Marie Joussaye Fotheringham, nee Josey (1864 - 1949)
	
Mary Josey was born in Belleville, Ontario to labourer father Michael Josey.((Michael Gates, "Early feminist had a rough ride in the Klondike." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 21 October 2011.)) She started working as a servant at age eleven. She was self-taught, without even a primary school education, but able to quote Voltaire when she was a young woman.(("Yukon's working-class poet, criminal and pest." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 20 January 2010.)) She changed her name to Joussaye when she moved to Toronto.((Darrell Hookey, "Margaret and Marie in the Klondike Gold Rush." //The Klondike Weekly,// March 20, 1998 at the 2019 website: http://www.yukonalaska.com/klondike/mitchell.html.))
	
Joussaye was a strong promotor of women’s rights. By 1893, she was making a name for herself as an activistin Toronto  by organizing domestic servants into the Working Women’s Protective Association.(("Yukon's working-class poet, criminal and pest." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 20 January 2010.)) Her poem “Only a Working Girl” was published in the //Journal of United Labour// in 1886, and in 1893 she was the president of the Working Girls Union. Her first book, //The Songs that Quinte Sang,// was published in 1895.((Darrell Hookey, "Margaret and Marie in the Klondike Gold Rush." //The Klondike Weekly,// March 20, 1998 at the 2019 website: http://www.yukonalaska.com/klondike/mitchell.html.)) 
	
She travelled across the country writing articles for the //Toronto Globe// and made her way to the Yukon to arrive in Dawson in 1902. She intended to gather information on the condition of Klondike miners for an illustrated talk in England.(("Yukon's working-class poet, criminal and pest." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 20 January 2010.)) She boasted of connections to the elite of Toronto and Vancouver and introduced herself as a writer. She met David Fotheringham, a member of the North-West Canadian Mounted Police (NWMP), who resigned his position to marry her in 1903.((Darrell Hookey, "Margaret and Marie in the Klondike Gold Rush." //The Klondike Weekly,// March 20, 1998 at the 2019 website: http://www.yukonalaska.com/klondike/mitchell.html.))

Marie secured thirty-five mining claims on Clear Creek that could be sold to a London syndicate if she could raise $1,050 to survey the property.  Marie had borrowed $100 from Hannah Muir and sold a one-eighth share in the venture to Caroline Meredith for $250. Rose Kirkpatrick gave her two diamonds and agreed that Marie would sell them and pay George White-Fraser to do the survey. George never received any money, and although John Sale bought the diamonds for $450, Rose only received $75. Marie and David were taken to court and testified that the whole thing was a misunderstanding, but the jury took twenty minutes to call them liars. Margaret Mitchell was at the court for most days to laugh and jeer at Marie. Margaret believed that Marie had never staked claims on Clear Creek. Marie was sentenced to two months of hard labour. Marie and David moved to the mouth of the Indian River to homestead and they ran a successful roadhouse. Over the course of four years, when Marie saw Margaret in town, Margaret would jeer and call her a diamond thief. In 1908, Margaret was making faces from the street at Marie who was sitting in a restaurant and then Margaret threatened Marie with a lantern. Marie went to court to get a peace bond. Neither woman was well liked in Dawson and their hatred for each other was intense. The trial was a farce, as Marie questioned all witnesses including Margaret. Margaret was placed under bond for $200 to keep the peace for one year and both women were given some wholesome advice. Marie and David were jailed for a month in 1912 for failing to pay their debts. The problem was related to a failed effort to revive a Dawson hotel.((Michael Gates, "Early feminist had a rough ride in the Klondike." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 21 October 2011.))

When David left for service in World War I, Marie stayed in Dawson and became secretary of the Yukon Women’s Protective League and Franchise Movement, and a founding member of the Yukon Progressive League, whose platform included an eight-hour work day, the vote for women, workmen’s compensation, and an elected school board. She published another book of poetry in 1918, //Selections from Anglo-Saxon Songs,// and it included a poem called “Good Luck to the Yukon Contingent.” Half of the profits from selling 2,000 copies of the book, printed by the //Dawson News,// went to provide relief for Yukon men fighting on the European battlefront. During the 1920 territorial election she spoke in favour of prohibition. She ran for the Klondike seat on the territorial council in the 1925 election but came in third.((Michael Gates, "Early feminist had a rough ride in the Klondike." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 21 October 2011.))

In 1924, the Fotheringhams moved to Mayo where David built the little steamer //Klondyke.// A five-day trip could take two weeks as he could not afford pre-cut wood along the route. Marie published the //Mayo-Keno Bulletin,// an outspoken semi-weekly newsletter. She moved to Vancouver in 1929 while David remained to work in the Keno Hill mine. He died in 1936 and Marie died in a Vancouver rooming house thirteen years later. In Vancouver, she continued to produce and send out broadsides of poetry during the 1930s. She was an enigmatic and little-known character, and the first labour poet in Canada.((Michael Gates, "Early feminist had a rough ride in the Klondike." //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 21 October 2011.))