Joseph Eugène Binet (1868 - 1943)
	
Brothers Eugène, John, and Phillippe Binet arrived in the Klondike in 1895. They acquired mining concessions, founded the Binet Bros. business, bought property, and constructed buildings.((Yann Herry, //La Francophane: une richesse nordique / Northern Portraits.// L’Association franco-yukonaise, 2004: 7.)) Gene built the Yukon Hotel on Front Street in Dawson in 1898 and called it the Binet Block. Gene and John also operated the Malden House, the Marconi Hotel, and the Binet Brothers Saloon in Dawson, and the Binet Bros. Hotel and General Merchants in Mayo.((“Yukon Hotel.” //Wikipedia,// 2020 website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukon_Hotel.)) 

Gene Binet travelled to the Mayo region and was a founding father of the community. He bought 185 acres of land and, with Narcisse Lefebvre constructed a sawmill. He cleared a trail between the mining community on Duncan Creek with the riverboat landing at Mayo. He built a hotel, a general store, and a number of rental buildings including the Bank of Montreal on Front Street. He was involved in the construction of the hospital and fire station.((Yann Herry, //La Francophane: une richesse nordique / Northern Portraits.// L’Association franco-yukonaise, 2004: 7.)) In 1905, Eugène married American Mary “Jewell” Finnegan and they had a haemophiliac son who died young.((Sylvie Binette, “Joseph Eugène Binet.” De fil en histoires: Les personnages d’un territoire. AFY, 2020 website: http://fil.afy.yk.ca/index-en.html.)) Gene built Jewell the elegant two-story Binet House in Mayo. She spent her winters in California, and Eugène sold their Mayo property and joined Jewell in California in 1938.((Sylvie Binette, “Joseph Eugène Binet.” De fil en histoires: Les personnages d’un territoire. AFY, 2020 website: http://fil.afy.yk.ca/index-en.html.)) In November 1944, Jewell was living in Los Angeles, California. She instituted court proceedings to gain a larger portion of her late husband’s estate of $43,359. Gene’s will bequeathed his widow $150 a month for life and left the remainder of his estate to his brother in Quebec.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 17 November 1944.))

 In 2003, Sylvie and Xavier Binnette of Whitehorse presented the Mayor of Mayo with the Binet family tree.