Thomas William O'Brien (1862 - 1916)
Thomas O'Brien was born near Barrie, Ontario in 1862. He lived there until 1879 when he moved to Toronto where he worked as a conductor and driver on the King Street streetcars. He went to Manitoba and worked with a survey crew. In 1881, he worked with the mail service in the Fort Qu'Appelle district and in 1884 took out a homestead in the area. He worked as a freighter during the Riel Rebellion, supplying General Middleton's columns. He wintered on his homestead in 1885/86 and in the spring he and a partner worked as railway contractors building grade for the Manitoba and North Western Railway and the Manitoba and Southwestern Railway. He moved back to Qu“Appelle in 1887 and then to Vancouver and Seattle. In July, he and a partner sailed to Juneau on the Olympia. They were joined by two others at Dyea and with hired packers they travelled over the Chilkoot Pass. They reached Forty Mile on 1 September 1887.1)
O'Brien prospected for four years and in 1891 worked at McQuesten & Company store at Forty Mile where he stayed until 1894.2) Constantine of the North-West Mounted Police noted there were thirty-five stills operating at Forty Mile in the winter of 1894/95. He reported that they were operated by a “whiskey gang” including Jack McQuesten and William O'Brien.3)
O’Brien’s oldest son, Colon Henry was born about 1892, James Jonathon in 1894, and Charles Thomas in 1896.4) Tom O’Brien signed the founding charter of the Yukon Order of Pioneers at Forty Mile in December 1894.5)
Around 1894 O’Brien opened a store with William Moran at Circle City called O'Brien and Moran. They opened a store in Forty Mile in 1896 but then travelled to the Klondike with the news of a new strike. They staked claims on Bonanza Creek, bought other claims before the winter, and O’Brien and partners bought more claims in the next year. Claim No. 1 on Eldorado Creek was very profitable. O’Brien invested in mercantile projects and property. In 1898 [1888?], O'Brien married Anna Josephine Brazil of Denver Colorado, and they had a daughter Margaret.6)
In 1899, O'Brien backed a tramway scheme originated by Hill Hennings. The project had federal government sanction but was stopped by the courts. He was awarded $35,000 compensation in 1902 and was paid $27,000 in 1903 and $8,000 in 1907. A charter was granted to the Klondike Mines Railway in 1899 and O'Brien leaded the list of applicants. He ran, unsuccessfully, for the Yukon Council in 1900. He was then the proprietor of the Yukon Sun newspaper, the Dominion Hotel in Dawson, and was a partner in the Yukon Pioneer Trading Company in Klondike City. In 1901, he was one of three partners operating the Monte Carlo Saloon. In June 1901, he and other partners bought the Klondike River bridge and opened the O'Brien Toll Bridge. Tolls were still being collected in 1904.7)
In November 1901, Tom and four partners applied for a charter for the Dawson White Horse Navigation Company Ltd. for operating steamships and merchandising. They bought three sternwheelers; the Tyrrell was for the lower Yukon and the J.P. Light was for the upper Yukon, but the competition was too strong. In 1903, the Lightning was sold to the Coal Creek Coal Co. The J.P. Light and the Tyrrell picked up small contracts and ran excursions, but the business was gone by 1906.8)
In July 1902, O'Brien applied to operate a streetcar system. In February 1904, O'Brien and six other prominent Dawson businessmen incorporated the O'Brien Brewing and Malting Co. Ltd. It was also known as the Klondike Brewery. It operated brewing, malting, bottling and associated credit, real estate and promotional ventures. The owners included Edward “Black” Sullivan, an old friend from Forty Mile, and Dr. Alfred Thompson, a prominent Liberal.9) After gold was discovered in the Klondike, O’Brien purchased the townsite at Forty Mile, and he still owned it in 1905.10)
O'Brien was elected to the Yukon Council in 1905 for South Dawson for a two-year term. He was president of the Yukon Order of Pioneers (YOOP) from 1905 to 1907.11) The construction of the Klondike Mines Railway began in 1905 but was halted by injunctions and the contractor quit in the fall. In 1906, the contract was awarded to O'Brien and MacKenzie. O'Brien was interim general manager from March until July 1907. A newspaper item published after O'Brien's death indicated that he made a quarter of a million dollars from the mining claims, lost it, and then with Mrs. O'Brien, built up a new fortune before his death.12)
By 1910, the O’Brien Brewery was employing fifteen men, but the population was declining, and saloon licenses were down to six in 1909. The brewery production was half of that during the peak.13) In 1913, the Chisana stampede to the White River found O'Brien building a new store and hostelry at the confluence of the Donjek and White rivers.14) In 1915, the O’Brien Brewery took over the Red Feather Saloon in Dawson to cut out the middleman, but demand continued to decline. In 1915, O'Brien sold his holdings in the brewery to Joseph Segbers.15)
O'Brien planned to go to Seattle for medical treatment but was forced into the hospital in Dawson. He died on 24 August 1916 of liver disease. Dawson businesses closed for half an hour during his funeral, and he was buried in Dawson’s Pioneer Cemetery.16) O’Brien Street, named for Thomas O’Brien, is located in the Mt. McIntyre subdivision in Whitehorse.17)