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.
Edward Morrison (b. 1892)
	
Edward Morrison was born in Edmonton. In 1912 he was a lineman on the Yukon Telegraph stationed at Fort Selkirk. The country between Selkirk and Stewart Island was on fire in the middle of May that year. Lineman Morrison was fighting the fire near Selwyn and, hemmed in by fire, was forced to take to the river to avoid being burned.(("Many Forest Fires: Considerable damage done Dominion Telegraph Lines." //The Weekly Star// (Whitehorse), 31 May 1912.)) 

In July 1917, Morrison enlisted for service in the First World War. He put his mother, Mrs Ann Morrison of Fort Selkirk, as his next of kin. He arrived in France in March 1918 with the 72nd Canadian Battalion and was transferred within a month to the 29th Battalion. He was discharged from the army in May 1919 in Vancouver, indicating that he intended to return to Dawson.((Email to Sally Robinson from Michael Gates, 25 April 2017.)) Dan Van Bibber remembers that Morrison was the telegraph operator in Dawson after he came back from the war.((Dan Van Bibber Oral History Project, January 2000. Tape #8 pages 6-7.))
	
The telegraph line was completed in the early 1900s but suffered damage from floods and fires. In 1925, Ed Morrison was in charge of the telegraph line gang. They passed through Carmacks in mid-August 1925 enroute to Yukon Crossing.((//Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 21 August 1925.))

Ed Morrison was the telegraph operator at Lower Laberge, and he and his family lived there from 1931 to 1933.((Mike Rourke, //Yukon River: Marsh Lake to Dawson City.// Houston B. C.: Rivers North Publications, 1997: 79.)) It was common along the Yukon Telegraph line to have a married couple in charge of a telegraph station. The wives were not paid for their labour.((Yukon Archives, Hugh Bostock interview 88/59R in Bill Miller, //Wires in the Wilderness: The Story of the Yukon Telegraph.// Surrey BC: Heritage House, 2004: 159.))