"Willy" was born in Edys Mills, Dawn Township, Lambton County, Ontario, Canada where his father farmed. At an early age he went from there to the Yukon Territory with his brother Jonathan to seek his fortune and, according to his niece Elsie May (Seaton) Tozer, "never came back".

Benjamin F. Craig, a post office worker in Dawson City, recorded W.P. Kniffen as leaving the Klondike Sep. 27, 1909 for the Grant Hotel, Vancouver, BC. Craig maintained a list of people leaving the Klondike by death or departure. Many of the almost 14,000 entries list forwarding addresses or destinations for those leaving the Klondike. I have, as yet, been unable to locate a "Grant Hotel" in Vancouver although there was one at this time in San Diego, California.

Only days later, on October, 1, 1909 in Dawson City, "Willy" signed on as a deckhand on the S.S. White Horse and worked his passage to "White Horse" for which he was paid one dollar. He signed off at White Horse on October 5, 1909 from where he probably took the train to Skagway, Alaska and then the ferry boat to Vancouver, B.C.

"Willy" settled in Vancouver where, on 19 Apr 1911, he married Dorothy Clarice McColl, an English girl, and from many accounts died by accident on Christmas Day of the same year leaving behind an 18 year old widow and one month old son, Robert McColl Kniffen. Sadly I have discovered that his death was suicide. He had reportedly been suffering from depression and on Christmas day left his wife at her parents house, went home and drank carbolic acid, and was later found dead on his bed. Willy is buried in the Mountainview Cemetery, Vancouver. I visited the cemetery and found no headstone for him. Willy's widow remarried twice and is also buried in the same cemetery.