Dr.. Cramer History Story

 

By Dave Kiffer

For the Daily News

 

(Published 8-16-21)

Recently, more than 30 descendants of longtime Ketchikan doctor Dwight Cramer and his wife Ann Cramer gathered for a family reunion in Ketchikan.

Dr. Cramer served the Ketchikan Community from 1937 to 1963 when he died suddenly from paralysis of the bowel, Dr. Louis Salazar told the Ketchikan Daily News on Sept. 13, 1963. 

“Dr. Cramer had given many of his years of practice to public service,” the Daily News reported. “He was city health officer for several years and served as president of the Alaska Medical Society for two years…He was a volunteer for the selective service and examined hundreds of draftees and others.” 

It was as city health officer in the 1940s and 1950s that Cramer was involved in two challenging situations in Ketchikan’s history.

The first was during World War II when there was local concern that Aleuts living at a relocation camp near Ward Lake were potentially spreading venereal disease in the community. At public hearings, Cramer testified that it was much more likely that the Aleuts had contracted those diseases from interactions with locals, specifically interactions in the Creek Street Red Light district.

Cramer told the Ketchikan Chronicle that there was no evidence that the Aleuts had brought any of the diseases to Ketchikan when they arrived in 1942. But he was concerned that the "primitive" living conditions they were forced to endure at Ward Lake made the spread of disease likely during their internment. He also said the territorial government needed to address the living conditions at the camp and - if it was not capable of improving those conditions - it should consider moving them elsewhere where the living conditions would be better.

Cramer also was part of the group of local citizens that finally succeeded in closing down the Creek Street red light district in the 1950s. Cramer first began efforts to "shut down" the Creek in the early 1940s, when officials with the military were concerned about venereal disease being transmitted from the denizens of the Creek to the large number of military men in the community during the War. But Cramer's efforts were stymied because several high-ranking officials in the community wanted the Creek to continue to operate as it had since 1902.

It wasn't until the early 1950s that a regional Grand Jury convened and determined that some local law enforcement officials and city officials were financially involved Creek operations. That revelation led to the closure of "the Creek" in 1954.

Cramer's efforts gained him some enemies in the community, specifically one of the more notorious "madams" of the era, Dolly Arthur. Cramer family members say that the doctor was threatened by Arthur and may have been physically assaulted by her on one occasion when he visited her for a medical ailment while she was in jail. 

As local health officer, Cramer was also at the forefront of community efforts to combat a serious tuberculosis outbreak in the region in the late 1940s and early 1950s. 

Cramer was also apparently an "amateur pugilist" as reported Ketchikan Alaska Chronicle on 11/15/1952  

“Five lively boxing matches plus an impromptu half-round affair between a leading republican, Dr. D. L. Cramer, and a leading democrat, Val Jolicoeur, highlighted the 40 & 8 smoker for all veterans last night at the Legion Dugout,” the Chronicle noted in its daily roundup of community happenings.

Dwight Cramer was born in Seattle on April 20, 1900, according to his biography in the 1947 edition of Who's Who in Alaska. His parents were Albert and Bertha (Van Gelder) Cramer. He was raised in Centralia and entered the Merchant Marine during World War I.

After World War I, he attended the University of Washington and became a pharmacist in Chehalis. But his mother's brother, Frank Van Gelder, a Los Angeles dentist, encouraged him to become a doctor and loaned him $10,000 ($136,000 in 2021 dollars), to attend medical school at the University of Southern California. Family members say that Dr. Cramer paid the loan back within a decade. While in medical school, he married Chehalis native Ann Lou Sowers, who was a voice teacher, in 1927.

After graduation from USC, Dr. Cramer first worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico for several years and also served as a doctor on board Santa Fe Railroad trains. In 1937, the Cramers moved to Ketchikan. They lived at Mile 4 South Tongass Highway for many years and raised five children who all graduated from Ketchikan High School: Dwight Jr. (Bud), Toni (who married longtime Ketchikan educator, Dick Hansen), Jon, Rick and Judy (who married longtime local pharmacist John Stenford).

Ann Cramer and several family members stayed in Ketchikan after Dr. Cramer died.  In 1967, Ann Cramer was nominated for Alaska Mother of the Year by the Professional Women’s Club. The nomination noted that she was active in the St. John’s Episcopal Church, serving in the choir and the Altar Guild as well as being a delegate to the Episcopal convocation in 1965.  

In the community, she also served as a member of the Aurora Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star and was a mother advisor to the Rainbow Girls. She was also a member of the Revilla Rebekah Lodge and the Mountain Point Community Club, the Young Homemakers, the American Legion Auxiliary and the PEO Sisterhood. She was also a girl scout leader

In the 1960s, she was the business manager for the Tongass Timber Trust and coordinated the logging camp insurance program for the Alaska Loggers Association. Ann Cramer died in 1977.

The following Cramer family members took part in the reunion:

Dwight "Bud" and Beverly Cramer. David and Cindy "Cramer" Oliver and their family Christopher Cramer, Amy, Caysen and Calli Oliver, Curtis Cramer Oliver, Craig Cramer and Keisha Oliver;

Dick and Toni "Cramer" Hansen, granddaughter Kaijsa Bellon and her fiancee Mac Dahl;

 

Jon and Susan Cramer, Craig and Jill “Cramer” Vivid and their Children Harper and Rhett;

 

Rick and Nancy Cramer;

And Judy and John Stenford family members: Tina McPherson, Jim and Ann Marie Meirsonne, Judi and Maurice Meiresonne and Leif Stenfjord.

Five longtime friends of the Cramers, Chuck "Tinker" Baird and Mondo and Gayle Ramirez  and Chip and Debbie also took part in the reunion.