Emma J. Neftel
	
Emma Naftel was the head of the Deaconess Home in Toronto before she came north. In the Yukon, she was on the staff of the Anglican Chooutla Residential School for five years. Around 1912, Bishop Stringer planned to have a board [public] school built at Carcross to connect with the Residential School located there. The federal government objected, and the plan was dropped.((“St. Paul’s Hostel Open.” //The Weekly Star// (Whitehorse), 1 October 1920.)) In 1917, Neftal was a girl’s matron at the residential school.((Reverend Marsh, “The Church’s Role.” Unpublished manuscript. Old Log Church Museum, Marsh research file.))
	
In 1920, Dr. Culbertson’s residence in Dawson was purchased to provide a home for children, other than First Nation and Inuvialuit, whose circumstances prevented them from getting a school education. The residence was opened in September as St. Paul’s Hostel with Miss Neftel as the first superintendent. Anglican Bishop Stringer officiated at the formal opening. The plan was to expand the residence as needed.((“St. Paul’s Hostel Open.” //The Weekly Star// (Whitehorse), 1 October 1920.)) Miss Neftal in charge of four students. Children of mixed descent had long been a concern for the Anglican Church as it was increasingly difficult to get benefits for them.((Reverend Marsh, “The Church’s Role.” Unpublished manuscript. Old Log Church Museum, Marsh research file.)) The children lived at the Hostel while attending a full day of school at the Dawson Public School. They were expected to do chores at the Hostel outside of school hours.((“St. Paul’s Hostel (YK).” Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, 2021 website: https://collections.irshdc.ubc.ca/index.php/Detail/entities/1188.)) 
	
It is unknown how long Miss Neftel remained at the Hostel. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hickling arrived in Dawson to assist at St. Paul’s Hostel at an unknown date.((Bishop I.O. Stringer’s sermon at St. Anne’s Church, Toronto, 30 April [1922]. Old Log Church Museum vertical files.)) Charles Johnson and his wife moved to Dawson to take charge of St. Paul’s Hostel in 1922.((“History of Chooutla School.” General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, Toronto in the Yukon Archives search file.))
	
In 1922, Four of the Van Bibber children (Helen, Pat, Kathleen and George) were at school in Dawson, living at St. Paul’s Hostel. Four other students living at the hostel contracted TB and died, and Helen was really sick. The hostel manager didn’t notify their father, but a Mountie named Cronkite made a detour from his patrol to Mica Creek. Ira Van Bibber hitched up his dogs and took the older boys with him to Dawson. Cronkite and another constable travelled with them as the Mountie was worried about Ira being so angry. They loaded Helen onto the sled and carried her back to Mica Creek where they kept her in a tent away from the others. She died in the spring of 1923. None of the kids went back to school after that and Alex Van Bibber home-schooled the young ones.((JJ Van Bibber and Naill Fink, ed., //I was born under a spruce tree.//  Vancouver: Talus Publishing Group, 2012: 28-29.)) 

By 1923-24, residents at the Hostel had increased to twenty-one children. The Good Samaritan Hospital Buildings were acquired for larger quarters. The Hostel was closed in 1953 and the children [that could not afford to attend the Dawson public school] were moved to the residential school at Carcross.((Manuscript "Summery of the Anglican Church in Yukon" by Archdeacon Allan Haldenby of Dawson in 1957 and updated by Lee Sax and Bishop Ronald Ferris in 1991.))