Margaret Mayo, Neehunilthnoh (1860 – 1925)
Neehunilthnoh (Margaret) was the daughter of a chief at Noukelakayet / Noochuloghoyet (now Tanana in Alaska) and the cousin of Jennie Harper.1) Margaret's name Neehunilthnoh means “home body or settled at home.“ Her ancestors were originally from the Koyukuk country. Her family settled in Noukelakayet / Noochuloghoyet some years before Captain Al Mayo arrived in 1874. This was where they met. Margaret and Al Mayo were married in 1874.2) Margaret was fourteen when she met and married Al “Cap” Mayo, then twenty-seven. Over the next eight years, they operated a store at Tanana Station. They moved their trading post to Fort Nelson after the gold strike on the Stewart River in 1884 and then to Forty Mile after the gold strike on the Fortymile River in 1886.3)
Margaret and Al had twelve children. The first five were born at Old Station, Alaska. The sixth baby was born at Forty Mile in 1885 and died at one month. The next three children, born at Forty Mile, were Benjamin (b. 1888), Leroy Napoleon (b. 1890), and Kathleen “Kit” (b. 1892). The next two children, Antoinette “Anto” (b.1894) and Annette “Nettie” (b. 1894), were born at Old Station. Margaret’s last child, Florence (b. 1897), was born at Rampart, Alaska.4) The three oldest sons and two daughters were sent to school in the southern United States. Kitty left for a boarding school in San Francisco when she was thirteen around 1905. At that time, Florence was seven.5)
The family settled permanently in Rampart in 1897 where they operated a trading post and a hotel. Of the three pioneer American traders, Al Mayo was the only one to live out his days in the north with his wife by his side.6) Margaret was a mid-wife in Rampart, delivering at least one of her granddaughters in 1914. Margaret died at Rampart, two years after her husband.7)