Longtime Yukoner Pat Ellis has compiled a collection of historical tidbits detailing the 65-year history of St. Mary’s Hospital in Dawson City, released as a book with a limited run
Pat Ellis spent years interested in the history of St. Mary’s Hospital in Dawson City, a largely undocumented subject. She’d read an out-of-print book years ago about Father William Judge and his letters from the Klondike, which she thought were remarkable bits of history.
“Over the years, I’ve been going to Dawson and visiting St. Mary’s Park, but there wasn’t that much information about the history of St. Mary’s Hospital,” Ellis told What’s Up Yukon. “I did backtrack over the years trying to find more information; there was very little on St. Mary’s Hospital and almost nothing on the fire that destroyed it.”
Ellis first visited Dawson in 1962, to see the musical Foxy playing at the newly opened Palace Grand. As her bus passed the old Commissioner’s Residence, then a home for seniors, she was surprised to see a Sister in full nun regalia who was wheeling a patient across a boardwalk. This sparked a lifelong interest for Ellis.
Finding a need to put together a book on the scattered history, Ellis decided, at 88 years old, to take on the challenge, recruiting her friend Don Cheeseman for the task of creating the layout, successfully obtaining a $4,000 Heritage Grant, and spending many hours researching.
“I was fortunate to find some interesting stories and pictures from pioneers with
connections to St. Mary’s,” Ellis said.
Ellis said that in the many decades since the hospital closed down in the early 1960s, many of Dawson’s people have forgotten parts of the history, especially as there was not an awful lot of records kept of any kind regarding the hospital. She was able to track down the son of Dr. Barry Duncan, who was kind enough to tell her about the fire.
“His dad was the doctor, then, and was trying to rescue all the equipment and papers,” Ellis said. “It was a very sad fire. It was in January of 1950, very cold, and it was just volunteer firemen. Some of the equipment didn’t even work, so it just burned right down.”
Ellis’ book, American Missionary in the Klondike: The Saint of Dawson City, starts with the story of Father Judge, an American missionary from Alaska who ended up in Dawson at the time of the Klondike Gold Rush. Judge’s letters give readers a snapshot of history through the eyes of someone who was there. Fr. Judge established St. Mary’s Hospital in August, 1897.
Ellis believes the book will be of interest to people in the medical field, as well as to anyone interested in lesser-explored areas of Yukon history, as the book walks readers through the entire history of the hospital, from its opening to its long-lasting legacy, with lots of stories from its time.
A limited number of copies of Ellis’ book are available for $12 each at local bookstores, and Ellis has donated some to Maryhouse. She has no plans to print any more.
“To get a thing like that together, it took a lot of effort,” Ellis said.
