c:r_calderhead
Renwick Wallace Calderhead (1868 - 1954)
Renwich Calderhead was born in New Athens, Harrison County, Ohio to Ebenezer Brown Calderhead and Martha Boyd Wallace.1)
In 1898, Calderhead was the secretary of the Klondike Teamsters Association with Robert Pickett, president. The association was formed to put Dawson’s streets in good condition and to “protect mutual interests”. Calderhead stated that nearly all of the improvements to the streets were due to the teamster’s labour. The sawmills donated slabs and a few property owners contributed money or labour. The association was interested in maintaining the streets to keep the fees down. In August 1898, they were working on a sawdust and slab road from the Harper and Ladue Mill to the hospital.2)
Around April 1900, the Bennett Lake and Klondyke Navigation Company became the Klondyke Corporation Ltd. with MacDonald Potts as manager, Arthur D. Lewis as special agent, and Lancaster and Calderhead as Dawson agents.3) Due to low water, the company’s Flora was the only sternwheeler to get through from Dawson to Whitehorse in the spring of 1900.4) In 1901, Calderhead became the General Manager of the Klondyke Corporation Ltd.5) In September 1901, a large wharf was almost completed in the rear of R. W. Calderhead’s big warehouse. The new structure was 50’ wide and extended back over the river 60 feet. A Dawson newspaper thought it would be the finest wharf in Dawson. Calderhead planned to have the entire structure enclosed by the next year so it would hold several hundred tons of freight in addition to that stored in the main warehouse. At the end of September, Calderhead purchased P. I. Lancaster’s interests in the firm of Lancaster and Calderhead. Calderhead’s skill in business management had made a success of operating the steamers Flora, Nora and Ora in 1900 and 1901. Calderhead was one of the largest importers of freight to Dawson at that time. The Flora was due into Dawson on September 29, 1901 with five large barges in tow, the greatest convoy ever brought down the Yukon by one steamer.6) Calderhead bought the sternwheelers Dora and Pauline from the BL&KN Co. in 1901. The Dora was originally named Olive May and was built by Capt. N. Raymond in Whitehorse. The Pauline was built in Whitehorse by Capt. N.B. Raymond and named for Pauline Raymond.7)
Calderhead was listed as a tenant along the waterfront in Whitehorse in 1901 when White Pass applied to lease ground in order to prevent squatters from erecting shanties or making use of the Whitehorse waterfront to interfere with the free use of the waterfront by their river division.8) The Klondyke Corporation Ltd. built the La France and the Thistle in 1902. The company name changed in 1902 to the Merchants Yukon Transportation Line.9) R. W. Calderhead was listed as the captain of the sternwheeler La France in 1902.10)
In 1903, R. W. Calderhead was managing the Merchants’ Mail and Express company. The company purchased four horses in Atlin, and Bert Woolridge delivered them to Whitehorse. In the same year, F. A. Cleveland retired from the company to operate an independent freight line between Whitehorse and Dawson.11)
Calderhead formed a new independent steamboat line in August 1906.12) The Merchants Yukon Transportation Line bought the fleet of the North American Transportation and Trading Company in 1906, and in 1911, the company built the barge A.B. Shay at Seattle. The barge was sold in 1914 to the American Yukon Navigation Company.13) The American Yukon Navigation Company was established in 1913 as a division of White Pass & Yukon Route operating on the lower Yukon.14)
Renwick Calderhead died in Corona del Mar, California.15)
1)
“Renwick Wallace Calderhead,” GENi, 2019 website: https://www.geni.com/people/Renwick-Wallace-Calderhead/6000000013144701370
2)
“A Resume of local happenings,” Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 13 August 1898.
3)
Sun (Dawson) 22 May 1900 in “Steamship Companies,” 2019 website: http://www.explorenorth.com/library/ships/steamboat_companies-alaska-yukon.html.
4)
Dawson Daily News (Dawson), 4 June 1900.
5)
“Steamship Companies,” 2019 website: http://www.explorenorth.com/library/ships/steamboat_companies-alaska-yukon.html.
6)
“Calderhead’s prosperity is enlarging business of which he is sole owner”. Klondike Nugget (Dawson), 28 September 1901.
7)
W.D. MacBride, “Saga of Famed Packets and other Steamboats of Mighty Yukon River,” Caribou & Northwest Digest, Spring 1949: 100.
8)
Helene Dobrowolsky & Rob Ingram, Edge of the River, Heart of the City. Whitehorse: Lost Moose Publishing 1994: 16.
9)
“Steamship Companies,” 2019 website: http://www.explorenorth.com/library/ships/steamboat_companies-alaska-yukon.html
10)
W.D. MacBride, “Saga of Famed Packets and other Steamboats of Mighty Yukon River.” Caribou & Northwest Digest, Spring 1949: 94.
11)
“Local Notes.” The Weekly Star (Whitehorse), 28 March 1903.
12)
Fairbanks Evening News (Fairbanks), 1 August 1906 in Jerry E. Green, Yukon Riverboat Captains, 2019 website: http://www.users.muohio.edu/greenje/
13)
Affleck in “Steamship Companies,” 2019 website: http://www.explorenorth.com/library/ships/steamboat_companies-alaska-yukon.html.
15)
Jerry E. Green, Yukon Riverboat Captains, 2019 website: http://www.users.muohio.edu/greenje/
c/r_calderhead.txt · Last modified: 2024/10/08 18:20 by sallyr