Isaac Gustave Wikstrom

Isaac Gustave Wikstrom	Alice Webber Wikstrom

The first of the of the family to settle in Columbia County was I. G. Wikstrom, known variously as "I. G.", "Gus", and "Ike". He was the son of Isaac Aaron and Christine Wikstrom of Ronea, Norbotten Region, Sweden. His siblings included Mary, Hannah, Charles and Johan Alfred Wikstrom. Johan Alfred Wikstrom was in the area for a while but moved to Yakima, Washington where he died in 1936.

I. G. and Alice Wikstrom had a number of children including, Frank, Charles, Anna, Inez and Daisy. It is reported that I. G. came to Columbia County, Oregon from Trego County,. Kansas in in 1878, however, the newspaper report of his arrival in the St. Helens Chroniclesays the year was 1887. Considering that his daughter Anna was born in Kansas the latter date makes more sense.

I. G. is known to have lived in the Columbia County but from time to time also lived and worked in the Kalama, Washington area, and was living there in 1905, when James William (J.W.) VanNatta returned from the Kondike and married his daughter Anna. J. W. had been a motorman on a street car in Portland when the gold rush to the Klondike opened up. Like thousands of others he went to Skagway and hiked over the Chilkoot pass into the Yukon. He worked in the mines for about 5 years gradually working his way north to Fairbanks Alaska.

Anna Elizabeth Wikstrom (1884-1983) married James William VanNatta (1869-1950) in 1905. Both are buried at the Bethany Memorial cemetary at Scappoose, Oregon. They had a son George G. VanNatta and a daughter Lillian VanNatta who married Harold Allison, and lived in Eugene.