Richard L. “Dick” Gillespie (1870 – 1941)
	
Richard Gillespie and his brother Frank left their home in Clyde River, Prince Edward Island and moved to Bellingham, Washington in 1896. They signed on as deckhands on a north-bound vessel to Skagway where they heard about the Klondike gold strike.((May Gillespie, “The First Gillespies in the Yukon.” //The Yukoner Magazine,// Issue No. 23, August 2002: 29.)) They went to the Klondike over the White Pass in May 1897. They passed through a blizzard on Lake Laberge and the raft started breaking up at the mouth of the Stewart River. They replenished their supplies, fixed the raft, and reached Dawson. Richard did well in mining and by 1901 was working a $10,000 claim.((J. Clinton Morrison, //Chasing a Dream: Prince Edward Islanders in the Klondike.// Summerside, PEI: Crescent Isle Publishers. 2004: 120-121.)) 
	
Dick’s brother-in-law to be, Alex McLennan, came to help run the mine and he brought his sister up to keep the house. Within a year, she and Dick were married.((May Gillespie, “The First Gillespies in the Yukon.” //The Yukoner Magazine,// Issue No. 23, August 2002: 30.)) Dick and Margaret McLennan married in 1901 and they had a son, Archie. The family moved to Lovett Gulch and then to Dawson where Gillespie sat on the Yukon Council representing Bonanza District. This seat was previously held by two other Prince Edward Islanders, Reverend John Pringle and Angus MacLeod, both from Kings Country. In 1912, Gillespie became the District Mining Recorder.((J. Clinton Morrison, //Chasing a Dream: Prince Edward Islanders in the Klondike.// Summerside, PEI: Crescent Isle Publishers. 2004:120-121.)) In the early days the mining recorder also recorded people's wills, and wrote letters to the family if someone died. He was the crown and timber agent, marriage commissioner, Justice of the Peace, and often the juvenile court magistrate. He was the local government agent.((CBC radio 12:35 p.m. special report. Wednesday, august 6, 2003.))
	
In 1921, the silver mines in the Mayo district were opening up and Gillespie was sent to Mayo to open a Mining Recorder’s office and he built a home there for the family. Daughter May began to help out in the busy office, left to go to Vancouver and take a commercial course of study, and then returned to the office as a typist and secretary.((May Gillespie, “The First Gillespies in the Yukon.” //The Yukoner Magazine,// Issue No. 23, August 2002: 32.)) 
	
The mineral Gillespite is named for Dick Gillespie. He retired to Newton, British Columbia where he farmed until his death.((J. Clinton Morrison, //Chasing a Dream: Prince Edward Islanders in the Klondike.// Summerside, PEI: Crescent Isle Publishers. 2004: 120-121.))