Yukon who is who

Robert “Bob” Lowe (1868 - 1929)

Robert Lowe was born in Brampton, Ontario and spent his youth on a farm. He migrated west and settled in the Brandon, Manitoba area where he engaged in draying and auctioneering livestock. He travelled north after the Klondike gold rush and was in Whitehorse in 1899. He had a merchandising business in the White Horse community across the river from present-day Whitehorse. By 1901, he was the owner of Pioneer Feed & Livery Stables in the current Whitehorse. In 1900, the British American Corporation was threatening to take up the entire copper belt in concessions which would deprive many claim owners of their rights. Lowe travelled to Ottawa to protest and successfully stopped the process.¹⁾

Lowe owned a cartage business and used horses, wagons, and sleighs to carry equipment and supplies to the Whitehorse copper mines and haul ore back to the railway station. By 1901, Lowe was president of the Whitehorse Board of Trade and was an active Liberal in O'Brien's Steam Beers.²⁾ Whitehorse was a White Pass & Yukon Route company town until 1950 when the community was incorporated. Until then, the Board of Trade acted in the absence of an elected municipal government.

In 1902, Lowe was partnered with Captain Paddy Martin in half of a building on Front Street where Lowe sold wholesale liquor as part of Martin’s Arctic Trading Company. Martin and Lowe were in a long dispute with Ernest Levin and Fred Trump over ownership of the land that they had all purchased from Samuel Graves, president of White Pass & Yukon Route and owner of the Whitehorse townsite. They settled the dispute by cutting the lot in half.³⁾

A territorial election was held on 13 January 1903. Robert Lowe, Mr. Dixon and Dr. Sudgen all filed nomination papers and won the Whitehorse positions in an election where there were fifteen candidates for five Council seats. In 1905 and 1907, the incumbent Robert Lowe was elected by acclamation.⁴⁾ Lowe was re-elected in 1920, 1922, and 1925.⁵⁾ As a councillor he secured funding to build wagon roads to the copper mines. He unsuccessfully attempted to secure $100,000 from the federal government for the construction of a smelter.⁶⁾

The Grafter mine ranks among the important historic copper mines in the district. It was staked on August 5, 1899 by Wm. Woodney and in 1899 a shallow shaft was dug. In 1901, the claim was bonded to a local syndicate and the shaft was carried forward. Robert Lowe continued the work in 1907 and a considerable quantity of ore was mined and shipped that season.⁷⁾ The First World War pumped new life into copper mining. The Grafter Mine was the second biggest operator in the Whitehorse area in 1917. There were fifty men mining and shipping a high grade of ore. The property was owned by J. P. Whitney (also the manager), Robert Lowe, Ed Dixon, Chas. H. Johnson, and Mr. Armstrong. The War Eagle mine was owned by Robert Lowe, and Sam McGee was working under a lease to Hayes & Hayden.⁸⁾ Lowe was also a part owner of the LeRoi claims.⁹⁾

In 1920, Robert Lowe cleared the air strip at Whitehorse on Mike Cyr's wood lot. The strip was prepared for Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell's demonstration of the viability of plane transportation. In 1919, he came up with the plan for four planes to fly from New York to Nome, with one of the stops in Whitehorse. Lowe was paid $1,500 on completion of his part in the project.¹⁰⁾

Ruth Hillman and Robert Lowe were married in December 1920.¹¹⁾ In 1924, a Whitehorse newspaper reported that it was due to the persistent efforts of Robert Lowe that the federal government planned to transfer a number of buffalo from Wainwright, Alberta to the Yukon. The appropriation was not completed in 1925, although the paper thought the animals would not be brought in before that.¹²⁾

Robert Lowe ran in the 1925 federal election and an editorial by The Whitehorse Star editor J.D. Skinner defended the newspaper’s stand against Lowe.¹³⁾ George Black won the vote for Yukon minister of Parliament. Lowe had resigned from the Yukon Council and W.L. Phelps was elected in his place by acclamation.¹⁴⁾ Robert Lowe died after retiring near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.¹⁵⁾ After his death, Lowe's widow spent some time picking up the more important Crown mineral claims in the copper belt. She got them for back taxes and held them with a nominal yearly sum. Everyone thought she was crazy. The estate went to her nephew Ben Hillman. His good friend Aubrey [Simmons?] promoted the stock of a company he developed, and the result was the opening of the New Imperial Mine which evolved into the Whitehorse Copper Mine. Harry and Pete Versluice and associates staked the ground on which the main mine was situated.¹⁶⁾

Robert Lowe was known as the Father of Whitehorse.¹⁷⁾ The bridge over Miles Canyon was named the Robert Lowe Bridge in 1922.¹⁸⁾