Marie Malvina “Mina” Starnes, nee Sicotte (b. 1868)
	
Marie Sicotte was born in Quebec, the daughter of Judge Louis-Victor Sicotte and Margaret Amelia Starnes. Margaret was the daughter of Benjamin Starnes, Cortlandt Starnes’ grandfather. Mina and Cortlandt were married in 1891 and they had a son, Cortlandt Starnes Jr.((“Major-General Cortlandt Starnes.” My Genealogy and History Page of Estevan Saskatchewan, 2018 website: https://www.gent-family.com/Estevan/cortlandtstarnesbio.html)) 
Marie came to the Yukon to join her husband who was posted to Dawson during the Klondike gold rush. She travelled with the Yukon Field Force in 1898.((Jim Wallace, //Forty Mile to Bonanza: The North-West Mounted Police in the Klondike Gold Rush.// Calgary: Bunker to Bunker Publishing, 2000: 61-69.)) She arrived in Dawson on the steamer //Anglian// in July 1898.(("Personals." //Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 20 July 1898.))
	
In 1898, the Jesuit hospital was the only refuge for sick miners in Dawson. It incurred a huge debt and a bazaar was organized to raise some money.  A meeting was held at the barracks and Mrs. Captain Starnes was chosen to lead the women and Jeremiah Lynch was chosen to lead the men. Lynch described Mrs. Starnes as a vivacious, piquant little French Canadian of the most attractive type. Quick, witty and charming, she was also energetic and inventive. The committee called her ‘la petite Caporal.’((Jeremiah Lynch, //Three Years in the Klondike.// Chicago: The Lake side Press, 1967: 186-87.))