Archie Gillespie (1901 - 1979)

Archie Gillespie was born in a cabin on Bonanza Creek near Dawson to Richard and Margaret (McLennan) Gillespie. He graduated high school and, at age 18, joined the Canadian Bank of Commerce under the management of Captain Donald Thompson, a veteran of the First World War. At age 28 he moved to Vancouver to work for the Vancouver Province as a feature writer. He and Lillian Ada Poale were married, and their first son was born in Kelowna. The family returned to the Yukon and their youngest son was born in Mayo.1) Archie and Ada together raised children Ruth, Dick, Keith and Don.2) Daughter Ruth was born in Dawson.3)

The family moved to Mayo in 1932 and Gillespie published the Mayo Miner for seven years. They moved to Dawson City in 1941 and he published the Yukon Miner through the 1940s.4) Gillespie retired to Whitehorse where he occasionally wrote for the Yukon News. His articles appeared in the Vancouver Province, the New York Times and Time Magazine.5) Jim Robb fondly remembered Gillespie’s column “Planes and Pilots” in the Yukon News Advertiser years ago, and “The Roving Reporter” column he was writing when he died.6)

1) , 3)
“The Roving Reporter As Told by Archie, His Many Friends, And Kinfolk. The Story of Archie Gillespie.” The Yukoner Magazine, Issue No. 23, August 2002: 26.
2) , 4)
Linda E.T. MacDonald and Lynette R. Bleiler, Gold & Galena. Mayo Historical Society, 1990: 377.
5)
Don Sawatsky, “A Part of Yukon History Died with Archie Gillespie.“ Whitehorse Star (Whitehorse), 2 January 1980 in The Yukoner Magazine, Issue No. 23, August 2002: 27.
6)
“Yukon Journalist Archie Gillespie.” The Whitehorse Star (Whitehorse), 19 March 2021.