Catherine Markle
Catherine Markle and her two sons followed her husband, Louis Markle, north from Seattle to Whitehorse in 1903. In 1904, she went with Louis to haul two hundred pounds of freight to Bullion Creek in a small wagon pulled by two dogs. She was a professional cook and worked in a few Whitehorse restaurants including the Vancouver Café. She bought the Dominion Hotel in 1907 and in November bought the Robinson Roadhouse site from her by now estranged husband. She announced plans to up-date the facility to two stories, and she and her two sons moved to Robinson in April 1908 to take charge of the roadhouse. The boys, Willie and Charley, were sent to the Seattle Academy for boy in November 1912. Catherine and the Robinson postmaster, Charlie McConnell, made unsuccessful applications for adjoining homesteads at Robinson in 1913. Catherine Markle stayed at Robinson until March 1915 when the First World War was depleting the number of miners in the region. She moved to Skagway to operate a restaurant, and married Skagway resident Charles Nye in November. William and Charles moved to Skagway with their mother. Nye was the general manager and principal stockholder of the Home Power Company.1)