Charles Brown
Charles was a member of the North-West Mounted Police in the 1800s. When the Canadian government decided to check out complaints of lawlessness at Forty Mile in the Yukon, Charles Constantine was chosen to undertake the reconnaissance in 1894. Constantine was then commanding officer at Moosomin. He asked that Staff Sergeant Charles Brown accompany him. They had worked together to solve a case of murder in 1894. Constantine had been impressed with Brown's work and Brown was promoted as a result. Constantine and Brown reached Victoria on June 17, 1894 and arrived in Juneau to find they had missed their connecting steamer. Constantine bought supplies there, including material to build a boat. They arrived at Dyea on June 29. At Lake Lindeman, they built a raft that got them to Lake Bennett. There they contracted Joe Beaudoin and Jack Cawper to build a boat, called the Ark, for the Yukon River trip. Constantine and Brown arrived at Forty Mile on August 7. Constantine stayed at Forty Mile for four weeks. During that time, he and Brown collected $3,248.82 in duties.1)
When Constantine left on September 3, Brown was upstream on the Yukon River, at Fort Selkirk, collecting more custom duties. Before Christmas, Brown also visited Miller Creek in the Sixtymile country where he collected $5,000 in duty on imported goods, mostly from the North American Transportation and Trading Co. McQuesten did not pay anything. Brown reported a lot of theft from caches and wanted at least forty men to join him in enforcing the law. The S.S. Arctic was expected in the spring with McQuesten's goods. Brown thought that if they were held until the duty was paid, McQuesten could drop a hint and the miners would take the goods. In January, Brown heard a case against Charles Hamilton by a servant in his house.2)
Brown left Forty Mile on June 20, 1895 for St. Michael on the sternwheeler Portus B. Weare. The Excelsior came in from the south with Constantine and the new detachment, arriving in St. Michael's on July 3. The Weare came alongside and they transferred the cargo aboard. Brown said if they had not been there, he would have continued on outside. Constable Webster said Brown looked like he had been drawn through a knot hole.3)
Brown took his discharge in December 1895 and the Controller of Customs arranged to allow him to remain in the Yukon to attend to customs matters exclusively. By this time, Constantine and Brown were no longer friendly. When Brown was released, Constantine refused to sign his accounts on the grounds that there was no proof of payment. Brown left the Yukon in the winter of 1896. The man who accompanied him to Juneau was instructed to stay until his return, when he would be paid room and board, but Brown never returned and was thought to be in South Africa, where he had served before coming to Canada. George R. Voss of Forty Mile laid a complaint against Brown, but after Brown had left the NWMP. He accused Brown of being drunk in December 1894 and January 1895.4)