Gédéon Pépin (1878 – 1950)
	
Gédéon Pépin was born in Saint-Martin in the Beauce region of Quebec and studied music at the Quebec Seminary. In 1901, he travelled to the Yukon and found work for some Swedes on Dominion Creek. He only worked there for a month before he started a job at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, playing the organ and doing odd jobs. He then found better employment working for the territorial government as the officer of the registry of mines and saved enough to buy a cabin and send for his family, wife Merilda and daughter Blanche.((Yukon Archives, Pepin family fonds, Archives Society of Alberta, 2020 website: https://albertaonrecord.ca/pepin-family-fonds.))
	
In his free time, Pépin founded and directed a brass band, and played for Robert Service during his poetry recitals.((Yann Herry, //La Francophane: une richesse nordique / Northern Portraits.// L’Association franco-yukonaise, 2004: 31.)) Pépin became a world-famous choirmaster, organist, and organ repairman, and was at the centre of Dawson’s music scene from 1901 to 1912 when he left for Edmonton, Alberta.((Yukon Archives, Pepin family fonds, Archives Society of Alberta, 2020 website: https://albertaonrecord.ca/pepin-family-fonds.))
	
Merilda died in March 1909 leaving four daughters and Gédéon Pépin married Barbara Pearl Albert in April 1910. Together they raised fifteen children. The Pepin family fond at Yukon Archives contains photographs of the Pepin family in Dawson, an image of a Dawson brass band, sheet music composed by Pepin, and photocopies of news clippings.((Yukon Archives, Pepin family fonds, Archives Society of Alberta, 2020 website: https://albertaonrecord.ca/pepin-family-fonds.))