Emerson Edwards (d. 1971)

Emerson Edwards was in Alaska in 1896, exploring Cooks Inlet, Turnagain Arm, Nome, and Dyea. He arrived in Dawson in 1898.¹⁾ He operated a barge for the Yukon Telegraph Company between 1898 and 1900 and delivered supplies to isolated operators along the Yukon River.²⁾

Emerson and Maude Shaver were married in Dawson in 1903, and a highlight of the day was a blueberry pie-eating contest. Maude was sixteen and did not know much about cooking, so the couple ate mostly peas and cake for the first six months of their marriage.³⁾ The family was living on Eighth Avenue in Dawson in March 1908 when their six-day-old infant, Emerson J. Edwards died of “debility”.⁴⁾

The Edwards lived on many gold-bearing creeks in the Klondike, including Hunker and Bonanza, and spent several years in the Pelly River country.⁵⁾ Shaver prospected on Thistle Creek with his partner Cy Detroz [in the 1920s?]. ⁶⁾

In 1941/42, the Edwards briefly ran a restaurant in Whitehorse at the corner of Fourth and Main and watched the droves of American soldiers arrive to build the Alaska Highway. They had a mink ranch near Carcross in the 1940s. The Edwards left their little home on Fifth Avenue in Whitehorse and moved south to British Columbia in 1957.⁷⁾