Pretoria Ann Butterworth, nee Curtis. (1915 - 2006)
Pretoria Curtis was born in Dawson to parents Charles and Annie Curtis. Her father left his Ontario farm to come to the Klondike. Her mother followed her brothers to Dawson from Gorbridge, Scotland. The brothers worked in the coal mine at Coal Creek. After high school, Pretoria attended Sprott-Shaw College in Vancouver during the winter of 1932-33 to be a stenographer. She returned to Dawson and worked in the town office of the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corp. She later worked for Andrew Baird at the Bear Creek compound office and met Jack Butterworth who was employed in the warehouse. They married in 1938 and lived at Bear Creek. They bought Herbert Winaut's store in Dawson in 1942 and then built a new store next door in the mid-1950s.1) Jack and Pretoria owned Butterworth's store from 1942 until 1970. After Jack's passing, Pretoria ran the business until 1977.2)
Pretoria raised five children and she was very active in the community. She played the organ at St. Paul's Church and sang in the choir.3)
Pretoria was a member of the Nutty Club that started meeting as a social group in 1945. They knitted for Second World War soldiers and volunteered at the hospital. The Dawson Daily News stopped publishing in 1954 and Nutty Club members started answering requests for local news and writing a newsletter that became very popular in and out of the Yukon. The newsletter morphed into the Klondike Korner. Twelve women took turns doing the various chores involved in managing the publication and it grew to a subscriber base of 400 by 1959. The biweekly paper was produced at the Dawson Public School until 1957 when the school burned, and operations were settled in St. Paul’s Hostel in 1959. They used borrowed mimeograph machines until a donation allowed them to buy a Gestetner.4) Pretoria also wrote a weekly column in the Whitehorse Star and served on a territorial committee for small business loans.5)
Pretoria retired to Vancouver but remained active with the Vancouver Yukoners Association and volunteered work with the Canadian Blood Services.6) “Pete” Butterworth was predeceased by Jack and grandson Chuckie and survived by children George, JoAnne (Ed Armstrong), John (Corina), Nancy (Henry Szcypiorkowski), and Carol (Phil Roszell).7)