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The Northerner Number 94 Winter-Spring 2015 Newsletter of the Study Group NWT Early , Northern , & BC A Study Group of the Postal History Society of Canada

Editor: Gray Scrimgeour, #570 – 188 Douglas Street, Victoria, B.C. V8V 2P1 [email protected]

H.A. “Alex” Price

Harold Alexander Price passed away Sunday, January 18, 2015. Alex was born in November 18, 1921. He started railway work in 1940, enlisted in the RCAF in 1941, and completed 58 missions overseas; he returned to BC in

1945 and obtained his Engineering degree at UBC. He then went directly to

work at Canadian Pacific Railway—a 33-year career. He collected postal history with particular emphasis on CPR-related material and on the Vancouver . His grandfathers were pioneers in Vancouver (Moodyville) and in the Yukon, respectively. Alex’s talks on BC postal history were marvelous, riddled with many personal experiences. He wrote few articles on his own but assisted many of us when we were writing, insisting on remaining anonymous. His e-mails were long, educational, and enjoyable. He was the person who saved the Bailey correspondence from Ashcroft. He will be long remembered by all those of us who were fortunate enough to know him.

Polar Bear in Canada’s Eastern .

This picture post card was published by the Hudson’s Bay Company, . Printed by Alex Wilson Publications Ltd., Dryden. Ontario. 2858

Item 2092. Readford, Yukon – 1949. Radford, Yukon’s name was changed to Readford in 1939 (see Item 918 and p. 1125). Readford closed on February 26, 1952. Readford postmarks are not common. Here is a view card mailed there on June 15, 1949. Postage should have been 3¢, so the card was marked 2 cent due. It bears two strikes of the P.O. Depot•O / Vancouver, B.C. cds, dated 16 VI and 20 VI.

Item 2093. – 1891. Timemark ‘5’. Bill Pawluk owns this mourning cover sent to from Calgary. The circle date stamp reads 5 / DE 51 / 91. Bill says this is the first report of timemark ‘5’ for Calgary.

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Bill and I checked my covers and found another example of a Calgary ‘5’, dated November 18, 1891―just a few weeks earlier than Bill’s example.

Item 2094. Warman, Post Office. Don Kaye owns this real photo post card from Warman, Saskatchewan. There’s no information about the publisher or photographer; AZO squares paper.

Warman is 12 miles north of Saskatoon. Its post office opened on January 15, 1906. R.E. Lane (see Lane’s Grocery in the photo) was postmaster from 1909 to 1928. 2860

Item 2095. Calgary Fire Department Cover – Victoria Day, 1903. Bill Pawluk sent this image of a cover advertising the Victoria Day Celebration coming on May 25th, 1903. The festivities were under the auspices of the Calgary Fire Department. Mailed to Ontario on April 29, 1903.

Item 2096. Hotel Alberta – 1908. This cover of Bill’s is a few years later than our usual cut-off date but I like it. The Hotel Alberta envelope was mailed to Winnipeg on 6, 1908 with the domestic postage paid with a 1¢ Tercentenary stamp and two ½¢ Quebec stamps.

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Item 2097. Mitford, Alberta – 1898. Here’s a scan from Bill Pawluk. The post office at Mitford apparently had only one ‘8’ in the indicia box because this card is postmarked JA 5 / 9 . The broken circle ties a 1¢ Small Queen to the Jubilee postal stationery card. Mitford opened May 1, 1889 and closed for 14 years on April 1, 1899. Lady Adele Cochrane is listed as PM when this card was sent. A broken circle hammer was proofed on February 16, 1889, but it read MILFORD in error. The date when the corrected hammer used on this card was prepared is not known.

Item 2098. Royal Mail Team – Athabaska. Don Kaye supplied this real photo card entitled “Royal Mail Team”. AZO triangles; used but not postmarked. The message says, “This photo was taken at Athabasca, 6 miles north of here this spring. dogs are the means of transport for Mail North of Athabasca. 1 team of dogs sold for 2000 dollars last winter.”

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Item 2099. Mail Boat. Here’s another of Don’s cards, this one entitled Launching boat to cross Yukon with mail Oct. 24tth. It’s a Shade Photo (unused CYKO).

Item 2100. Jacquot’s Post, Yukon (). John Cheramy owns this real photo card (AZO squares) showing “Jacquot’s Post, Yukon, Canada. Established since 1904. Los Angeles 5,500 miles. 450 miles.”

Burwash Landing―at Mile 1095 of the Highway, on the northwest shore of Lake―was founded in 1904, when gold was found on Burwash Creek. It was named after mining recorder Lachlin T. Burwash (lots of his covers are around). The Jacquot brothers came here in 2863

1904, and set up a trading post. Burwash Landing grew during construction of the . The Jacquots ran the only business there: a hotel, a restaurant, a store, and big game outfitting business.

Item 2101. Dawson―Two Bird’s Eye Views. These two cards from John both have the same description: Dawson , Yukon Territory, showing junction of Yukon and Rivers. Neither is used or dated. Both are on AZO print stock (1945 to 1949 seen).

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Item 2102. Administration Building & Post Office, Dawson.

This unused view was also supplied by John Cheramy. The collotype was printed in Germany for Cribbs Drug Store. See p. 68 in Ken Elder’s catalogue.

Item 2103. Buffaloes at Banff, 1903. This W.G. Macfarlane card (No. 102) was mailed to England at Banff, Alberta on July 24, 1903. “The other day we drove to see these Buffaloes which were quite near us. They have huge heads & shoulders & look rather fierce.”

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Item 2104. A QSL Card from Resolute, N.W.T. – 1969.

This card (air mail) to Bartlesville, Oklahoma was mailed at Resolute on September 2, 1969. Note “Joint Canadian-U.S. Arctic Weather Station” on the card. The call sign VE8MB is, of course, a Canadian call sign. 2866

Item 2105. To Arctic Bay and Returned – 1947. This philatelic cover from Iroquois Falls, Ontario endorsed “Via S.S. Nascopie” was mailed on June 20, 1947 addressed to Arctic Bay on Baffin Island. There are three backstamps of the Eastern Arctic Patrol R.M.S. cds dated July 6, 1947—the day that the Nascopie reached Father Point, Quebec. The cover was returned to Iroquois Falls from Father Point, returning there July 18 (machine cancel).

Having been sent back from Father Point, this cover escaped being wreck mail. The Nascopie ran aground on July 21. Kevin O’Reilly suggests that Hadden (the postmaster on board the Nascopie) may have recognized this as philatelic mail, so there was no need to take it to Arctic Bay. The Nascopie called at Cartwright July 10 and 11, and the cover could have been taken from there to Goose Bay and on to Iroquois Falls. 2867

Item 2106. To Fort Chimo and Returned – 1947. Here is a second Eastern Arctic cover sent in 1949 by the same person in Iroquois Falls as the previous item. This cover is addressed to Fort Chimo, Quebec c/o Eastern Arctic Patrol. R.M.S. and endorsed “Via Nascopie”. The address was crossed out in pencil, and a RETURNED TO pointing hand and two strikes of the Fort Chimo cds dated PM / JUL 18, 1947 applied. The Nascopie had reached Sugluk (near Fort Chimo) on July 18 and departed early on July 20. Possibly this cover had returned to the ship from Fort Chimo, and therefore would be wreck mail. Kevin O’Reilly suggests that—since the Eastern Arctic Patrol address is crossed out (at ?)—perhaps the cover was taken to Fort Chimo by air via Goose Bay, then returned from Fort Chimo. It has no backstamps.

Item 2107. Klondyke River, 1898. This Zaccerelli’s Book Store coloured collotype (from John Cheramy) was printed in Britain by Valentine & Sons. It was mailed at Dawson on July 7, 1923.

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Item 2108. Caribou – Up the Klondyke River. Here is another card from John. It’s a Warwick Bros. card #4108) printed for Zacarelli mailed at Dawson on July 14, 1907.

Item 2109. Administration Building, Dawson, Y.T. This view of the Administration Building is different from Item 2102. This is a coloured collotype, Zacarelli’s No. 329. It is unused. Also from John Cheramy.

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Item 2110. Two Moravian Mission Post Cards. Robert Binner sent in scans of these two Labrador Moravian Mission cards. The upper card shows the mission station at Okak in northern Labrador. The lower card shows Ramah, Labrador—even farther north.

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Item 2111. Pioneer Yukon Post Card – 1904. Robert Binner recently obtained this rare pioneer Yukon card showing Packers ascending the Chilcoot-Pass. Alaska. Ken Elder (pp. 17 and 18) writes that this set of cards [produced by the Toronto Lithographing Co. Ltd.] has the earliest positively dated Yukon view cards (as early as July 22, 1901). However, Robert saw on eBay a card like his mailed in Dawson on October 5, 1899. That moves the early date of use ahead almost two years. [The eBay card is shown at the top of the next page.]

Robert points out that the January 13, 1904 duplex (2) has no timemark at the top. (All his later strikes do.) 2871

Address side of a ‘Packers ascending Chilcoot-Pass’ card sold on eBay some time ago; mailed in Dawson on October 5, 1899 and received in Ontario on November 30, 1899.

Item 2112. Lake Bennett Photoview. John Cheramy lent me this card, an AZO, showing “Lake Bennett, Yukon Territory”. It’s a fairly recent printing of what looks like an older negative. There is no publisher indicated.

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Item 2113. Photoview. Here is another real photo post card from John: Kluane Lake, Yukon. It’s a VELOX card; no publisher indicated.

Item 2114. Midsummer Snow Scene – Dawson, 1904. This collotype is Zaccarelli’s No. 3. It shows Midsummer Snow Scene, Dawson, Y.T. June16‒1904. It was mailed at Dawson on June 19, 1909.

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Item 2115. John Neilson Lake – 1859. Rev. John N. Lake (1834-1925) was the founder of Saskatoon. A Methodist minister, Lake in 1881 became the of the Temperance Colonization Society of Toronto survey party that planned to form a settlement colony in Saskatchewan. In 1882, Lake chose the site for the settlement. Hal Kellett owns this 1859 stampless cover sent from Grovesend, Upper Canada (March 21, 1859) to Rev. Lake at Ingersoll, Canada West. It’s a great addition to a collection of Territorial Saskatchewan.

Grovesend is in Elgin , Ontario—on Lake Erie, east of Port Stanley. One can follow the route of the cover using the backstamps: Port Stanley March 21, London March 21, and Ingersoll March 22. 2874

Item 2116. Yukon Sternwheelers. John Cheramy has lent me these six picture post cards showing sternwheelers in the Yukon. The first three cards show the Tutshi at . These cards are not used. The first was published by G. Morris Taylor, Jasper, Alberta. It is simply titled “Str ‘Tutshi’”.

The second Tutshi card is an AZO (squares) photo and is titled “Steamer ‘Tutshi’ N.P.Y.R., Carcross, Yukon”.

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The third Tutshi card has the simple title “Carcross, Yukon”. It was produced by Gowen, Sutton Co., Ltd. of Vancouver.

Here is a Gowen, Sutton real photo of the Steamer “Casca”. Unused.

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The next card shows “Beached River Queens, , Yukon”. It’s numbered NW 125, and is a black-and-white lithographed card.

The last Yukon steamer card is labeled “On the Yukon”. The publisher’s name is E. A. Morris, Vancouver, B.C.. It has an undivided back, and was probably printed by Valentine & Sons in Britain. Unused.

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2117. S.S. Port Simpson, Hazelton. The last card from John is a Valentine & Sons Grand Trunk Pacific Railway card, mailed in Mission, B.C. on May 21, 1915. It is entitled “On the Skeena River, Hazelton, B.C.” and shows the Port Simpson.

2118. Best Greetings from Dawson – 1903. Robert Binner writes that this card is a type he had not seen before, nor can he find either the view or the back in Ken Elder’s book. It was postmarked Dec. 11, 1903 with the 3rd Dawson duplex.

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Here is the address side of Robert’s card.

2119. Doctor Hero’s Fate. John Cheramy found a newspaper clipping with the above title. It is datelined White Horse, Yukon, June 11 [1923]. Dr. Sugden, for 17 years surgeon to the Canadian North-West Mounted Police, was drowned last week in the . It was he who saved the life of Sue MacDonald, as recounted in Colonel Steele’s “Forty Years in Canada.” Sue MacDonald was a woman of the mining camps who was seriously wounded and sent south to a hospital with a half-breed, a dog team, and Dr. Sugden. After they had gone about half the distance the half-breed became insane, the dog team deserted, and Dr. Sugden drew [drove? gs] the woman over 150 miles of snow to a hospital, operated upon her, and restored her to health. He was known among the Alaskan Indians as “Juneau Jesus,” or “the miracle man,” because of his effective operations for cataract, which is particularly common among the Aborigines. Reuters

Dr. Leonard Sugden was a Medicine graduate of Cambridge who chose to work “in the wilderness”, at the frontiers of the British Empire. He was a surgeon during the China-Japanese War, and the port surgeon at Hong Kong. He then served 20 years with the NWMP in the Yukon. He once went on an expedition to Swaziland (under the command of Dr. Owen O’Neill). He was a member of the Adventurers’ Club of New York. With Google you can find many online newspaper notes similar to John’s and other biographic details about Dr. Sugden. 2879

2120. Klondike Tours Post Card. High Delaney sent this scan of a 1950s Yukon card that he hadn’t seen before. Neither had I. The card advertises Klondike Tours.

2121. Robert Service Cabin – an Unusual Card. This Gowen, Sutton card from John Cheramy shows a page from the Visitors’ Register at the Robert Service Cabin in Dawson.

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2122. Two Alaska Highway Cards. John Cheramy supplied these two Alaska Highway cards. The card on the left is a two-colour lithograph (no publisher listed). The card on the right was photographically produced by the Public Roads Administration, Federal Works Agency.

2123. 1907 USA-Canada Alaska Yukon Survey Expedition. Hal Vogel sent this cover scan (top of p. 2881). It was mailed from somewhere in Pennsylvania (the city’s name unclear) in late May 1907 to Thomas Riggs, USA co-leader of the 1907 field party of the USA-Canada Alaska-Yukon Survey Expedition. Presumably Riggs told his correspondents to send any mail to him via Dawson (where it is receipt stamped 7 June 1907).This was to be the definitive survey of the international boundary between Alaska and Yukon Territory from Mount St. Elias to the . A preliminary party had done early work in 1906, which was checked in March-May 1907 and found to be wanting. An already scheduled field party (first of seven seasons) left , Washington 25 May (with Riggs) and remained in the field marking that season’s portion of what would be the permanent boundary until 1907. Field parties returned every season thereafter until finishing the project in 1913.

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The preliminary group (March-May 1907) reached their destination in Alaska by the and Yukon Railway to Whitehorse, then by stage line to Dawson, where they took dog sledges to the “boundary” on the Yukon River. Presumably Riggs’s party took the same route (at least in 1907). Riggs later would be appointed to the Alaska Railroad Commission in 1914 and then Alaska Territorial Governor in 1918.

2124. Early Alaska Postal Stationery Card – 1879. Don Glickstein sent in the scans at the top of the next page—an item that has some relevance to history. They show the earliest known use of a US postal stationery card in Alaska, cancelled on July 17, 1879 in Fort Wrangel. The card was mailed by Father John Althoff, a pioneering Catholic priest. What makes it of interest to northern Canada collectors is that Althoff traveled up the to minister to Catholic gold miners in the Cassiar mining . Althoff was Dutch-born, but he wrote his message in French. He asks about some colleagues and requests that copies of a Catholic newspaper be sent to a friend and family member. Althoff died in Nelson, BC, in 1925 at age 70. The card sold in May 2014 at an American auction for $1,050 (plus 15% commission).

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2125. Fort Garry – January 1867. The postal stationery card shown at the top of p. 2883 was mailed at FORT GARRY, MAN. on January 27, 1876—the same day it was written by the Merchants’ . Note that Winnipeg was used in the return address by the bank. Although the post office name was not changed to Winnipeg for several more months, the name Winnipeg had been in common use for quite some time.

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2126. Two Letters from Langdon, Alberta – 1888. Langdon, Alberta is on the Canadian Pacific Railway about 12 miles east of Calgary. A post office opened there December 1, 1890. I recently purchased two covers (with their letters) written at Langdon, N.W.T. in 1888—more than two years before the PO opened. Both covers have RPO postmarks. Both letters and covers were written to the same person (Alfred Holmes in Vancouver) by the same person (Alfred’s brother, Richard). In the first letter (dated Feb. 6/88) Richard says, “… I am back to my old place. I was only out of work 6 days. We have nothing much to do now. About 2 weeks since we went into the mountains as far as Palliser [B.C.] to the snow slides. It was a terror. We were wet through the whole time day & night for 5 days.”[Possibly doing track-clearing for the C.P.R.] “I shall try sheep clipping this year then I shall go east.” The cover was dated with a C.P.R. WEST OF WINNIPEG / C postmark (partial strike) on February 8, 1888. There is a February 9, 1888 Vancouver receiving mark. 2884

Richard Holmes’s second letter was dated March 2, 1888, also at Langdon, N.W.T. It mostly is about the purchase of some land from Mr. S. Polson of Winnipeg. He then says, “Why don’t you come here? I could get you work at Kananaskis Bridge at 2.00 per days & lots of other work at 1.25 to 1.50 a day. I shall stay here until clip time & put in a month at that. Then I shall go east for Harvest work & thrashing [threshing]. They always seem to be short handed.” This second cover was postmarked W / MR 3 / 88 by a different R.P.O.—C.P.R M.C. / BRITISH COLUMBIA, which was used on trains between Calgary and Vancouver. Apparently this letter was passed on by the Jaw–Calgary clerk to the Calgary–Vancouver clerk for dating. Received in Vancouver on March 4, 1888.

See you again in three or four months. Gray