Eugene Francois Fournier (1876 - 1957)
Eugene Fournier was born in St. Lazarre, Quebec. He came to Atlin in 1898 and then moved to Dawson in 1900. He owned the Empire Café, across from the old B&F store (Butterworth’s store).1) He owned the Miners’ Hotel in Granville in 1907.2)
In 1911, he was working in the Broadway Hotel in south Dawson and met and soon married Gertrude Powell.3) Their son Emile was born in 1912. The Fourniers moved to Mayo around 1914 and Eugene was hired as the cook in the mess hall at the Silver King Mine. They had a son, Wilfred Eugene, born in Dawson in 1912. They left the Mayo area about 1917. Another son, Emile N. was born [in 1919] after they left Mayo.4)
The Fourniers bought the Bear Creek Roadhouse at the east end of the Bear Creek Compound in 1919.5) Eugene knew all of the adults in the community, and the children called him Uncle Gene. In 1957, son Wilfred was working at the Elsa Camp and Emile was in Edmonton. Eugene Fournier was ill for three years before he died in Dawson. He is buried in the Catholic cemetery.6)
Eugene’s photograph album of Mayo area images ca 1914 – 1917 is held at the Yukon Archives.7)