Yukon who is who

Martha Grace Watson, nee Caithness (b. 1865)

Martha Grace Caithness married Matthew Watson in 1884 and they lived on the east coast of Scotland. Their sons Matthew Jr, (b. 1885) and John Bruce (b. 1887) were born there. They moved to Boston in 1887 where son William was born in 1892. The family moved to Tacoma, Washington in 1893 and Matthew opened a sheet metal shop. Their daughter Grace was born in 1896.¹⁾

In 1897, Matthew Sr. and eleven-year-old Matthew Jr. travelled to Dawson during the Klondike gold rush and quickly left because of the fears of famine that winter. They settled in Dyea and Matthew Sr. started a tinsmith shop to build wood stoves and other fabrications. Martha and the three other children arrived in February 1898 with a supply of hardware for the business. They left Dyea in March 1899 and travelled a month to get to Atlin. Martha wrote about the trip in her diary and the Atlin Claim newspaper published a story about their adventures. They family stayed in Atlin for the summer and returned to the coast in the fall.²⁾

The Watsons travelled by train and boat when they moved to Whitehorse in 1900. They lived in a tent at the corner of Main Street and Second Avenue where their fourth son Charles was born. Matthew Sr. sold his Whitehorse sheet metal shop in the spring of 1904 and son Kenneth was born in December. In 1905, Matthew Sr. reopened a metal shop in Whitehorse and went mining on Burwash Creek with Matthew Jr. Matthew Sr. had trouble with alcohol and left the Yukon in 1907. He returned in 1910 for a visit but lived in Vancouver where in 1913 he was a sheet metal worker at a mill in the area. Years later Grace was working as a nurse in Seattle when she discovered that he died in San Francisco and was buried there.³⁾

Martha eventually adopted Norma Idelle Watson. Martha, Norma, and Martha’s two sons Charles and Kenneth left the Yukon for Chilliwack in the fall of 1920.⁴⁾ Martha Grace Watson visited the Yukon at age 80 in August 1945. ⁵⁾