Tommy H. Kerruish (1873 - 1944)
Tommy Kerruish left Ramsay in the Isle of Man in 1892 to travel to the United States when he was nineteen. He worked in the mines at Butte, Montana and then he went to Rossland, British Columbia. He went to Alaska in 1903 and the Yukon two years later.1) [In 1909], he was employed by the J.H. Conrad interests in the Carcross area.2)
At one time or another, Kerruish was in charge of operations at every important copper mine around Whitehorse.3) He started working at the Grafter Mine as the foreman and over the years he worked at Copper King, War Eagle, Carlisle, and Pueblo mines. (Jane Gaffin, “A Glimpse at the Whitehorse Copperbelt: A Compilation.” October 2014: 42-44.)) In January 1927, Tom Kerruish was the mine manager at the Carlisle mine. He and Arthur Nordham almost lost their lives to asphyxiation when they went underground too soon after a blast.4) In March 1928, Superintendent Kerruish managed the move and installation of the diamond drill to War Eagle mine and put it in continuous operation.5) Kerruish’s last job in the Whitehorse Copper Belt was for Richmond-Yukon Copper Company at Pueblo in 1928 where he was the superintendent of drilling operations. No one under his watch ever suffered an injury.6)
In June 1928, Richmond-Yukon Copper Ltd. announced that the ore bodies they struck are not big enough to continue with their mine development plans and they discontinued drilling operations of the Whitehorse copper properties.7) After the copper mines shut down, Tommy worked in the silver mine at Keno before heading out to prospect for gold in the Kluane and Teslin River areas.8)
Kerruish prospected in the Hootalinqua [Teslin River] River area in 1928 and travelled back to Whitehorse in November, accompanied by Frank Jim, to report good prospects. At that time Kerruish was superintendent of the White Mines organization.9) He secured some ground on the river and planned to prospect in the area using equipment acquired and brought in during the winter of 1928/29.10) Kerruish staked a discovery claim in the Livingstone area 1930 and caused more interest in staking. He installed a hydraulic plant and placer mined every year until his death.11)
Tommy Kerruish’s wife, Edith, was born near Salam, Oregon in 1880. She was a miner as well and claimed to do anything in a mine except blasting: singlejack or doublejack. In 1918, just after they were married, she helped Tommy prepare three hundred tons of copper ore at their Quadra Island property. He broke the rock and she turned steel for him. Tommy claimed that she could shoot anything she aimed at, and she had travelled hundreds of miles by dog team. They worked together at Lake Creek, in the Livingstone area, starting in 1931. Once a year they brought in supplies by dog team from Hootalinqua and Edith made the trip alone twice. Tommy predicted that by 1965, the south-fork flats of the Big Salmon River would all be agricultural land. In 1943, the Kerruishs were living in Whitehorse for the winter and mining at Lake Creek in the summer.12)
In 1944 and few years before that, Kerruish was living in Whitehorse and in charge of the airfield construction at Teslin Lake.13) Tommy Kerruish is buried in the Whitehorse Pioneer Cemetery.14)