Frederick Washington Harte (1839 - 1897)
	
Fred Harte was born in the county of Antrim, Ireland.((Francois Xavier Mercier, //Recollections of the Youkon: Memoires from the Years 1868-1885.// Edited by Linda Finn Yarborough. Anchorage: The Alaska Historical Society, 1986: 17.)) He graduated from the University of Dublin as a medical doctor. An epidemic destroyed his father's cattle farm, and the family moved to Canada. Hart never practiced medicine but was a schoolteacher for a time.((Linda E.T. MacDonald and Lynette R. Bleiler, //Gold & Galena.// Mayo Historical Society, 1990: 19.)) 
	
In September 1872, Harte and Arthur Harper, both from Antrim, left Manson Creek to prospect on the Mackenzie River. Harper reported to William Ogilvie that they found nothing on the Liard, colours on the Mackenzie, nothing on the Peel, fair prospects on the Bell, nothing on the Porcupine and colours and prospects everywhere on the Yukon River. They made their way down the river to St. Michael.((William Ogilvie, “Extract from Lecture on the Klondike Mining District” in //Klondike Gold Miners of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Syndicate.// Reprint Franklin Classics, October 2018: 20.)) 
	
Harte arrived in Alaska in July 1873 with Arthur Harper's party.((Francois Xavier Mercier, //Recollections of the Youkon: Memoires from the Years 1868-1885.// Edited by Linda Finn Yarborough. Anchorage: The Alaska Historical Society, 1986: 17.)) Jack McQuesten, James McKnipp, Alfred H. Mayo, Arthur Harper, Frederick W. Hart, George Finch and Andrew Kansellar came into the Yukon together. They wintered at Beaver Slough, below Fort Yukon with Arthur Kensley, George Finch and Sam Williams, a cousin of McQuesten’s. Joe Defresne, John M’Intyre, Frank Barnfield, Fred Mercier and George Nicholson (the last three Hudson Bay Company men) were also on the river. These men were the first prospectors who came into the country.((James Wickersham, //Old Yukon.// Washington: Washington Law Book Co.,1938: 98.)) 
	
Harte spent most of his time prospecting but also worked for the Alaska Commercial Company. In 1874, Michael Laberge was the Alaska Commercial Company agent in charge at Fort Nulato on the lower Yukon River, and Frederick Harte as his assistant.((Francois Xavier Mercier, //Recollections of the Youkon: Memoires from the Years 1868-1885.// Edited by Linda Finn Yarborough. Anchorage: The Alaska Historical Society, 1986: xiv, 12, 17.))
Fred Harte was initiated into the newly-organized Yukon Order of Pioneers in 1894 and was the first secretary of the order in 1894/95. He is buried in the Pioneer plot in Dawson.((Dawson City Museum, “A Walking Tour of Dawson City Cemeteries,” 2018 website: 
https://tc.beta.gov.yk.ca/sites/default/files/dawson-cemeteries-walking-tour.pdf))