Samuel John (Jack) Whitehouse (1871 – 1934)
Jack Whitehouse was born in the Midlands, England. Jack and his brother Ed were living in New Zealand when they heard about the Klondike gold rush. They returned to England and bought a sixty-foot steam launch and loaded it and their supplies on a larger vessel leaving from Bristol to make the trans-ocean crossing. They had the launch shipped to British Columbia, and the brothers sailed up the coast to St. Michael, and then up the Yukon River. They sold the boat in Dawson and started mining. Ed soon left to return to England, but Jack remained to mine on several creeks. In 1908, Jack got married and son Ed was born in 1909. Jack’s wife, Jessie Phillips, died in childbirth in 1916 and Jack took the children to Prince Rupert and enlisted in the First World War.1)
In 1925, Jack and his son took a year-long trip to England and when they returned Jack’s brother came with them. On the way back to Dawson, Ed died on the Overland Trail of a ruptured appendix and is buried at Carmacks.2)
The Ed Whitehouse fonds at the Yukon Archives includes photographs of the family and the Dawson region.3)