Highlights of History from The Whitehorse Star

The Whitehorse Pioneer Cemetery

Dateline: March 31, 2024.

The Weekly Star (Whitehorse, Y.T.), Friday, February 23, 1916

    Dawson, Feb. 22 - A fire broke out in the Yukonia hotel in this city last night that destroyed an entire block of business houses before it was gotten under control. Among the burned building are the Yukonia, Pioneer, Bonanza and Cronin hotels, Sales' jewelry store and Pinska's clothing store. Four people who roomed in the Yukonia hotel are missing, among them being C. W. C. Tabor, a prominent lawyer.

        LATER - A pall of gloom was cast over Whitehorse today when the reports of a fire in Dawson reached here mentioning the name of Wm. McAdam as having perished in the flames. Mr. McAdam was one of the oldest residents of Whitehorse and was the oldest employe of the Royal Mail Service Stage Line between Whitehorse and Dawson.

    Mr. McAdam was not only liked for his personality but his ability was recognized by everyone who came in contact with his work.

    All fellow workmen, and citizens have been most pronounced in their expressions of sympathy for the immediate members of his family in their bereavement.

    Mr. McAdam was a prominent member pf the local lodge of A. F. & A. M. and his untimely departure will be felt by all those who intimately knew him.

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The Weekly Star (Whitehorse, Y.T.), Friday, March 2, 1916

    Rarely in our experience have we known a town to be so shocked and stirred to its depths as was the case in Whitehorse when the news became known that it was probable that William McAdam was one of the victims of the disastrous fire in Dawson. Wherever one went, he found serious faced groups of men discussing the event in hushed and sorrowful undertones. And it was but natural that it should be so, for "Billy", as we all knew him, was one of the oldest inhabitants of Whitehorse. He came into the country in 1898, and was engaged in driving a team on the old Red Line, the forerunner of the White Pass Railway.

    He then went for a time to the Lower river, and was at and around Eagle for one fall. In 1909 he went outside and returned with his bride, and they took up their residence in the house which they have oocupied ever since.

    He was born in 1866 at Lachute, Quebec, and before coming North was working in the Kootenay country.

    He was employed by the W. P. & Y. R. for the past seventeen years. A first class driver, he was the hero of many a hard trip over the trai with the mail for Dawson. In all weather and conditions, and sometimes the conditions were bad in the extreme, he was out on the road. And he never complained. The road might be flooded as it was three years ago, the rig might be over the boot in water, the horses mired in the mud, so that it was necessary to cut them loose from their harness in order to save them at all, but McAdam never murmured. It was all in the day's work.

    His reserved disposition perhaps gave the impression of coldness, but those who knew him know full well that under the restrained exterior beat a warm heart, full of kindness. Many a time he gave up some of the very few hours that he was able to spend at home, in order to carry out innumerable small errands entrusted to him by people along the trail. This kindness was manifest in the care which he bestowed on his animals. Nothing distressed him more than to be compelled to drive a lame or sick horse, and every time, rather than force such a horse, he would favor him, which meant an hour or two more upon the road for himself.

    Mr. McAdam was just as good upon the water as on the road. He frequently made the first trip with the mail behind the ice in the spring, and was employed during the greater part of the summer in piloting B. Y. N. launches on the sidestreams. There are few men who have such a knowledge of the less frequented waters of the country. Not only did he know the actual rivers, but also the watersheds, and he used this knowledge to good purpose by acting as guide to hunting parties, particularly on the upper reaches of the McMillan river, and in the Glenline mountains bordering the Pelly. That party was fortunate which had McAdam as guide; he was a good shot, a powerful pucker, an expert hunter, and above all things else, good company.

    During the day on which the tragedy happened, he had driven sixty miles, and there is little doubt that, tired out, he went early to bed. He was an exceptional heavy sleeper at all times. Had he awakened by the fire, he had only to step out onto an adjoining roof to safety. It some consolation to know that he must have been suffocated by the fumes and smoke. He did not therefore suffer at all, but passed away peacefully in his sleep.

    By his loss, the Yukon has lost one of her best sons and Whitehorse a most popular and respected citizen. To Mrs. McAdam and his other relatives we offer these few words as a tribute to his memory, and as an assurance of our sympathy and sorrow.

    The body of the late Mr. McAdam is now on the way to Whitehorse and is expected to reach here Monday.

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The Weekly Star (Whitehorse, Y.T.), Friday, March 3, 1916

    The following bit of pathos is from the Douglas Island News of March 9, and evidently refers to Mrs. Wm. McAdam, of Whitehorse, although no name is mentioned in the article:

    "I am taking poor Will back home," is what a sweet but sad-faced little woman remarked to the editor of this paper when the latter met her on board the C. P. R. steamer Princess Sophia at Juneau yesterday morning. "Will" was her husband and he was burned to death in a hotel fire at Dawson, Yukon, the night of the 21st of last month "Back home" is a little country town fourteen miles out of Montreal, Quebec, where the couple were children together and to which place the man returned for the sweetheart of his youth after making a home for her in Yukon.

    We well remember when the big and rugged Scot returned with his little bride from the East and of how he, inured as he was to the rigors of the far North, cared for her as tenderly as ever a man cared for woman. We have known her eight years and during that time have watched her literally grow into the hearts of the people of the town in which she lived. Being denied children of her own, she was the mother to all the other children in her neighborhood. Her home was always open to them and her influence over them, always for the good, was beautiful to witness. To meet the brave little woman on her sad journey was both painful and pleasing - painful to think of the load of sorrow she was bearing and pleasing to note the fortitude with which she was bearing her burden. All that was left of her big and stalwart husband was in a beautiful casket in a box on the lower deck of the steamer. She was taking poor Will back home.

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    William Alexander McAdam was buried at St. Andrews Protestant Cemetery in Saint-Andre-d'Argenteuil, Quebec. His impressive headstone reads:

"To the memory of William A. McAdam who died at Dawson, Yukon Ter., Feb 21 1917, aged 51 years. Erected by the Superintendent and employees of the Royal Mail Service at White Horse, Yukon Ter.
And his wife Anna M. Burwash, 1871 - 1948"