Wayne County, NC - Heritage Series

Reprinted with permission of the Mount Olive Tribune and cannot be 
reproduced without permission. 
Transcribed by Sloan Mason.

"Our Heritage" by Claude MOORE
(no date)

                      Duplin Man Writes Book On Alaska

On Saturday, May 4, Mr. Alsa GAVIN now of Southport spoke to the Duplin 
Historical Society on his 20 years experience in Alaska as a teacher and 
school administrator. He talked about his book on Alaska, which he has just 
recently published entitled "Walking Among Tall Trees." Back in the 1940's 
I remembered when he was commandant of Edwards Military Institute in 
Salemburg and had lost sight of him without knowing that he was in Alaska. 
The book brought back many memories to me of my own visit to the Yukon 
River region of Alaska in 1951.

Mr. GAVIN was born near Warsaw in 1914 and came from a pioneer colonial 
family. His father gave up farming and moved to Rose Hill where he was 
employed as a cabinetmaker at Atlantic Coffin and Cabinet Company. After 
about three years he moved his family to Goldsboro, where he was employed 
in a furniture factory and there his health failed. They then moved to 
Magnolia. 

Alsa was the oldest of seven children and he bore the responsibility of 
supporting the family. They worked in a factory where produce cups and 
baskets were made. He worked while he was in school and in 1933 he 
graduated from Magnolia High School. It was the middle of the Great 
Depression and going to college was out of the question.

In 1932 young Alsa joined the Citizens Military Training Corps. In 1933 he 
joined the newly created Civilian Conservation Corps. He then worked for a 
time with the Edwards Memorial School and with the help of Mr. and Mrs. 
W.J. JONES, co-presidents of Pineland College where he was graduated in 
1938. During the meantime Edwards Military Institute was established and he 
became commandant, a position which he held until 1945. He taught in public 
school for three years and then he was employed by the Navy at Camp Lejeune.
He later returned to the graduate school at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill.

In 1949 Alsa GAVIN was married to Betty WITT, a Virginian, and they now 
have two married daughters.

In 1951 GAVIN accepted a teaching position to also serve as principal at 
Eagle, Alaska, the natural setting in Alaska, the lack of roads, the 
customs of the natives, the frontier spirit of the territory, as well as 
some of the problems which he and his family faced while teaching in Alaska.

The experiences which he had had in rural Duplin probably prepared him to 
help with the viscitudes which he found in Alaska. Much of his writing is 
about the people in Alaska whom he came to know, to understand, and to love.

Alaska is the last frontier of the United States and since the drilling of 
oil wells, the country has changed. Some communities in Alaska are still 
without roads.

I recommend this book for those who are interested in the development of 
Alaska. Today I am placing a copy in the Mount Olive College library.

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