Alfred Caesar
Alfred Caesar was born in the Frances Lake area to parents Mary Medi (Mary) and Kelu Caesar. His father's father was Old Doctor, a brother to Old Chief and George Steel. Alfred married Minnie Caesar and they had ten children. He was a trapper in the Frances Lake area for most of his life, also working as a prospector and on the construction of the Robert Campbell Highway. He guided big game hunters in the mountains near Frances Lake during the summer. Minnie Caesar was born at Frances Lake and is a member of the Whodl Clan. Her parents were Molly and Pat Mallay but she was raised by her mother's brother-in-law, Wolftail, also called “Four Bits”.1)
In 1925, Anton Money and Amos Godfrey met some First Nation families living at Frances Lake and talked to Little Jimmy, Chief Smith, and Caesar who spoke English. A party of stampeders who came there in 1898 had given them English names. The oldest man in the group was called Dentiah, or “Old Chief”. He and his son had helped to build the Hudson's Bay Co, post at Pelly Banks. Dentiah died at Frances Lake in 1929, claiming to be 127. Caesar's wife was named Maddie and his daughter, Adzina, was fifteen in 1927. Caesar would not go to Pelly Banks because it was outside his tribal hunting ground. Caesar was the kind one of his band. He was a mild-mannered man of about forty. He took in any child that was orphaned or deserted. He had fourteen in his family that winter. His happy, wide-grinning wife made them all welcome.2)