Yukon who is who

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
Matthew Fyffe
	Matthew Fyffe was a North-West Mounted Police constable in the party escorting Commissioner James Walsh into the Yukon in the fall of 1897. Fyffe and Constable Bill Jealous were left at Hootalinqua with some tools and rations and instructed to build a police post. They spent the winter there checking the inbound and stopping those with insufficient supplies. They bought a lantern and some coal oil but used candles and conserved the fuel for special occasions. They traded some bacon rations for two tins of Irish stew to celebrate Christmas. They were joined for dinner by Constable Anson Lynn, one of the two men stationed at Lower Laberge.((Jim Wallace, //Forty Mile to Bonanza: The North-West Mounted Police in the Klondike Gold Rush.// Calgary: Bunker to Bunker Publishing. 2000: 62-633, 71-72.))
	
Constables Fyffe, Richards, and Dixon were stationed at Whitehorse Rapids under Sgt. Joyce over the summer of 1898. Some thought that the police were taking money to line up piloting jobs for Dixon, but Steele denied the rumours in his report for 1898. Dixon was not allowed to charge the public for his work on the river.((Report of S.B. Steele, 1898 NWMP Annual Report. 1898: 31.)) Klondike stampeder F.J. Dunleavy was one of those who complained. Steele investigated and found the charges to be unfounded.((Report of Supt. S.B. Steele to Commissioner, Y.T. for month of August 1898, headed “Fort Herchmer, Dawson.” Pages 2-3. Tagish District - Periodical Reports, NAC RG 18.)) Dunleavy also accused Fyffe of firing shots across the bows of boats to cause them to come in for examination at Miles Canyon. Major Walsh gave orders to Fyffe in the spring to search all boats for liquor. In many cases people would not, or could not, report in. On receipt of the complaint, Steele ordered Fyffe to report himself to Dawson under arrest and wrote to Inspector Starnes to investigate. Steele thought that Fyffe did fire across the bows of one or two boats. In Steele's opinion it was not necessary to order a search at so many posts down the river, and he thought Commissioner Walsh would agree. Steele ordered that boats be inspected at Whitehorse after dark and not to search if those concerned could produce a ticket or slip showing they had been searched at Tagish. This was to prevent the smuggling of contraband.((Report of Supt. S.B. Steele to Commissioner, YT for month of August 1898, "headed Fort Herchmer, Dawson." 154, 445-98, Tagish District - Periodical Reports, NAC RG 18.))