest (born in 1924); William (born in 1926); and John (born in 1928). All four sons grew up working in the East Side Dairy along with their mother, and Peterkin worked at the dairy when not on his railroad job.
The Peterkin family subdivided their homesite purchased at the first townsite sale and subdivided the property into residential and commercial lots in 1945, building homes on the east end of Fourth Avenue, naming it the Peterkin Addition. In 1946 and 1947, Thomas Peterkin and his two sons were engaged in placer mining near Marshall on the lower Yukon River.[7]
Peterkin was a life member of the Anchorage Masonic Lodge and past president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers. His wife, Anna, was a past matron of the Eastern Star in Anchorage.
Thomas Peterkin Sr. died at his home in Anchorage on June 6, 1947. Anna Packebusch Peterkin died on November 10, 1966, in Tacoma, Washington. She was survived by her three sons, John, Thomas Jr., and William. Another son, Ernest, was killed in action during World War II while serving as a navigator with the U.S. Army Air Forces. She and her husband are buried in the Masonic Tract, Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery.[8]
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Endnotes
[1] The grave marker for Thomas Peterkin in the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery gives his date of birth as 1882. The entry for Thomas Peterkin in the Canada Census, 1891, shows his year of birth as September 1882. See, Thomas Peterkin, Census of Canada, 1891, Verulam, Victoria South, Ontario, Library and Archives Canada, http://www.bac-lac.gc,ca/eng (accessed September 14, 2016). Peterkin’s World War I draft registration card gives his date of birth as September 25, 1881 and his World War II draft registration card gives his date of birth as September 25, 1882. See, Thomas Peterkin, U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed September 14, 2016). See, draft registration card, Local Board No. 10, Anchorage, AK, Thomas Peterkin, October 16, 1918, National Archives Microfilm Publication M1509, World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Roll AK-1, U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed September 14, 2016). See, draft registration card, Thomas Peterkin, Draft Registration Cards for Fourth Registration for Alaska, April 27, 1942, NAI Number 4504983, Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group 147, National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed September 14, 2016).
[2] Thomas Peterkin, Census of Canada, 1891, Verulam, Victoria South, Ontario, Library and Archives Canada, http://www.bac-lac.gc,ca/eng (accessed September 14, 2016).
[3] Thomas F. Peterkin, 1920 U.S. Census, Anchorage, Third Judicial District, Alaska, ED 11, stamped page 51, National Archives Microfilm Publication T625, Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Roll 2031, 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line], http://ancestry.com (accessed September 14, 2016).
[4] “Thomas Peterkin Funeral Services Held Last Night,” Anchorage Daily Times, June 11, 1947, 2; and John P. Bagoy, Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1935 (Anchorage: Publications Consultants, 2001), 55-56.
[5] “Anna Peterkin Dies in Tacoma; Funeral Pending,” Anchorage Daily Times, November 10, 1966, 2; and "Thomas Peterkin Funeral Services Held Last Night,” Anchorage Daily Times, June 11, 1947, 2.
[6] Michael Carberry and Donna Lane, Patterns of the Past: An Inventory of Anchorage Historic Resources (Anchorage: Community Planning Department, Municipality of Anchorage, 1986), 187.
[7] Ibid.
[8] “Thomas Peterkin Funeral Services Held Last Night,” Anchorage Daily Times, June 11, 1947, 2; “Thomas Peterkin Dies,” Anchorage Daily News, June 7, 1947, 1; and “Mrs. Peterkin’s Funeral Slated Here Tuesday,” Anchorage Daily Times, November 14, 1966, 24.
Sources
This biographical sketch of Thomas ("Tom") Peterkin is based on an essay which originally appeared in John P. Bagoy's Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1935 (Anchorage: Publications Consultants, 2001), 55-56. See also the Tom Peterkin file, Bagoy Family Pioneer Files (2004.11), Box 6, Atwood Resource Center, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Anchorage, AK. Photographs courtesy of the Peterkin family. Edited by Mina Jacobs, 2012. Note: edited, revised, and expanded by Bruce Parham, September 14, 2016.
Preferred citation: Bruce Parham, ed., “Peterkin, Thomas ‘Tom’,” Cook Inlet Historical Society, Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1940, http://www.alaskahistory.org.
Major support for Legends & Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1940, provided by: Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Atwood Foundation, Cook Inlet Historical Society, and the Rasmuson Foundation. This educational resource is provided by the Cook Inlet Historical Society, a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt association. Contact us at the Cook Inlet Historical Society, by mail at Cook Inlet Historical Society, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, 625 C Street, Anchorage, AK 99501 or through the Cook Inlet Historical Society website, www.cookinlethistory.org.