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.
John Edward Farnworth "Ned" Hoggan (1864 - 1937)
	
Ned Hoggan was born in Calcutta, India the son and grandson of British Indian Army officers. He went to Liverpool at age 14 to train as a ships officer. He qualified in both steam and sail and sailed all over the world as a Master mariner. He married Catherine "Kate" Posetti in Brussels where their first two children were born.((Joann Robertson, //The Yukon: Life Between the Gold Rush and the Alaska Highway.// Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2012.))

Ned formed a partnership with a man taking a large number of dogs to the Klondike. He left his ship in Boston and joined the Klondike stampede in 1897 and Kate followed him in 1898, leaving daughters Lill and Helene in London. Ned and Kate spent the rest of their lives in the Yukon and they had six more children. Ned's partnership broke down and there were no supplies waiting in Dawson as promised. He partnered with an old shipmate he met in Dawson then staked a claim on Thistle Creek. He soon gave up prospecting and went to Miles Canyon near Whitehorse where he piloted boats through the canyon and Whitehorse Rapids.((Joann Robertson, //The Yukon: Life Between the Gold Rush and the Alaska Highway.// Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2012.)) 

Captain Hoggan was in the wheelhouse as the pilot for Captain Haley when the steamer //Clifford Sifton// went through Miles Canyon and White Horse Rapids. Hoggan was a member of the White Horse Pilots Association and had acted as pilot when the steamers //Nora, Baily// and //Zealandian// were brought down.((“The Clifford Sifton, went through White Horse rapids in 29 minutes. A Westport captain was at the helm, and a Yarmouth man was chief engineer - two men fell overboard, but were rescued - Col. Williams had $50,000.00 at stake.” //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), July 1900.)) 
	
The Hoggans were living in a small log cabin in Whitehorse when Dorothy Evelyn was born in 1900. In 1901, the family was living at Carcross where Ned worked on the steamers supplying goods to the settlements around the southern lakes. In the winter of 1901/02, Ned and Kate owned or managed the Takhini Roadhouse. Kate helped the cook Mrs. Ritchie. Ned was restless, and they moved into Whitehorse for a time. John William was born there in 1903 with Dr. Sugden in attendance. When they heard about the Kluane gold strike, the Hoggans moved there.((Joann Robertson, //The Yukon: Life Between the Gold Rush and the Alaska Highway.// Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2012.))

In 1905, Ned built a house on Boothy Creek for Bullion Creek Hydraulics who paid the construction costs of $700. Hoggan was to run a steamer for the company on Kluane Lake but the job didn't materialize. He and a man named McKenzie bought two small boats and started freighting supplies to miners and prospectors around the lake. Son George Disraeli was born at Silver City in 1906 and Florence (Florrie) was born in 1908 at either Jarvis Creek or Burwash. She was delivered by Louise Dickson, wife of Tom Dickson who was Ned's hunting and prospecting partner. The family moved back to Whitehorse in 1909 and Ned signed on with the British Yukon Navigation Co. (BYN) in June.((Joann Robertson, //The Yukon: Life Between the Gold Rush and the Alaska Highway.// Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2012.)) 

Ned became second mate for the BYN, although he was qualified to be captain, because captains could not work year-round, and Ned needed the money for his family. He was able to work as a watchman during the winter in his later years. He was always referred to as Captain Hoggan. The family moved to Hootalinqua in 1910. It was a small community with only a telegraph operator, an RCMP post, and a few First Nation families who spent the summer there and the winters trapping. Robert MacGregor was born in 1922 in Whitehorse. Kate took a river boat from Hootalinqua for the birth. Helene (17) joined the family from England in the summer of 1913 and Lill (21) arrived in September of the same year.((Joann Robertson, //The Yukon: Life Between the Gold Rush and the Alaska Highway.// Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2012.)) 
	
The Hoggan family lived at Hootalinqua from about 1910 to [1914]. Hoggan worked on the riverboats in the summer including the //Dawson, Neecheah, Keno,// and one summer he was on the southern lakes boat //Tutchi// and was never home.((Yukon Government, Historic Sites Unit file, conversation with Greg Hoggan, son of Captain Hoggan, 28 January 1982.)) He looked after the boats in the winter. There was a small bay at Hootalinqua and the boats wintered so they would not have to wait until the water in the Thirty Mile River rose. The boats stored at Hootalinqua were the smaller ones used to haul the ore from Mayo. In 1911, only the steamer //Canadian// wintered there and two years later the //Yukon// and the //Alaska// spent the winter.((Yukon Archives, Yukon River Oral History Project, 81/32, tape 6, Johnny Hoggan.))

Hoggan worked on the steamer //Evelyn// around 1913. The //Evelyn// was renamed the //Norcom,// and still rests in dry-dock at Hootalinqua island.((Yukon Government, Historic Sites Unit file.)) The winter drydock was built in 1913.((Richard J. Friesen, "Theme and Resource Assessment: Yukon River Recreational & Historic Waterway" Parks Canada, 1978: 157.))  Hoggan looked after the shipyard at Hootalinqua Island, overseeing the haul-out of boats in the fall and the launchings in the spring, and caretook in the winter. The family lived in Dan Snore's old roadhouse. Daughter Lil married Jack Ward, the Hootalinqua telegraph operator.((Yukon Government, Historic Sites Unit file, conversation with Greg Hoggan, son of Captain Hoggan, 28 January 1982.))

In 1914, the family moved to Sunnydale near Dawson and Hoggan worked at Sunnydale Slough where White Pass stored the downriver boats during the winter.((Joyce Yardley, //Yukon Riverboat Days.// Surry B.C.: Hancock House, 1996: 151, 154, 159.)) Son Johnny started school in Dawson that year.((Yukon Archives, Yukon River Oral History Project, 81/32, tape 6, Johnny Hoggan.))
	
Hoggan’s sons found employment over the years near Dawson. Sons Greg and John were active on the dredges for the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corp. John was a dredge master and the rehabilitated dredge at Clear Creek was named for him.((Yukon Government, Historic Sites Unit file, conversation with Greg Hoggan, son of Captain Hoggan, 28 January 1982.)) Helene married Pete Peterson in Dawson, and they had a daughter, Doris. Helene and Doris set out to meet Pete's family in 1918 and Pete was to join them on the last boat, but he drowned when the //Princess Sophia// sank in the Lynn Canal. Ned and Kate's daughter Marjorie was born in Sunnydale in 1916.((Joann Robertson, //The Yukon: Life Between the Gold Rush and the Alaska Highway.// Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2012.)) Captain Hoggan and his wife lived at Stewart Island around 1928.((Joyce Yardley, //Yukon Riverboat Days.// Surry B.C.: Hancock House, 1996: 151, 154, 159.)) Captain Hoggan died in Mayo.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 26 February 1937.))
	
J.E.F. (Ned) Hoggan was inducted into the Yukon Transportation Hall of Fame as a transportation pioneer in June 1911.((Michael Gates, “Pioneers of transportation honoured at hall of fame ceremony.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 17 June 2011. 2018 website: https://www.yukon-news.com/letters-opinions/pioneers-of-transportation-honoured-at-hall-of-fame-ceremony/))