Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
George Clinton Buffum was born August 13, 1896, in Table Grove, Illinois, United States. His family later moved to Teulon, Manitoba. George lied about his age and joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and then served with the Canadian military in World War I. Sometime in the late 1920s or early 1930s, he moved to Behchoko (formerly Fort Rae).
By 1934, Buffum was the manager of the Northern Traders Ltd. trading post. This trading post, which had been purchased from Hislop and Nagle in 1912, operated in Behchoko until 1938. Upon its closure, Buffum went to work for or with James ‘Jim’ Darwish, an independent trader based in Behchoko since 1925.
George Buffum married Louise Evelyn (born 1908, birth surname unknown) on July 8, 1934, in Behchoko. George and Louise met when she had been a nurse for George's ailing father. Louise and George corresponded for a few years before Louise moved to Behchoko and they were married.
The Buffum home often served as a stop over for many pilots and their passengers and consequently the Buffums were well known by many of the northern bush pilots.
George and Louise’s daughter Marylyn "Lyn" G. Buffum (married name Marylyn Orchuk, later Marylyn Orchuk-Payne) was born in Edmonton on January 28, 1936. Louise and Lyn stayed in the south until the summer of 1937, when they moved back to Behchoko.
George Buffum ran the trading post after Jim Darwish moved to Edmonton in 1941. At some point between 1938 and 1944, Buffum and Darwish became business partners. Buffum then became the sole proprietor of the trading post following Darwish’s death in 1944. Buffum continued to operate the trading post in Behchoko until his departure from the community.
The Buffum family moved south in 1946 because of George’s concerns for Lyn’s education. In 1947, Buffum rented the trading post and his former house to the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development for the department to operate a Day School and provide a furnished teacher’s residence. In 1948, Buffum sold his property, including chattels, to the same federal department.
George Buffum continued to visit the north in the summers until approximately 1951 or 1952.
George Clinton Buffum died September 18, 1968. Louise Evelyn Buffum died in 1979. Marylyn ‘Lyn’ Orchuk-Payne died July 26, 2019.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Detailed updates made to biographical sketch Jan 6/23. RM
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
"Bride of North Not Dismayed at Lonely Life." Edmonton Journal. [1934?]. Copy in NWT Archives Reference File for Buffum, George.
Edmonton Journal Obituary. "Marylyn Orchuk-Payne." August 3, 2019. https://edmontonjournal.remembering.ca/obituary/marylyn-orchuk-payne-1076363608.
Find a Grave Memorial. "Jim Darwish." Accessed January 6, 2023. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58869120/jim-darwish.
Find a Grave Memorial. "Louise Evelyn Buffum." Accessed December 21, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219129231/louise-evelyn-buffum.
Find a Grave Memorial. "Pte George Clinton Buffum." Accessed January 3, 2023. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/156992166/george-clinton-buffum.
“Fort Rae’s First White Bride Finds Life in Distant North Full of Interest and Color." Edmonton Journal?. 1934. Copy in NWT Archives Reference File for Buffum, George.
Library and Archives Canada. Collection Search. "Buffum, George Clinton." Accessed December 21, 2022. https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=pffww&IdNumber=74243&q=buffum.
Library and Archives Canada. Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Indian and Inuit Affairs and Northern Development. "Fort Norman Agency - Rae Day School - Building Maintenance - Supplies - Accounts." 1947-1949. RG10, Volume number: 6473, Microfilm reel number: C-8790, File number: 906-5, File part: 1.
"Pioneer of North, J. Darwish Dies." Edmonton Journal. September 26, 1944.
Usher, Peter J. Fur Trade Posts of the Northwest Territories 1870-1970. Ottawa: Northern Science Research Group, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, 1971.