YUKON "OLD TIMER" A CIVIC CHAMPION LIFE IN DAWSON CITY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 128, 3 June 1927, Page 3

YUKON "OLD TIMER" A CIVIC CHAMPION LIFE IN DAWSON CITY

(From ''The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, 3rd May. Old-timera who followed tho trail to tho Yukon, mourn the loss of Colonel Donald M'Gregor, who has just passed away at his old home in Glengarry, at the age of 88, three years after' he had returned there. A lover of adventure,. Colonel M'Gregor came to the West in the 'sixties, following tho lure of tho gold rush to the Cariboo. When fortunehunters from five continents turned thoir steps toward the Yukon he was in tho van of the advancing army. Townships sprang up like mushrooms on an April night, and Colonel M'Gregor's power and popularity grow with Dawson City. Was thero a civic cause that needed a champion, he was there with a call for a public mooting. Ho arranged the celebration of Queen's Birthday and Dominion Day, and personally instructed the children of this now land what the Bmpiro meant and stood for. In a dozon othor ways ho made himself responsible for tho welfare of. tho community. In Dawson City the colonel was chairman, of the Citizens' Committee, and was instrumental in suppressing many an. insurrection when disgruntled miners raised a blind riot around the administrative buildings. His method was always to sympathise with tho complaints of the people, which wcro generally more or less justified, point out to them that tho only way to have thoir grievances remedied waß to make proper representations to Ottawa, and tn put himself at their head, leading and organising thoir agitation for redress along lawful lines. Ho stayed ten years in Dawson City, leaving thero for the more generous climate of Vancouver. On tho day of his departure the Dawsou "Daily Nowa" said of him:—"He has been president of more civic bodies than any man living; has been foreman of juries 999 times; has organised churches and sung iii choirs in "sour dough" times; and been best man at most of the weddings. He was a notable member of tho Yukon Polar Expedition was one of ' the first to know Wada, Casey Moran, and other great adventurers; is an honorary life member of the Arctic Brotherhood; and has turned down every office and "fat job" in tho Yukon, from Alderman to Governor. Always a great lover of children, he organised their celebrations, sot up kindergartens, and was known as tho fairy godfather of every child in the Territory." .■.".