Thomas William O'Brien (March 8, 1859 – August 24, 1916) was a Klondike gold rush entrepreneur who was best known for his Klondike Mines Railway and Klondike brewery businesses. He was also elected as a member of the Yukon Territorial Council, and was the first president of the Yukon Order of Pioneers, Klondike Lodge.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 5.
Early years Thomas O'Brien was born on a farm in Oro-Medonte Township, Canada West to James O'Brien and Catherine Elizabeth Stevens. He went to school in the vicinity until the age of 14."Thos. W. O'Brien is Called to his Long Rest," Dawson Daily News, August 25, 1916. He then moved to Toronto where he worked as a streetcar driver on the King Street line.Eric L. Johnson, Biographies: Thomas William O'Brien (Klondike History Library, 1993). O'Brien did not linger long in Ontario and headed west as a young man. He worked as a mail carrier on the Touchwood Hills route, via fort Qu’Appelle and established a homestead in the area. When the unrest in the Métis community boiled over into Louis Riel's rebellion of 1885, O'Brien took advantage of the conflict. He set up a wagon team that was hired by General Middleton to support his troops.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 5. Drawn back to the transportation business, he next worked as a contractor. laying railway track around Winnipeg. O'Brien then decided to once again head west. He sold out his interest in the contracting outfit and moved to Seattle, where, hearing about Alaska gold, he set his sights northward.
Time in the Yukon before the Klondike gold rush
Thomas O'Brien reached the Alaska/Yukon area in 1886.Klondike History Library; Dawson City, Yukon, Canada; Census Returns for 1901 for the Unorganized Territories, Roll 1, T06555 NAC, Section F-1, Klondike City. The census reports that O'Brien has been in the Yukon Territory for 15 years, which puts his arrival in 1886. He tried his hand at prospecting, but this appears to have been a short-lived career. He prospected in the Fortymile region on the Beaver River with Chris Sonnickson, T. Evans, and ‘Old Herman’.Michael Gates, Gold at Forty Mile Creek: Early Days in the Yukon (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1994), 52. However, like so many gold seekers, he found that wage work was more practical and found work in a saloon, where one contemporary described him as a "good-nurtured portly Irish saloon keeper".Brian D. Ross, Chronology of Information Available Regarding Thomas W. O'Brien and The Klondike (O'Brien) Brewery, (The Klondike History Library, 1989), 1886. O'Brien was ambitious. He soon saved up enough to start his own trading house with his partner Billie Moran in Fortymile and moved the outfit to Circle City.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 5. O'Brien soon expanded into the production side of the business and started brewing with a whiskey gang. They ran one of the 31 illegal liquor stills that the North-West Mounted Police recorded in the Yukon Valley in 1894.Michael Gates, Gold at Forty Mile Creek: Early Days in the Yukon (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1994), 88. There is some indication that O'Brien may have married and had children with a First Nations woman during this period. O'Brien appears to have abandoned this family when he moved to the Klondike, when gold was famously discovered there.Eric L. Johnson, Biographies: Thomas William O'Brien (Klondike History Library, 1993).
In the Klondike In 1896, gold was found in the Klondike region and O'Brien and Moran moved their trading house to Klondike City. This was a settlement that sat just south of Dawson City at the confluence of the Klondike and the Yukon rivers. At this time, Klondike City was government reserve land that was available by lease only. O'Brien, like many of the professional prospectors in the region, was able to get in before the flood of stampeders and get claims on the rich creeks of Bonanza and Eldorado. In 1896, he purchased of claim no.1 on Eldorado Creek from Jay Whipple in a very profitable acquisition.Record Book Placer Mining Eldorado Creek and Tributaries, Klondike History Library: Dawson City. From his many claims, and especially from claim no. 1, O'Brien pulled $250 000 of gold from the earth. With this cash, he greatly expanded his mercantile operations with Moran under the name Yukon Pioneer Trading Co. With his new found wealth, O'Brien diversified his company into numerous enterprises. O'Brien's mouthpiece in the Klondike was the Yukon Sun newspaper. O'Brien was the president of this paper and in its pages, advertisements for his businesses were common. A whole page is taken up by ads for his Yukon Pioneer Trading Co. and for notices that he was selling town lots for Fortymile. The Yukon Sun, September, 1900, pg. 47 There also appears an advertisement for an O'Brien Club, described as a “gentlemen’s resort for prominent men,” which likely was connected to Thomas O'Brien. The Yukon Sun, September, 1900, pg. 48 His paper ran into legal trouble numerous times, with allegations that it stole other newspapers stories from the telegraph wires and printed them first.“Now in General Contempt: Yukon Sun Stands Uncovered a Miserable Impostor, Feeds On Goods of Another,” Dawson Daily News, Wednesday December 27, 1899. O'Brien also had some business interests in Dawson City and was listed as the co-proprietor of the Monte Carlo Saloon.Brian D. Ross, Chronology of Information Available Regarding Thomas W. O'Brien and The Klondike (O'Brien) Brewery, (The Klondike History Library, 1989), 1901.
Transportation endeavors in the Klondike
Thomas O'Brien seemingly could not stay away from the business of transport and it was not long before he put his new found wealth into a related scheme. Transportation was a big issue in the Yukon. Dogs were the most reliable draft animal, as they could live off salmon, the most abundant food source in the region. Dog sled was used for winter travel and riverboats dominated summer transportation. A network of trails sprang up, connecting the claims and settlements, but many were in very rough shape. In 1898, Hill M. Henning took this as an opportunity and applied to the government for concessions needed to support the construction of a tramway.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 6. He cleared a roadway from Klondike City to Grand Forks.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 6-7. By October, all the bridges and grading were complete and he was ready to lay tracks. However, Henning's finances gave out and he was unable to pay the 150 laborers for their work. At this point, O'Brien stepped in with a bailout of $30 000 and became the controlling interest.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 7. He renamed the venture the Pioneer Tramway Company and having sunk significant money into the venture, he decided to drop the idea of a tramway. To get the quickest return on his investment, he turned the already graded tramway bed into a toll road instead.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 8. This turned out to be an unpopular move and many miners refused to pay the tolls. The legality of this change was challenged and, as the charter was specific to a tramway, he was brought to court and forced to stop collecting tolls. This debacle would earn O'Brien the nickname ‘tramless Tom’.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 10. He was able to recoup his losses when he applied to the Yukon Council to recover his money. In 1902, he was awarded $35 000 from the government to cover his losses and interest on the original $30 000. The last payment was made in 1906.
Undeterred by this failed first foray in the transportation business in the Klondike, O'Brien started a new transportation venture. In 1899, with the help of the influential new law firm McGiverin, Haydon, and Grieg, Ottawa accepted a charter for the Klondike Mines Railway.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 12. O'Brien was listed as president for the venture, which was granted the right to raise a million dollars for capitalization.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 13. The law firm was influential in O'Brien getting the charter where many other applicants had failed. Treadgold and Boyle had used the same firm when they obtained their mining concessions.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 11.
Unfortunately, 1899 was not a fortunate year to begin a train company. Gold was found in Nome, Alaska that year and this signaled the end of the Klondike gold rush. The population of Dawson dropped precipitously as stampeders headed north, down the Yukon River to Nome. However, O'Brien pressed on, seemingly undeterred. He even diversified and started a shipping company with some Fortymile associates. The Dawson White Horse Navigation Company founded in 1900 would be a short-lived venture. More established shipping companies had too firm a grip on the market, and O'Brien's two boats were not competitive.Eric L. Johnson, The Bonanza Narrow Gauge Railway: The story of the Klondike Mines Railway (Vancouver: Rusty Spike Publishing, 1997), 15. As for the K.M.R., it was still raising capital and by 1901 was nothing more than a legal entity.
Despite two failed business and one that was going nowhere in a hurry, O'Brien was a wealthy man. According to the 1901 census, he had $72 000 in real estate, $15 000 in claims, and $142 000 in personal property. He even owned a horse valued at $300.Klondike History Library; Dawson City, Yukon, Canada; Census Returns for 1901 for the Unorganized Territories, Roll 1, T06555 NAC, Section F-1, Klondike City. In the census, we also learn that he was married to Anna O'Brien. Anna was 15 years his junior: She was 25 to his 40. She was listed as having the occupation of housekeeper. This could either mean that she was a housewife or may suggest that O'Brien had married his housekeeper. At the time of the census, they had two children together: Charlie, aged 4, and Marguerite, aged 2. The family was all of Irish descent, although Thomas O'Brien was born in Canada and was Presbyterian, and Anna was born in the U.S.A. Anna had been 3 years in the Yukon at the time of the census. She was Roman Catholic and the children adopted their mother's religion. O'Brien's occupation was listed as merchant/employer.Klondike History Library; Dawson City, Yukon, Canada; Census Returns for 1901 for the Unorganized Territories, Roll 1, T06555 NAC, Section F-1, Klondike City.