Percy Fremlin Scharschmidt (1868 – 1932)
Percy Fremlin Scharschmidt was born in Kent, England. He graduated with a medical degree from the University of Toronto in 1887. He moved west and practiced medicine in Nanaimo until 1892. He abandoned his medical practice first for mining and then other activities in places around British Columbia.1)
In 1897, Scharschmidt was special correspondent in Skagway, Alaska for the Victoria Daily Colonist. He started the \\Bennett Sun
newspaper at Bennett, British Columbia.2) Percy Scharschmidt married Rosalie Maud Butler (1869 – 1911) sometime in the late 1880s. Rosalie was the elder sister of brothers Bruce, Claud and Jeff Butler. The brothers lived in the Lake Bennett and Atlin area from around 1896 to 1926. They mined and cut wood for the lake boats and the railway.3)
Scharschmidt’s Bennett Sun was edited and managed for a few months in 1900 by Albert Miller Rosseau.4) Scharschmidt moved the paper to Whitehorse when the White Pass & Yukon Route (WP&YR) railway was completed in 1900. He changed the name of the paper from the Bennett Sun first to the Northern Star and then to The White Horse Star.5)
In 1900, Sam McEacheren and A.M. Rousseau partnered to buy the Whitehorse Daily Star.6) Scharschmidt moved on to work for WP&YR in their river division. He was superintendent of the British Yukon Navigation Co. when he retired in 1911.7)
Dr. P.F. Scharschmidt from Whitehorse and his two sons, Howard and Guy, enlisted during the First World War. Guy was a surveyor.8) Captain H. B. Scharschmidt and Lieutenant Guy Hope Scharschmidt of Whitehorse were at the front or on their way in August 1915. Lieutenant [Guy] Scharschmidt was wounded in action.9) Percy Scharschmidt returned from the war with the rank of major. He settled in Vancouver and took up general brokerage.10)