David Hetherington Fotheringham (1880 - 1936)
Dave Fotheringham was born in Merriton, Ontario.1) He joined the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1899 and was a veteran of the Boer War. He met Marie Joussaye in 1902 and he retired from the Mounted Police so they could marry in 1903.2) In 1909, the police quarters at the mouth of the Indian River were turned over to the Department of the Interior and occupied by ex-Constable Fotheringham.3) Fotheringham applied for 27.5 acres at the mouth of the Indian River, including Police Island, in April 1909 after the RNWMP relinquished their title and rights. The island had a steamboat landing and would likely be needed for tourist purposes. Fotheringham made use of the RNWMP buildings and built more of his own.4) Marie and David ran a successful roadhouse but were jailed for a month in 1912 for failing to pay their debts. The problem was related to a failed effort to revive a Dawson hotel.5)
Fotheringham was recruited by George Black for service in the First World War. He was in England in August 1917.6) He returned to the Yukon and took the steamer Selkirk to Dawson in June 1919.7) He was a sharpshooter during the war and very proud of his marksmanship. One time, after a night of drinking, he managed to shoot the cigarette out of the mouth of a man standing at the far end of the cabin.8)
The Fotheringhams moved to Mayo in the 1920s and Marie published the Mayo-Keno Bulletin. David built and operated the river steamer Klondyke. On one trip in 1924, a five-day trip from Whitehorse to Mayo took two weeks when Fotheringham ran out of money to buy cut firewood and had to stop along the way to cut his own. The Klondyke was small and tied up at night anyway. The boat also operated excursions from Mayo to Fraser Falls. Fotheringham and George Reynolds mined together on Ledge Creek, which flows into Mayo Lake, in 1933. They just made wages. Fotheringham is buried in Mayo. David and Marie had no children.9)