Yukon who is who

Martha “Mattie” Chapman, nee Barton (b. 1908)

Martha Barton was born in Northumberland, England, the daughter of a coal miner. Her father and brother went to Canada after the First World War, found work in a Nanaimo coal mine, and sent for rest of the family. Mattie started business school when she was thirteen and graduated in three years. She moved to Vancouver and became secretary to a lawyer. At age seventeen, she was refused permission to marry. She moved to Dawson to stay with her sister Catherine who she had not seen for five years. Catherine was a nurse at St. Mary’s hospital and married to Sergeant Howard Hooper Cronkite, RCMP. In the summer of 1932, Mattie travelled by train from Skagway to Whitehorse and then took passage on the SS Keno.¹⁾

When it came to tome to leave, her sister and brother-in-law asked her to stay the winter, and she ended up moving to the Yukon. That winter was very cold but everyone in Dawson made their own entertainment so there was no feeling of isolation. She met Chappie Chapman, the manager of the Northern Commercial Company in town, and they were married in 1934. She worked for him in the store and later, when he was manager of the Northern Metallic store, she helped when he needed a hand. She was mostly in the house raising two children and entertaining friends. She played baseball, baked, and did a lot of knitting. The school population in Dawson was too small for high school classes. Their son Bill went to Mayo for school after he completed grade eight in Dawson. Their daughter did correspondence classes because the teachers in Mayo were too busy to teach grades eleven and twelve. She was the only student in her year in the Yukon to pass grade twelve.²⁾

The Chapmans bought the Cronkite’s house for $350 and the Cronkite’s moved into an RCMP residence. Chappie developed photographs in their darkroom and Mattie hand coloured them.³⁾ They lived in Dawson for twenty years, then Mayo and Whitehorse before moving to Watson Lake where they worked for ten years and then retired.⁴⁾

As the family moved to places around the Yukon for Chappie’s work, Mattie worked in Hougen’s Photography Store in Whitehorse, and supervised the first Tourist Information office in Watson Lake. After she retired, she supervised the Watson Lake library and became a local correspondent for CBC radio. In 1972, Mattie and Chappie where named Mr. and Mrs. Yukon.⁵⁾ The Chapmans were recipients of the Commissioner’s Award in April 1981.⁶⁾