John Baptiste Charleson (b. 1836)
John Baptiste Charleson was born in Quebec to Scottish parents. (Bill Miller, Wires in the Wilderness: The Story of the Yukon Telegraph. Surrey BC: Heritage House, 2004: 21-22.)) In 1899, Clifford Sifton recommended that all new public buildings in the Yukon be turned over to the Department of Public Works. J. B. Charleson and T.W. Fuller were sent to the Yukon. Charleson was appointed superintendent of public works primarily responsible for the construction of the Yukon telegraph.1)
Charleson was directed to build a 550-mile telegraph line between Bennett and Dawson between break-up and freeze-up in 1899. The crew needed to make 5 miles a day. Charleson’s position was a political appointment and Aureal Gobeil was assigned to oversee his work. Charleson had experience as a ship's carpenter, operated a lumber brokering business, and was the owner of a newspaper. He had skills as an organizer and an expediter but the opposition questioned his appointment. D.H. Keeley, general superintendent of DPW's Telegraph Service, and Louis Coste, the department's chief engineer, were shut out of the project.2)