Frank Bigger

Frank Bigger and his family moved to Dyea in 1898, and Frank opened a store. The family moved to Whitehorse in 1901 after the railway was completed. Daughter Lillian married North-West Mounted Police officer Frank Harbottle in that year.1)

In 1902, Frank built a house, later called the Martha Louise Black House, on First Avenue [Front Street]. Babe Richards remembers the house was next to John Sewell’s Store.2) John Sewell he took over J.D. Durie’s mercantile business on Front Street in 1919 and obtained a lease on the building. Durie, a former Atlin resident, had been there for eleven years and his business included general merchandise and house furnishings.3)

T.C. Richards and his family moved into Frank Bigger's house in 1922 or 1923 and lived there until 1944 when they sold it to the Blacks.4)

1)
Shirley Culpin, “Generations Worked Here, There, Everywhere to Make Good Life.” The Whitehorse Star (Whitehorse), 18 June 1975.
2) , 4)
Babe Richards writing to Jim Robb, “Whiter replies about the Martha Black house.” The Colourful Fiver Per Cent, Whitehorse Star (Whitehorse), May 1999.
3)
Jim Robb, “John Sewell, general merchant.” The Whitehorse Star (Whitehorse), 8 January 2021.