E. J. McCormick
E.J. McCormick was born in Strokestown, Ireland. He moved to the United States when he was twenty-one and worked at his trade as a tailor. He worked in Kansas City, and went to Seattle after the fire, and then moved to Portland where he opened a hotel and restaurant. In 1897, McCormick travelled to the Klondike and arrived in Dawson in September. He started a restaurant that was open day and night and soon after built and operated the Portland Hotel in association with the restaurant. He stayed nine years in Dawson and then moved to the Imperial Valley in California, again operating hotels and restaurants. He died at his home in Holtsville in 1928. McCormick's brother-in-law was Ralph Boyker, who was in the Yukon basin in the 1800s days and owned two Seattle hotels, the Northern and the Stevens.1)