CAMILLE LEFEBVRE, OBLAT
Father Camille Lefèbvre worked at the Holy Name of Mary mission in Arctic Red River on the MacKenzie before going to the Klondike. In 1898, Father Gendreau sent him to Selkirk, Yukon, to build a chapel there with the help of Brother Dumas. Then Father Lefèbvre became chaplain or vicar at St. Mary’s Church in Dawson, then he was responsible for the “Last Chance” area. Father Lefèbvre was responsible for various churches where there were French-Canadian parishioners: St. Patrick at Grand Forks, St Joseph on lot no. 244 of the Lower Dominion and another church on lot no. 9 in the same region.
In the spring of 1900, Father Lefèbvre arrived in Whitehorse with Brother Dumas. They raised a tent-chapel at the corner of Wood Street and 4th Avenue.
In April 1901, the Oblate congregation finally accepted to establish a mission at Whitehorse even though the population was not stable, and the economy was fragile and there seemed to be little success of having a Catholic school. They built the Sacred Heart Church in 1901. Father Lefèbvre was still the pastor there in 1903.
Ref. Empreinte, vol. 11, p 102
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