British Columbia
Historical News
"Any country worthy of a future should be
interested in its past." W. Kaye Lamb, 1937
Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation I Volume 37 No. 1 Winter 2003 I ISSN 1195-8294 I $5.00
In this Issue: Sea Otters | Kamloops | Lord Minto | Pitt Lake Glacier
An Index | Hugh Watt | Tokens | Book Reviews British Columbia Historical News
Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation
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DEADLINE: 31 December 2004 British Columbia Historical News
Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation volume 37 N0.1 winter 2003
2. Lord Minto's 1904 Farewell Tour
By Robert J. Cathro
6. Stanford Corey, First to Discover Pitt Lake Glacier
By A.C. (Fred) Rogers
8. Isaac Brock McQueen of Kamloops
By Enid Darner
12. Sea Otter Trade From Before the Mast
By Vic Hopwood
17. Hugh Watt: Physician & Politician
By Naomi Miller ^^^^
20. Token History
By Ron Greene
23. Book Reviews
Edited By Anne Yandle
30. Website Forays
By Christopher Garrish
31. Archives and Archivists
Edited by Frances Gundry
38. Miscellany
,.,,."■■1 !■■ ►
..» m. jflttT.
t__ i«t-c-x,
Wl^HlIHIlllll Jllikl
From the Editor
Welcome to the Winter 2003 issue of BC
Historical News.
I'm very happy with this issue and the
range of articles it includes. One of the
highlights of the editorship is the seeing the
quality and variety of material that arrives in
my mailbox. Combined with the submissions
already on hand, passed on by the previous
editor, I already know there are many
fascinating issues ahead.
With the wide variety and quality of
material BC Historical News receives, it is
sometimes difficult to predict when a
submission might be published in these pages.
In this issue I have one piece originally
submitted almost two years ago and another
which arrived last month.
As editor, I like to select contibutions
based on their content, not necessarily when
they were received by the magazine.
Given that BC Historical News is
published quarterly, there may be a
reasonable amount of time between
receiving a submission and when it is
published. But your patience is appreciated,
because it is our author's who make BC
Historical News so worthwhile.
In this issue there is a message from
the president asking for your opinion on the
proposed name change of this magazine.
Whatever that opinion is it is important that
you have a say. Phone, fax, or e-mail
Jacqueline Gresko with your thoughts.
Correction: An eagle-eyed reader spotted a
discrepancy in the dates given for the death of Lieut.
Palmer, the subject of the article Palmer's Cup and a
biography reviewed in these pages last issue. For the
record Lieut. Palmer died in Tokyo in 1893.
BCHF Awards | Prizes | Scholarships
W. KAYE LAMB Essay Scholarships
Deadline 15 May 2004
The British Columbia Historical
Federation awards two scholarships
annually for essays written by students
at BC colleges or universities on a topic
relating to British Columbia history.
One scholarship ($500) is for an essay
written by a student in a first-or
second-year course: the other ($750)
is for an essay written by a student in
a third-or fourth-year course.
To apply tor the scholarship,
candidates must submit (1)a letter of
application: (2) an essay of 1,500-3,
000 words on a topic relating to the
history of British Columbia: (3) a letter
of recommendation from the professor
for whom the essay was written.
Applications should be submitted
before 15 May 2004 to: Robert Griffin,
Chair BC: Historical Federation
Scholarship Committee, PO Box 5254,
Station B, Victoria, BC V8R 6N4.
The winning essay submitted by a
third or fourth year student will be
published in BC Historical News.
Other submissions may be published
at the editor's discretion.
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Nominations for the BC History Web
Site Prize for 2004 must be made to
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Committee, prior to 31 December
2004. Web site creators and authors
may nominate their own sites. Prize
rules and the on-line nomination form
can be found on The British Columbia
History Web site: http: 11
www. victoria, tc. cal resources!
bchistoryl announcements.html
Best Article Award
A Certificate of Merit and fifty dollars
will be awarded annually to the
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Historical News, that best enhances
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BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003 Lord Minto's 1904 FareweU Tour
By Robert J Cathro
Bob Cathro is retired
geological engineer
whose interest in
history was
stimulated by a
career in mineral
exploration in Yukon
Territory and
northern British
Columbia. He was a
director of the
British Columbia
Historical Federation
and the Bowen Island
Historians. He
currently resides in
Chemainus.
Hotel Vancouver at
Granville and Georgia,
shown here in a
contemporary post card,
was the site of a gala
reception to honour Lord
and Lady Minto
In a recent article about the Howe Sound Hotel
on Bowen Island1, it was mentioned that the most
important visitor was the governor-general, Lord
Minto, who signed the hotel register on 6
September 1904. Lord and Lady Minto were making a
farewell trip to the West Coast before returning to
England at the end of his six-year term of office.
Canada in 1904 was very much a British colony
and British Columbia was one of the most British
provinces of all so Lord Minto was looking forward to
meeting many supporters. This was His Excellency's
second visit to the Pacific coast, the first occurring in
1900 as part of his trip to the Klondike gold fields,
Yukon Territory. The story of the 1904 tour provides
fascinating insight into West Coast life at the turn-of-
the-twentieth-century.
Gilbert John Murray Kynynmond Elliot, the
fourth Earl of Minto, was born at London, England on
9 July 1845. After an undistinguished military career,
Lord Melgund (his title before succeeding to the
earldom), was married in the summer of 1883 to Mary
Grey, the daughter of Queen Victoria's private secretary.
Two months later, he became the military secretary to
the governor-general of Canada, Lord Lansdowne,
serving for a time as chief of staff to F D Middleton
during the Northwest Rebellion.2 It was during this
visit to Canada that he first developed his fondness
for the country and its people, particularly those in the
west and north whom he described as "splendid
people".3 Their first child, Eileen, was born in Canada
during this tour of duty. Following his return to
England in early 1886, he was appointed to a number
of military positions and the four younger children,
Ruby, Violet, Victor and Esmond, were born.
In 1898, he was appointed governor-general of
Canada by Queen Victoria. Lord Minto's term was
marked by controversy and political strife because of
his inexperience in government, his mistrust of
politicians, his determination to play an active part in
public life, his criticism of the government's handling
of the South African (Boer) War, and his interest in
reforming the Canadian Militia.4 His greatest
contributions were in the "realm of good works",
including his attempt to forge closer ties between
French and English Canadians, his efforts to preserve
Canadian history through the creation of an archive
and his fearless intervention on behalf of native peoples
and northern prospectors to protect them from the
neglect and mismanagement of government. During
his term, he travelled over 113,000 miles, a prodigious
feat in those days.5 Lord Minto is remembered as a man
who was guided by a firm belief in the Empire, the
military, the Anglo-Saxons and God, but who was
neither an imperialist, a militarist or even a racist in
the sense of the late nineteenth century.6
As on their 1900 tour, the vice-regal party
travelled from Ottawa in their private railway cars
Victoria and Canada, which were attached to the end of
the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) transcontinental
express train. Lord and Lady Minto were accompanied
by two of their daughters, Arthur Guise (comptroller),
Capt. Bell (aide de camp), and Maj. Maude (military
secretary).7 On September 2, their train was involved
in a serious accident near Sinitula, about fifty miles
east of Regina, when it was diverted onto a siding by a
misplaced switch and collided head-on with a
2 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 stationary cattle train. Five women riding
in a sleeper car immediately behind the
locomotive were killed and four other
women and a porter were injured.8 In a letter
to Arthur Elliott that was written on the train
later that day, Lord Minto described how
upsetting the incident was to the whole family.
Daughter Eileen was standing outside on the
platform and did not fall down but her sister •
Ruby was sent flying Luckily, Lord
and Lady Mnto were sitting down
and were not injured.9
The remainder of the trip
was uneventful and the viceregal party arrived
Vancouver late on September.
3, after a brief stop in New
Westminster, and stayed
overnight on the train. At
noon the following day,
they boarded HMS Grafton,
the flagship of the Royal
Navy's Pacific fleet for the
trip to Victoria.10 As the
Grafton steamed into
Esquimalt harbor at 6:00
pm, she was greeted by a
royal salute from HMS
Bonaventure, a large
;crowd of cheering
residents, and a guard of
honour from the Royal
Garrison Artillery of the
Royal Engineers under
Lt.-Col. English. Lord and
Lady Minto then
proceeded to the
residence of Commodore
Goodrich, where they stayed during their visit to
Vancouver Island.11
The next day, Monday September 5, was Labour
Day and the city had scheduled a large number of
events including a parade, a sports day meet at
Caledonia Park, a large union rally and a dance at the
A.O.U.W. Hall. The only events that involved the
governor-general were a public reception and speeches
at the Drill Hall and a luncheon at the Driard Hotel.12
By order of Lt.-Col. Hall, the Fifth Regiment provided
a guard of honour at the Drill Hall, commanded by
Capt. W R Wilson with Lt. Angus as subaltern. Lord
Minto gave a brief and graceful address in which he
commented on the beauty and hospitality of the city
on this and his previous visit and spoke with sorrow
of his departure from Canada. Referring to the Boer
War, he said that its great lesson was that the Colonies
must stand together with other parts of the Empire.13
At 10:00 pm, Their Excellencies held a reception at the
legislature at which the dress code was evening dress
for civilians and full dress uniforms for military
officers.14
The original itinerary for September 6 called for
the vice regal party to arrive back in Vancouver about
noon and attend an afternoon reception in their honour,
which would permit a departure for the east the next
This sketch of the Earl of
Minto appeared on the
front page of the
September 5, 1904 edition
of the Victoria Daily
Colonist.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper would not have been
possible without the help and
encouragement of the Bowen
Island Historians and its archives.
Special thanks are due to the
City of Vancouver Archives and
the Special Collection Division of
the Vancouver Public Library.
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003 3 1 Cathro, Robert J, "Bowen Island's
Howe Sound Hotel", B.C.Historical
News,
I Miller, Carman. "Lord Minto" in
The Canadian Encyclopaedia, Hurtig
Publishers, Edmonton, 1985, p1144.
! Stevens, Paul and John T Saywell,
editors, Lord Pinto's Canadian
Papers, 1898-1904, The Champlain
Society, Toronto, 1983, pp xv-xvii.
4 Miller, 1985, ibid.
s Miller, Carman The Canadian
Career of the Fourth Earl of
Minto-Jhe Education of a Viceroy,
Wilfred Laurier University Press,
Waterloo, 1980.
6 Stevens and Saywell, 1985.
ibid., pp xix.
7 Vancouver Daily Province,
September 61904, p1.
! Vancouver Daily Province,
September 3,1904, p1.
' Stevens and Saywell, 1985,
ibid., p533.
10 Vancouver DaUy Province,
September 6,1904, p1
II Victoria Daily Colonist,
Septembers, 1904, p1.
12 Victoria Daily Colonist,
Septembers, 1904, p1.
13 Vancouver DaUy Province,
September 6,1904, p1.
14 Victoria Daily Colonist,
Septembers, 1904, p1.
15 Vancouver DaUy Province,
September 2,1904, p1.
16 Vancouver DaUy Province,
September 6,1904, p1.
17 City of Vancouver Archives (CVA),
Add Mss 143.
1! Vancouver DaUy Province,
September 7,1904, p1.
19 Vancouver DaUy Province,
September 10,1904, p1.
20 Vancouver DaUy Province,
September 7,1904, p1.
21 Stevens and Saywell, 1985, ibid.,
pp 535-536.
22Miller, 1980, ibid., pxx.
23 West, J Thomas, "Lacrosse" in
The Canadian Encyclopaedia, 1985,
p964.
morning.15 Along with the formality and military
protocol attached to the governor-general's visit, it is
an interesting comment on the times that the schedule
for Lord Minto's city reception would be changed on
short notice, especially at a time when few people had
telephones in their homes. At any rate, the functions
in Vancouver were rescheduled for the following day
and the Grafton was diverted for a leisurely cruise up
the Straight of Georgia, arriving in Vancouver about 5
pm.16 For reasons that will probably never be known,
the ship entered Howe Sound and Lord Minto went
ashore on Bowen Island, and signed the register at the
Howe Sound Hotel, situated at Hood Point.17
According to the newspaper account, bunting and
signal flags were broken out from stem to stern as soon
as the Grafton anchored in Vancouver harbor. "Their
Excellencies remained on board overnight, dining with
Commodore Goodrich. After dinner, the ship was
handsomely illuminated with her hull, spars, funnels,
bridge and water line all outlined in electric lights. At
the fore peak was an illuminated device representing a
flag in which the red cross of old England was executed
with coloured lights. The splendid illumination
continued until at the first stroke of midnight it
disappeared in the twinkle of an eye."18 Unfortunately,
no photographic record of this splendid display has been
found, perhaps because equipment was not available
that could capture a night scene such as this.
The reception was held at 11:00 am on September
7 at the Hotel Vancouver with lower than expected
attendance because of the short notice. That was not the
present hotel, which is the third to bear that name. As
the vice-regal party entered, Harpur's Orchestra struck
up the national anthem and while Mayor McGuigan
read the formal address of welcome, the orchestra played
The Maple Leaf Forever quietly in the background. The
mayor was accompanied by Alderman Stewart, Col.
Worsnop and Col. Falkland Warren. After a number of
prominent business, church and military dignitaries had
been presented and light refreshments had been served,
the visitors entered carriages for a drive around Stanley
Park. That was followed by lunch at Parkside, the
residence of Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper. Late in the
afternoon, a guard of honour from the Sixth Regiment
under the command of Capt. John S Tait escorted the
vice-regal party to the CPR station, where a large crowd
had gathered to see them off in their private cars, which
were attached to the eastbound Imperial Limited.19
The costume worn by Lady Minto at the civic
reception was described in detail by the newspaper.
Her dress was made en train of pale green dresden
silk and was trimmed with ecru lace and pale green
chiffon. Her accessories included a Gainsborough hat
of the same shade trimmed with white ostrich feathers,
a long white feather boa and a pale green parasol. Her
daughter, Lady Eileen Elliot, who served as Lady-in-
waiting, was attired in a white muslin and lace net
gown with a white picture hat of ecru straw trimmed
and draped with heliotrope chiffon. She carried a white
parasol trimmed with white lace and both women
wore corsage bouquets of pink roses.20
On the return trip to Ottawa, Lady Minto and
her daughters stopped for a holiday in the Rockies
while the governor-general went on to Calgary and
changed trains to Edmonton. An avid horseman, he
joined a Northwest Mounted Police overland patrol
of several days duration to Saskatoon. A letter to his
wife from Edmonton was addressed to "Squidge ...
my very own loving girl" and signed "Roily".21
After his Canadian tour, Lord Minto served as
viceroy of India from 1905 to 1910 before retiring to
the 10,000-acre family estate near Hawick, in
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 southeastern Scotland near the English border. He died
there at Minto House on 1 May 1914. Lady Minto,
who died at London in July 1940 at the age of eighty-
two, is best remembered by Canadians for her
initiatives in establishing cottage hospitals in the west
and for taking an active role in the fight against
tuberculosis.22 At least five populated places, three
geographic features and numerous public buildings
were named after the Minto's. The Lady Minto
Hospital on Saltspring Island and the sternwheeler SS
Minto, queen of the Arrow Lakes from 1899 to 1954,
are two local examples. He also donated the Minto Cup
in 1901 for annual presentation to the national
professional lacrosse champion. In 1937, it became the
national junior lacrosse trophy.23 •
ULAt U a. uU
v-
A«-^Jr
Signature of Lord Minto,
in the customary royal
style, in the register of
the Howe Sound Hotel. He
did not include the date
but it had to be
September 6, 1904. The
Haswell party signed at
the top on September 3,
the party from the Yacht
"Bosun" signed at the
bottom of the page on
September 10 and another
party signed on September
9 above the Minto
signature. It appears that
the Governor-general
signed in the middle of
the blank portion of the
page, assuming that the
next party would have the
sense to use the next
page.
HMS Grafton The flagship
of the Royal Navy's Pacific
Fleet passing Fisgard
Lighthouse outbound from
Esquimalt Harbor,
1902.(opposite top)
Maritime Museum of British
Columbia photo P817
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003 5 Stanford Corey, First to Discover Pitt Lake Glacier.
By A.C. (Fred) Rogers
A. C. (Fred) Rogers,
lives and writes in
Qualicum Beach, on
Vancouver Island.
Fred is the author of
a number of books
including Shipwrecks
of British Columbia,
Southern Vancouver
Island Hiking Trails,
and the recently
self-published
Historic Divers of
British Columbia.
(see page35 for more
information on this book.)
The interview was originally
published in the Vancouver Sun
newspaper on 28 August 1926.
Mr. Lawrence Donovan
interviewed Stanford Corey
about his remarkable
adventures.
This is a story about a prospector, Stanford
Corey, who traveled through the trackless
wilderness into the headwaters of the Pitt
and Stave River country in 1899. For several
months he explored into the Harrison Lake country
and Fire Lake near the head of Harrison Lake. He
crossed the high glaciers at the source of both The
Stave and Pitt Rivers all alone. He also explored the
source of the wild Lillooet River. At that time, the
maps only showed vast tracks of country rarely
visited with little detail. Most of this area has been
penetrated by logging roads, and after the easily
harvested timber was taken, the logged areas were
abandoned. The roads gradually deteriorated with
washout and overgrown, and now a semi-wildemess
region again.. The Pitt, Stave, Harrison and Squamish
River regions are still being logged and the lure of
wilderness is rapidly disappearing.
Stanford Corey was seventy-seven years of age
when he related some of his adventures to Lawrence
Donovan in 1926.
He had a luxuriant gray beard to match the color of the
glaciers he is again now planning to explore this summer
(1926) and plans to go alone. "Taking other people on these
prospecting adventures usually ends in failure," he said.
"They soon get tired and want to turn back." He never
sets any schedule of when he returns from his trips. It
might be a week, a month or much longer.
His own blaze marks are his own peculiar style he marks
on trees that can be found from the Fraser Valley to the
Arctic Circle. He has
left cashes of tools
and powder, some
buried and some
forgotten in the grim
northlands. One of
his cashes is near the
"Pitt Lake glacier" as
he calls it, which was
rediscovered in 1926
by a party headed by
George Platzer of
tropical valley fame.
But prospector Corey
was there in 1899. He
never laid claim to
being the first one to
discover the glaciers
in that area, for he
has explored many of
them and never
considered it more
than a glacier he
often encounters. He
has often crossed the
glaciers at the
headwaters of the
Pitt and Stave Rivers. He was the first one to blaze a trail
from the head of Pitt Lake to Howe Sound and Squamish in
1900 while on his own four months in the trackless
wilderness.
He came to British Columbia in 1867 from the backwoods
of New Brunswick, and became a prospector. For 59 years
he was crossing the mountains of B.C., the Yukon, and
northern territories. In later years he explored the
mountains in the vast area of the upper Pitt and Stave
6 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 Rivers. In all his wanderings in the lonely vastness, he never
found any markings or evidence of any other person ever
having passed through there except his own trails which
are dimmer but still recognizable.
Corey claims to be the first prospector who brought gold
south from the Yukon territory in the early 1880's to get it
assayed at Victoria. The value of northern gold was doubted
in those days, but he claimed there are outcroppings of
valuable minerals in the narrow stratas in the upper Pitt
Lake country. But he doesn't think there is much chance of
a great strike in the region except the development of
some large body of low grade mineral. He says the newly
discovered great glacier isn 't extremely difficult to access.
One wonderful meadow. At one place Corey mentioned
was a great flat at the base of the mountain where the
avalanches of many years had cleared the land as cleanly
as though a great broad-axe, and in the seasons when the
snowfall is not heavy, this area becomes a beautiful
meadow. It's between the glaciers and Pemberton
Meadows. Over the last 50 years of his time, he believes
the great glaciers have remained about the same, and only
receding in years of light snowfall. When Corey first
entered the region, wolves and grizzlies abounded, and it
is still the haunt of many bighorns and goats.
Once made a strike. "It was not a great wealth; maybe a
few thousand or more, but it doesn't matter." For four
years the lone prospector vanished from the land which
he had pioneered. In that four years he lived, "I wanted to
see the world," he explained, and ventured through 37
country flags, and in one place that had no flag. "For four
years I traveled and studied to enlarge my views of life.
And the next thing I knew I was carrying a fifty pound pack
in the Cariboo and enjoying life again." "No, I never made
much at it. You see, the seasons of placer mining are short
and the winters use up all I panned out last summer. I got
hung up this season," he said. "I didn't get started early
enough, and besides I'm beginning to get a bit tippy. Can't
keep my balance as well walking trees over hollows and
canyons. I get a bit dizzy and have to be more careful."
Soon go/ng aga/n. "I'm going to get away again in a few
days now. I had been out a few days this year and had an
accident when I fell from a log and ran a snag in my ear I
couldn't get it out and was several days in the bush. It
penetrated more than an inch into my ear, and I've been
all summer getting fit to go again. But it's all right now."
When in Vancouver, Corey makes his headquarters in a
private home on east Georgia Street. He is slightly bent
in figure now with his blue eyes set in his dark skin from
a life in the open skies. But his eyes are clear and not
dimmed. Possibly he never
will be immortalized in
history, but then he just
might be.
I don't recall noting any
landmarks in the regions he
worked honoring his name.
It's possible he heard about
the Indian named Slumach
who for years was known to
enter the Pitt Lake country
and come out with gold.
Slumach usually had a
woman with him as
company, and many of them
never returned with him.
One of his female friends
became suspicious of him
and escaped. Slumach was
charged with murder and
hanged. He never revealed
where he obtained his gold
for the secret went with
him to the grave. •
Some of the glaciers and
mountains prospector
Stanford Corey wandered
through searching for gold
and precious minerals in
the head waters of Pitt
river. The author took this
photo in September of
1976, while on the ridge
looking east in to
Pinecone Lake valley,
(far left)
The slendour of Pinecone
Lake from the ridge,
(below)
The photo of Stanford
Corey was published with
the original story,
(above left)
A logging scene and
mountains at the head of
Corbold Creek, a tributary
of the upper Pitt River in
the 1960s, when the
author first ventured
there. The peak on the
right is Remote Mountain
and on the opposite side
is Stave River. A number
of glaciers exist there
while Stave River itself
starts from a large ice
field at the head of the
valley. There were no
logging roads or trails in
that wilderness when
Corey blazed his way in.
(above)
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003 Isaac Brock McQueen of Kamloops
Gold Seeker and Overlander, helped lay the foundation for today's modern city
by Enid Darner
Edith Darner has, for
the past 10 years
been a researcher for
the Family History
Society of Kamloops.
In 1997, she received
a request for
information regarding
the McQueen family
and discovered an
intriguing story and,
having just finished a
degree in History and
English, did further
research.
She also writes
articles for local
newspapers and has
just published a
memoir-recipe
book about growing
up in the 1930s on
Vancouver Island.
Fort Kamloops on the
south bank of the
Thompson river in 1865
BC Archives 95311
The cry—"Gold! Gold on Fraser's River!"—
rang out across North America in 1858,
emptied San Francisco, swept across the
continent and on to Great Britain.1 But where
was Fraser's River and how would one get there? At
first, no one knew, but as miner Thomas Seward was
to write in the Victoria Colonist in 1905, "It was known
only that gold could be found and that was enough
to send hundreds of men into the wilderness to make
their fortune or die in the attempt." One of these
adventurers was Isaac Brock McQueen.
He was born in Brockville, Ontario, in 1831,2
an area settled by immigrants from the Western
Highlands and islands of Scotland. Most were Gaelic
speaking and many were Roman Catholic. Brock's
father, Col. McQueen, had farmed in Ontario for over
half a century. He had fought against the Americans
in the War of 1812 under the command of Maj.-Gen.
Sir Isaac Brock, later referred to as the saviour of
Upper Canada. The Americans had attempted to drive
the British out of North America while Europe was
involved in the Napoleonic Wars. Brock led a field
force of 700, and 600 Shawnee braves under
Tecumseh. The battle was won at Queenston Heights
but unfortunately Brock was killed.3 In his memory,
Elizabethville was renamed Brockville and,
undoubtedly, Col. McQueen named his son in
Brock's honour.
Brock, age thirty-one, learned of a group of
gold seekers from St. Catherines and Queenston on
the Niagara Peninsula forming the St. Thomas group
under the leadership of Thomas McMicking, another
Scot, a religious man, well educated but often harsh
in his judgment of others. He quickly won the trust of
the St. Thomas group, which he ran with military
precision. They had set out by train via Detroit and
Chicago, then around Lake Michigan and north to
Milwaukee and St. Paul by steamer. It was in St. Paul
that Brock McQueen joined the group. And it was from
the local merchants that they bought their outfits in
preparation for their great adventure.4 They hoped to
return as rich men in approximately four month's time.
From St. Paul they boarded stagecoaches for
Georgetown, a Hudson's Bay post on the Red river,
then north to Fort Garry, some by riverboat and some
by land on horseback and oxen-pulled wagons. They,
and many other similar groups, arrived in Fort Garry,
the jumping off place, in June, 1862.5
They proceeded northwest, destination Fort
Edmonton. They traversed mile after mile of rolling
hills dotted with small lakes surrounded by clumps
of poplar. Beginning their day at three o'clock in the
morning, they walked approximately twenty miles a
day, six days a week. Sunday was set aside for church
services, rest and repair of equipment. There was little
shade, the sun scorched down upon them and
mosquitoes plagued them unmercifully. River
crossings were their greatest danger though at times
heavy rains turned the track into slippery mud.6 The
group consisted of 150 men, including Augustus
Schubert, his pregnant wife and their three children,
and 120 carts pulled by oxen, each loaded with 800
8 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 pounds of food and equipment.
Fort Edmonton, in 1862, was a large,
sprawling, undisciplined Hudson's Bay centre, a
collection of whites, Metis and dogs. The whole
population was in starving condition because of the
scarcity of the buffalo, their traditional food, and lack
of supplies from Britain sent via Hudson's Bay.7 Here
the McMicking party had to decide which route to
the Cariboo they would take. They chose the Leather
Pass, now the Yellowhead, the shortest but the most
difficult route.8
"On Tuesday morning, July 29, the McMicking
party, now reduced to 125 men with 140 animals
headed north".9 Having been warned of the terrain
ahead, they abandoned their carts and strapped their
supplies to the oxen. They faced 200 miles of spruce
forest, swamp and several major river crossings.
"Men walked in mud knee deep, then waded in waist
deep water."10 Fifteen days later they caught their first
glimpse of the Rocky Mountains.
Although the gold-seekers were glad to be free
of the swamps, the mountain pass brought new
problems. The path was narrow, steep and
treacherous, streams had to be crossed, windfalls had
to be cleared away, and food ran low. The diet of beef
threatened scurvy and the oxen found little forage.
But they made the trip without loss of human life and
on August 27 reached the Fraser at Tete Jaune Cache,
the end of the trail, where a group of Shuswap Natives
offered them salmon and berry cakes.11
At Tete Jaune another major decision had to be
made. The party had three choices—to raft down the
Fraser river to the Cariboo, the shortest but most
dangerous route, to cross the uncharted Premier
Range to the west, or, the longest route, to walk to the
headwaters of the North Thompson river and on to
Fort Kamloops where they would winter before
heading north to the goldfields. Thirty-six, including
Brock McQueen, the Schubert family, William Fortune
J.A. Mara and G.C. Tunstall opted for the Thompson
route, while the remainder set off by raft down the
Fraser.12
On 2 September 1862, the Thompson group,
driving 130 animals, began their overland walk to
the North Thompson river. For a week they averaged
only three miles a day, cutting through dense forest
and wading streams. When they reached the river,
they decided it was large enough to raft so they
slaughtered most of their stock. Some dried the meat
while others built rafts and dug-out canoes.
New problems. They were faced with rapids
so turbulent that some of the remaining animals and
several men drowned, they were constantly wet from
heavy rains and wet snow, they lost most of their
goods and were on the point of starvation when they
came across a decimated Native village where they
found potatoes left unharvested. Failing to recognize
a smallpox epidemic, some of the men slept in the
Native's empty houses on their evergreen bough
beds.13 In spite of everything, the first contingent of
the gold-seekers began to arrive in Kamloops on
October 11.
The Hudson's Bay Journal summed up their
arrival as follows:
October 11. "A party of men have come down the North
River by Raft, they are from Canada and the States and
have come via Red River, Saskatchewan and Jasper House
to Tete Jaune Cache, thence to the source of the North
River and down to this point.
October 13. Employed 5 Canadians to dig up potatoes.
October 14. Employed 3 more Canadians today
October 15. Another party of 15 more men arrived by the
North Branch. Employed 2 men to clean the stores for which
they got each 1 1/2 lb. flour and 3/4 lb. bacon.
October 16. Employed 2 more men at $1:00 a day.
October 21. Some Canadians arrived this evening with a
large raft of dary (sic) weather (dry wood?)
October 26. Another party is said to have arrived."14
It was on October 14, just after the Schubert
family arrived in Fort Kamloops that their baby girl,
Rosa, was born with the help of an Native midwife.
Rosa was the first white baby born in the interior of
British Columbia.
Most of the Overlanders, as the group came to
be called, continued on to Victoria, many working on
road construction, their dreams of gold set aside. A few,
including Isaac Brock McQueen, the Schuberts, William
Fortune, Mara and Tunstall, remained in Kamloops and
became the early pioneers of a growing village.
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) had held
exclusive trading rights in the Cum Cloups area since
1821, trading mostly for beaver furs. By 1862,
however, the demand for beaver pelts was
diminishing, so the Company turned to raising horses
and supplying goods to miners and settlers. The post
had moved to the south bank of the river where it
consisted of a storehouse, dwellings, stables and barn,
a field and kitchen garden and a farm up the hill. The
summer of 1862 must have been hectic, since extended
farm operations necessitated more labour for haying
and harvest. Perhaps Brock McQueen's first
employment with the HBC was to dig potatoes. We
don't know, for his name is not mentioned but we do
know that he worked for HBC soon after his arrival,
Notes
1 Richard Thomas Wright,
Overlanders (Saskatoon, Sask:
Western Producer Books 1985). 1
2 Ibid. 283
! Canadian Encyclopedia.
McClelland and Stewart (Toronto
2000) article: War of 1812.
4 Richard Thomas Wright,
Overlanders (Saskatoon, Sask:
Western Producer Books 1985) 149
5-6-7 Ibid. 173,178, 203
8 Thomas McMicking Overland
from Canada (Vancouver, BC: UBC
Press, editor Joanne Leduc. 1981)
28
9'10'11 Ibid. 34,39
12 Richard Thomas Wright,
Overlanders (Saskatoon, Sask:
Western Producer Books 1985) 223
1! Ibid. 226
14 Mary Balf A History of the
District up to 1914 (Kamloops,
BC: Kamloops Museum 1969) 18-
19
15'16lbid. 14-15,118
17 Hudson's Bay Journal 1884.
18 Kamloops Inland Sentinel.
September 11,1884
"Ibid. September8,1894
20 Hudson's Bay Journals. 1875,
1879,1880
21 Inland Sentinel. October 18,
1895.
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003 having charge of herds of cattle and a dairy
established on the North River.
In 1865, gold had been found in the Big Bend
area of the Columbia river. Miners passed through
Kamloops on their way to the gold fields. HBC Chief
Factor, J.WMcKay, saw the opportunity to make a
huge profit carrying miners and their freight from
Savona's Ferry at the west end of Kamloops lake by
boat to Seymour Narrows on the Shuswap, a distance
of 120 miles. Shipbuilding was carried out by Chief
Trader Henry Moffat at Chase Ranch on the Shuswap
in 1866. The Marten, the first steamship built on an
inland waterway in BC, was constructed of
whipsawed lumber provided by Brock McQueen. The
setting up of McQeen's mill and the construction of
the boat were considered the beginning of the lumber
industry in the Kamloops region. However, the
enterprise was profitable only during that one
summer because of mechanical breakdown and the
fact that the gold strike was petering out.15
In 1866, Brock McQueen, after completing the
Marten, pre-empted land seven miles up the North
Thompson.16 In 1874 he pre-empted more land and
by 1891 he held 298 acres, running cattle westward
up into the hills above the river. He 'married' Susan
Grant, a Metis, who bore him four sons—Isaac, James,
Alex and Isaac Brock who died in infancy.
Isaac Brock McQueen must have been a
versatile and enterprising man. In 1868, he purchased
a threshing machine, mounted it on a scow, and towed
it to all the farms up the South Thompson river as far
as Spullumcheen (Enderby). In 1871, along with S.
Robbins, he took a drive of cattle from Kamloops to
the Peace river in which district there was a
mining boom.
Later he took hogs and cattle to the Cariboo.
He obtained a new threshing machine in 1884 which
was reported in the HBC Journal:
Friday, October 29,1884 :"...a large scow with a
Threshing machine arrived from below to thrash out the
grain at different farms along the river".16
The Inland Sentinel newspaper also reported the
arrival of the wonderful threshing machine.
September 11, 1884..".Mr. Brock McQueen was in
town early in the week with his threshing machine. Messers
Jones and Mellors, back of Kamloops where he is working
at present. We understand he goes East to Mr. Duck's and
to Spallumcheen.
October 2, 1884. Mr. B. McQueen's new machine
is doing wonderfully well threshing for Messers Lumby and
Bennett and will be employed there for another fortnight.
This machine is a new one lately imported from Canada
with all the latest improvements and does better work
than any machine employed here".18
In 1894 he purchased yet another thresher, this
time a large steam machine, shipped by the CPR from
the East. The Inland Sentinel reported:
September 8, 1894..".Mr. Brock McQueen's new steam
thresher has been engaged all week at J. T.Edwards's ranch.
It goes next to Nicola." 1S
Although Brock McQueen's history so far
seems like a steady progression towards success, the
Hudson's Bay Journals, beginning in 1875, tell a slightly
different story. In reports to his superior, W. Charles,
Esquire, in Victoria, John Tate, Chief HBC Factor,
states that "J.(sic) B. McQueen owes a large amount
of money. "I am in the hopes that (said) J.B.
McQueen's account will be all right".
On 7 June 1879, Tait's inventory states:
"The next a/c we come to is J.B.McQueen, and as I have
no fear, but what I will recover that all right...if I wished
to close down on him I could recover immediately from
J.B.McQueen to Thos. Roper whose indebtedness is
considerable and whose promises I think are rather like
piecrust, but may possibly be able to collect from him
before long".
And on 24 August 1880:
"/ have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter
of the 5th inst. and in reply beg to explain how the
Company came in possession of the Thrashing Machine and
8 Horse Power which appears on the T.R. Inventory of 1879.
J. B.McQueen owed a considerable amt. here last year and
in order to reduce the amount I took his interest in the
Thrasher, it was owned by three persons at the time ie.
McQueen, M.Sullivan and W.Patten. Shortly after I made
the deal with McQueen, I took also Sullivan's Share so as
to have control in running the Machine and he was being a
disagreeable person to work with. The two shares made
$385.00 last month. The Machine was sold to Herman
Wickers for $700.00 to be paid for this coming fall. Wm.
Patten to receive one third of the amount...by next mail
I will send you the amount of the Thrashers earnings last
fall. I am your Obdt. Servant, John Tate". m
Perhaps Brock McQueen's career was not
without blemish but when he died at Royal Inland
Hospital on 18 October 1895, he must have earned a
reputable place in Kamloop's society. His obituary
states that his remains were enclosed in a handsome
casket and pallbearers James Mcintosh, G.C. Tunstall,
S.Robbins, J.O'Brien, C.T. Cooney and J.T. Edwards
were all respected members of the town. "The funeral
took place on Sunday afternoon, at which quite a
10
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 Kamloops in 1886 on the
banks of the Thompson
river. The photo by,
Edouard Gaston Deville
showing the businesses
and shops lining the main
street.
BC Archives D-04708
number of those who have known him almost since
he came to the province besides many other
acquaintances paid tribute of respect to his memory.
Very beautiful floral offerings were placed upon the
casket. The remains were placed on the shore of the
Thompson river, beside those of his wife who died
some time ago".21
Today, many local place names have become
lasting memorials to these early pioneers—Mara Lake
and Mara Hill, Cooney Bay, Mcintosh Heights,
Robbins Range, Tunstall Crescent, Fortune, Schubert
and McQueen Drive and McQueen Creek which
empties into the North Thompson near the spot where
Brock McQeen established his ranch.
If you follow the creek high into the hills to the
west, you will reach McQueen lake, home of the
McQueen Lake Environmental Study Centre built in
the 1970s. The overnight Centre includes ten log cabins
and a log resource building while the day centre
provides eleven kilometres, of trails, a shelter and
observation platforms. The site is ideal—fairly close
to the city and it includes ponds, lakes, forests and
grasslands where children study birdlife, geology, soil
erosion and pond life. The purpose of the Centre is to
demonstrate the connecting systems which form the
food chain and to help students understand
their interconnectedness with nature and man's effect
upon it.
The children come by bus along the twisting
gravel road which runs north from the city, snaking
its way between rolling hills, aspen-ringed pot-hole
lakes of alkaline water, through one of the few remaining grasslands of B.C. Here HBC grazed hundreds of
horses on the lush grasses, decimating the hills in the
process. Now the grasses struggle to fend off encroaching sagebrush, cactus and knapweed. At the edge of
the grasslands lie remains of homesteader's cabins
from the early 1900s while a few cattle still graze on
the designated range land. North into the forest of firs,
sprinkled with cottonwood and willow, they come to
McQueen lake.
Excited children's voices now pervade the silence where, a hundred and more years ago, Brock
McQueen grazed his cattle. If the ghost of this early
pioneer still haunts the area, he must marvel at the
new-found use being made of his summer pasture and
wonder if any of those carefree youngsters ever ask,
"Why was this lake named McQueen?" •
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003
11 Sea Otter Fur Trade from Before the Mast
by Vic Hopwood
Vic Hopwood is a
retired professor of
the English
Department at UBC.
An earlier version of
this article was
presented at Fort
Langley on the
occasion of its 175
anniversary. Vic has
written on the fur
trade for a number
of publications.
From the sea otter fur trade on the
Northwest Coast of America between 1785
and 1825, we have quite a few firsthand
accounts of voyages from Britain or New
England. Most were written by captains and officers,
at least two by supercargos. Beside these we are lucky
to find three rarities for the period—books by sailors
from before the mast telling their own experiences.
They are by John Nicol, John R. Jewitt, and Stephen
Reynolds.
John Nicol
Portrait of John Nicol
from the frontispiece to
the original 1822
publication drawn and
engraved by W. H. Lizars.
The first of the trio arrived in the North Pacific
in 1786. John Nicol (1755-1825) came as the cooper of
the King George, Capt. Nathaniel Portlock
(accompanied by the Queen Charlotte, Capt. George
Dixon). These two British
traders were almost first
in the rush for sea otter
pelts, set off by reports
from Capt. Cook's last
voyage. In China his
crews had found that
mandarins would pay
fortunes for the softest
and most lustrous of all
furs as a sign visible of
their very visible exalted
station.
A short book, The
Life and Adventures of John
Nicol, Mariner (1822) has
the terseness of Hakluyt's
Voyages. It centres on
Nicol's twenty-five years
at sea, starting from Edinburgh in 1776. The original is very rare; later versions are only scarce.
As an impoverished old man with a genius
for story telling, Nicol told his experiences to John
Howell, a restrained and tactful editor. Sensing Nicol's
spirit, knowledge, and "tenacious memory", he kept
the very words of "the old Tar". Nicol's Life gives us
a vivid, surprisingly verifiable, story of his adventures
as a seaman in the British Navy and in merchant vessels. He took part in naval actions against both the
Americans and the French. He sailed twice around
the world. In his first ship he came to Canada, went
on to several islands in the West Indies, back to England, and then out to Newfoundland.
In later ships he visited Portugal (three times),
Greenland, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands, the Falklands, Hawaii (three times), Northwest
America, the Marianas, China (three times), South Africa, Australia, St. Helena, Indonesia, Peru, Norway,
France, Spain; and finally, many places in the Mediterranean, including Gibraltar, Egypt (twice), Malta,
Spain, Algiers, and Rhodes. Doubtless he touched on
other places.
For Canadians, Nicol provides unique
glimpses of what he saw in the early British colonial
history of three future Canadian provinces: Quebec,
Newfoundland, and British Columbia.
In spite of the range and immediacy of his
writing, Nicol has been referred to or quoted only occasionally by historians. Judge F.W. Howay in his 1929
book, The Dixon-Meares Controversy, made good use
of the Life and Adventures, but few other Canadians
have followed his lead. Barry M. Gough's 1992 The
Northwest Coast is a significant exception. A few British naval historians have quoted Nicol on the Battle
of the Nile, especially on the part played in the action
by the women on his ship, the Goliath. An Australian
journalist, Tim Flannery, has made Nicol slightly less
unknown. In 1997 he brought out his edition of the
Life, emphasizing Nicol's voyage in the Lady Juliana,
a ship transporting women convicts to New South
Wales. The best edition of Nicol's Life is a deluxe New
York version (Farrar andRinehart, copyright 1936.
British copies dated 1937). Its "Foreword" and
"Afterword" by Alexander Laing contain the only
substantial analysis I know of Nicol's book and
Howell's editing.
Laing also places the Life in the context of seafaring literature before and after Nicol. On first reading Nicol forty years ago my reaction was like Laing's.
I had never read better writing about the sea. How
could I have missed it? I spoke to English and History colleagues. To my surprise, they, like me, had
never heard of Nicol, let alone read him. Recently, I
met Bruce Watson, a knowledgeable researcher on
early BC individuals. Familiar with both John Nicol's
and Stephen Reynolds's books, he confirmed my
lonely evaluation of them as vital and significant writing and historical sources.
Given that The Life and Adventures of John Nicol,
Mariner is one of the great British sea stories and a
classic of travel and autobiography, surely the time
has come for its recognition. In BC and Canada, especially, his book should be on our shelves.
On their way out from London, the King George
12
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 and its consort stopped for provisions, water, sex, and
perhaps rest in "Owhyee", the Big Island of the Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands. Here Nicol grasped at once
whom the Neolithic inhabitants saw as the really important persons in the strange large sailing boats. On
show to the Hawaiians looking down from the deck
above, he was worked to near exhaustion at his anvil
at the bottom of the hold. He was cutting hoop iron
into knife lengths to buy provisions while the carpenter ground them sharp on a stone. Nicol said, "The
King of Owhyee looked to my occupation with a wistful eye; he thought me the happiest man on board to
be among such heaps of treasures". The captain let
the king go down the hold; Nicol cut him a long
twenty inch piece, flattering and pleasing the king.
The essentials of the above scene were repeated over and over in the sea otter trade. A good
example occurred a year later in Prince William Sound
in what is now Alaska, near where in 1989 the Exxon
Valdez spilled eleven million litres of crude. Here, the
local Chugach, a branch of the Inuit, were impressed
by the King George's blacksmith, as shown by the following passage, which is also a sample of Nicol's observation and humour:
[T]hey looked upon him as a greater man than the captain.
He was a smart young fellow, and kept the Indians in great
awe and wonder. They thought the coals were made into
[black gun] powder. I have seen them steal small pieces,
and bruise them, then come back. When he saw this, he
would spit upon the anvil while working the hot iron, and
give a blow upon it; they would run away in fear and
astonishment when they heard the crack.
We should hardly be surprised that the peoples of the
Northwest Coast, so rich in rituals with drama and illusion,
were impressed by the skill and display of smithing. Neither
should we think them naive for their admiration of workers
who make things with their own hands. Perhaps true simple-
mindedness is the capitalist bias that the world's great men
are chief executive officers and heads of imperious states.
In the quotation above, Nicol called the
Chugach "Indians", even though Capt. Cook had
observed ten years earlier that the Aboriginals of
Prince William Sound were much like the eastern Inuit
in appearance and culture. Nicol's usage here was that
of most traders, some of whom also called Hawaiians "Indians".
In a concentrated passage, Nicol tells us much
about how Capt. John Meares's failure of discipline
on his ship Nootka brought suffering and death to his
crew. Meares is best known for his successful campaign to have the British government intervene for
restitution from Spain to him for his ships seized at
Nootka three years later. Also he gained literary fame
of a sort for his vehement controversy over Capt.
Dixon's firsthand description of the sordid conditions
on Meares's Nootka. (Dixon's voyage was published
as a book of letters, ostensibly written by his ship's
supercargo, William Beresford.) Here, shortened and
lightly edited, is Nicol's account of what Dixon found:
She, [one of Dixon's boats] went on an excursion to Snug
Corner Cove, at the top of the Sound. She discovered the
Nootka, Capt. Mairs [Meares], in a most distressing situation
from the scurvy. There were only the captain and two men
free from disease. Two and twenty . . . had died through
the course of the winter; they had caused their own distress,
by their inordinate use of spirits on Christmas eve. They
could not bury their own dead; they were only dragged a
short distance from the ship, and left upon the ice. They
had muskets fixed upon the capstan, and man^rapes [to
the triggers] that went down to the cabin, [so] that when
any of the natives attempted to come on board, they might
fire them off to scare them. They had a large Newfoundland
dog, whose name was Towser, who alone kept the ship clear
of Natives. He lay day and night upon the ice before the
cabin window, and would not allow the Natives to go into
the ship. When the natives came to barter, they would cry
"Lally Towser," [meaning "We're friends, Towser"] and
make [the dog] a present of a skin, before they began to
trade with Capt. Mairs. He lowered from the window his
A sea otter, drawn by
John Webber (1751-1793)
from James Cook, A
Voyage of Discovery to the
North Pacific Ocean.
London, 1801. Plate 43
BC Archives PDP00376
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003
13 The King George in Coal
Harbour in Cook's River,
from Capt. Portlock's
Voyage Round the World
published in 1789
barter [trade goods], and in
the same way received their
furs .... We gave him every
assistance in our power in
spruce [anti-scorbutic
essence from spruce needles
for making a beer] and
molasses, and two of our
crew to assist in working the
vessel.
Meares had previously been a naval officer
of the school then still
dominant. While a good
navigator, the contrast
between him and
Portlock and Dixon is
plain. They had served under Cook on his third voyage, learning from a master how to navigate and map,
while gaining the essentials of maintaining health and
discipline with a minimum of harsh punishment. (Not
all of Cook's officers
learned as much. Bligh
and Vancouver both became excellent navigators, but failed to acquire
the full art of winning the
loyalty of their crews.)
On the whole, Nicol,
who went to sea from a
love of adventure which
he never lost, recalled his
three years on the King
George with pleasure.
John Jewitt
Portrait of John Jewitt,
from Hilary Stewart's
1987 version of The
Narrative of the
Adventures and Sufferings
of John R. Jewitt.
Our second seaman's book, The Narrative ofthe Adventures and
Sufferings of John R. Jewitt
(1815) is the only one to
become widely read. Hilary Stewart's 1987 version is a model of editing. Jewitt
(1783-1825), learned blacksmithing in his native England. The captain of the Boston, an American vessel,
hired him as an armourer. From his share, Jewitt
hoped to gain enough to set himself up as a master.
He arrived sixteen years after Nicol left.
By the start of the nineteenth century British
ships were becoming rare on the coast, partly because
of the South Sea Company's charter. Although feeble
since its bubble burst some eighty years previous, it
held until 1807 its monopoly of British trade along
the Pacific coast of the Americas. It reached out from
shore for 300 nautical leagues. That's 1,036 statute
miles. From Dixon, for example, it held a bond of 5,000
pounds to allow the company either to sell his furs at
a commission or to buy them at a "fair" price. The
East India Company by its charter could exclude all
other Britishers from the China trade. Its permissions
were rare; its restrictions vigorously enforced. The two
monopolies worked together to maintain their privileges. Jewitt's story turns on the high value the Nuu-
chah-nulth Natives of Yuquot ("Nootka") placed on
the working of metals. In 1803, infuriated by Capt.
John Salter's insults, they killed the crew of the Boston, sparing only Jewitt and a companion, Jewitt for
his ability to hot work iron. He was set to work forging harpoons and other articles by Chief Maquinna.
Along the coast, sea otters were getting scarce,
competition fierce and Native feelings about traders
exasperated. Many traders failed totally to recognize
that the coast Natives were proud complex nations,
with centuries of experience in getting what they
wanted by a mixture of barter and raiding as well as
by their own labour. Although a privileged prisoner,
Jewitt had to be alert to the wishes and moods of the
chief; his awareness of Maquinna's complexity makes
his narrative memorable.
Surely now our Maquinnas should be honoured
among our other cultural icons such as Scottish borderers, Viking sea-kings, Homeric heroes, and Biblical patriarchs.
After some time, Jewitt was formally adopted
into the local nation. On this he is vague, although it
is obvious that he was initiated, if only from the fact
that he was later married to a woman of high standing, but not a "princess", who bore him a son whom
he barely acknowledged in his narrative. He even
maintained that his marriage was forced. Perhaps he
did not wish to offend New England puritans by revealing just how far he had integrated himself into
aboriginal society.
After recovering from the shock of the death of
his shipmates, Jewitt probably lived equally well or
better among the Nuu-chah-nulth than on shipboard.
In spite of his complaints, the food was certainly more
nourishing. The word "sufferings" in his title is likely
hype encouraged by Richard Alsop, his New England
editor and near co-author. Unlike the other two sailors' books, Jewitt's is in places pretentious.
Aboriginal traditions indicate that Jewitt was
sociable and adaptable, making the best of his captiv-
14 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 ity. Perhaps because he rather enjoyed himself, he was
able to write our earliest account from the inside of
West Coast Native life. His lively book, used judiciously, provides considerable anthropological information. However, he says little about shipboard life
beyond the drab formalism that his friend the captain was strict but kindly. What his story does is make
tangible the disasters to which rude belligerent captains exposed their men.
Stephen Reynolds
The third of our books is by Stephen Reynolds
(1782-1857). The Voyage ofthe New Hazard (1938) was
edited by F.W. Howay. Less known than even Nicol's
Life, it is referred to by some Hawaiian historians. To
literary critics it appears unknown. Reynolds was an
American AB, a fo'c's'le hand who arrived on the West
Coast in 1811, eight years after Jewitt. He left Boston
with paper and ink, clear evidence of an intention to
keep an unofficial record—one showing keen observation of persons and relations, and firm knowledge
of the work of a ship.
Reynolds's informal log gives an impression
of education and reading. Perhaps with a touch of
understandable romanticism, he saw a voyage to the
South Seas, the Pacific Northwest, and China as worth
recording. Reynolds's writing is elliptical at times, as
might be expected in a journal, but seldom obscure.
His word choice is exact, rarely fancy, and suited to
his material. His style takes energy from the events
and conditions he records.
By 1811, the hunted sea otters were getting few
and very shy; the competition for their pelts had
grown fiercer; the traders were even becoming interested in land animal furs. At the same time, the Natives were more likely to attack, in spite of the constant threat and use of guns. Perhaps as a result, later
captains drove their crews harder. Even allowing for
this, Reynolds's log of "the fast sailing brig New Hazard" reveals a fine vessel turned into an absolute hell
ship under the endless brutality of Capt. David Nye
and his officers.
In Hawaii, John Anderson, a boatswain who
had deserted John Jacob Astor's Tonquin after frequent quarrels with her Capt., Jonathan Thorn, "came
on board" the New Hazard, apparently on a visit.
Thorn hadn't waited to recapture him but pushed on
to the Columbia's mouth. The founding of Astoria
comes very early in the story of land bases in the fur
trade of the Northeast Pacific. After landing the
Astorians, Thorn took the Tonquin up coast to trade.
Thorn had an uncontrollably short fuse; at Clayoquat
sound, he insulted the local chief. After seizure by
the Natives, the Tonquin was blown up, some think
by Thorn himself. More of this later.
Discipline on the New Hazard grew harsher the
farther she sailed from home. After leaving Hawaii,
there came a catting for the ship's boy from the captain, blows for the black cook from the mate, a box
cover hurled at the head of a sailor by the second
mate. On March 16, Reynolds made a heading in his
log, "Wilful Murder, alias Brig New Hazard from Boston . . . towards Northwest Coast of America". On
June 11, after threats of flogging, Reynolds and four
others went ashore without permission near Vancouver Island's northern tip. They were "brought on
board; put in irons and flogged; then part put in main
hold, part in forehold ...". The crescendo towards
mutiny was rising. Trade relations with the Natives
were no better. Nye saw threats from the Haida where
probably none were intended. On June 16, Reynolds
wrote, "A canoe came alongside; the captain threw a
billet of wood at her and stove her ".
Slave trading was a regular part of the ship's
commerce, for instance, on June 20, "Sold all
shrowton [oolachan oil] and two slaves: one slave five
skins, one, three." Trading included buying, as at
Cape Flattery on August 1: "Bought four slaves."
Two days later, returning up the west coast of
Vancouver Island, the hostility in the ship came near
to surfacing. Also, the crew were coming together on
how to respond to the captain:
Stephen Reynolds's
portrait is from The
Voyage of the New Hazard
(1938) edited by F.W.
Howay. (left)
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003
15 The New Hazard, the ship
Stephen Reynolds sailed
to the Pacific Coast on.
From The Voyage of the
New Hazard (1938) edited
by F.W. Howay.
At three jibed ship; the inner halyards were not rove, and
several were accused of having been told to reeve them,
but denied it. Sampson got a flogging by the captain, after
which he jawed us, called us thieves, country boogars,
infernal scoundrels; would work us up ... . Not a word was
spoken togive him an occasion for a lecture at this time.
In July and August, news of the Tonquin disaster reached the New Hazard, heightening the anxieties of officers and crew alike.
After Capt. Nye had brutalized him, Reynolds
avoided more punishments. Nye, sensing the crew's
hostility, and either believing Reynolds to be cowed,
or guessing he could be a leader, decided to pump
him. Here is most of a key 1812 entry:
Wednesday, 22 January. Carpenter, John and I were ashore,
sawing; Capt. Nye went with us ashore; asked me to go to
the coal pit with him, which we left some time since. He
asked me several questions: "De Bello in Navem Comites"
wished me to give him information if anything should
transpire.
The imperfect Latin means the captain wanted
to know "about the war among the sailors". It is not
clear whether the Latin originated with Nye or
Reynolds. If Nye used it in interrogating Reynolds,
he was assuming that Reynolds would understand.
If Reynolds himself was the source of the Latin in his
private log, was it code to baffle any officer or shipmate who might read it? Or was it only Reynolds's
dim recall of once familiar Latin bits? Perhaps from
Julius Caesar's title, De Bello Gallico, and other tags.
In any case, Reynolds could set down five words of
incorrect Latin which still had a plain meaning.
Eleven days later in an apparently unplanned
event (Was there anyone on the New Hazard who could
have planned it?) the rancour exploded:
. . . Sebre Pratt, was dissatisfied with his allowance of
bread. Mr Hewes weighed it; said the allowance was full;
upon which Sebre threw it overboard. He was shortly called
aft; was ordered to be tied up. He cried out "Help! Help!!"
All hands went up to release him; the captain threatened
to shoot them. Sebre was taken in the cabin; put in IRONS.
Captain told them he had been told they were going to
take the ship from him. I was charged with telling the
news to captain because I was in cabin a few nights since
after a shirt. ALL IS BUZZ!!!!
Mutiny aborted! Normal hell restored!
Did Reynolds betray his shipmates? Had a different sailor turned informer? Did the imprisoned and
terrorized Sebre sing? Or when Nye said, "he had
been told", did he set loose a sly falsehood, calculated
to wreck the crew's solidarity?
Thus the flames of mutiny were damped down
to mere smoke, sparks and lesser flare-ups. On May
5 news arrived of distant strife—of one of the Atlantic naval skirmishes leading up to the War of 1812. At
the same time the intermittent North Pacific war between traders and aboriginals blazed on unchecked.
In late June near Newhitti, there began a complicated three-day skirmish over a boy slave who had
been bought by an Native passenger on the ship. On
June 28, the boy was found to have run away; all the
Kwakiutl canoes but one left the harbour. A boat was
lowered and pursued the canoe to the shore, where
the Natives abandoned it. Capt. Nye seized canoe and
contents; next day he captured a second canoe. Then
came a tit-for-tat exchange of musket fire with the
shore, after which he upped the violence by firing "a
broadside with large guns". At night the ship anchored near "the village"; the third day the action
ended:
ran in shore and fired several guns, but whether did any
damage cannot say. We saw the Indians running into the
woods in large numbers; two canoes went off. ... In their
return we tried to run them down with vessel, but wind
light they got in shore safe.
Here I quote Judge Howay's note on this passage:
Typical conduct of maritime traders. Not content with
taking the Natives' property Nye fires upon them and tries
to run them down. Little wonder the Natives took revenge
16
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 upon the first white man
who arrived after they had
such treatment.
This is the fourth
such footnote in the book
in which Howay makes a
parallel generalized statement about a similar incident. He is giving more
than a mere opinion. He
repeats a thoughtful
judgement on the conduct of most of the maritime fur traders.
10 August 1812 was an unusually relaxed day
on the New Hazard, perhaps because the time to turn
towards home was nearing, "No trade. Very busily
engaged in reading Sir Charles Grandison and the Honourable Miss Byron." Stephen Reynolds absorbed in a
Samuel Richardson novel gives us a glimpse into a self
temporarily absent from the ship's hateful regimen.
On September 21, the slow return sequence
began: first to Hawaii for provisions and sandalwood,
on to China to market the valuable furs and wood for
tea, silk, and China; from there back to Hawaii, on
south to round the Horn, and at last turn north, running the British blockade to Boston. On December 23,
1813, they fled British cruisers into nearby Buzzards
Bay. They tied up to the wharf in New Bedford on
Christmas Eve, exactly one year before the Treaty of
Ghent was signed, ending the War of 1812.
Conclusion
The sailor accounts illustrate three reasonable
conclusions:
First, the skills of the ships' crews were highly
valued by Natives, Inuit, and Hawaiians—contributing greatly to successful trade;
Second, apart from some secondary exploration,
the maritime fur trade was almost entirely exploitive:
nearly annihilating its main resource and building
nothing of permanence on the coast. It was all take and
nearly no give. The aboriginals did gain familiarity with
metals and firearms, but that scarcely made up for their
losses from conflicts and disease. As for their crews,
many (not all) captains through greed, carelessness, ignorance, recklessness, rudeness, or belligerence, inflicted on them hardships and high risks, from abuse,
disease, or provoking the wrath of the Natives, who
by the same causes suffered even more.
Third, the fact that the last two of our three authors came to the Northwest Coast in American ships
points to the growth of a temporary American dominance in the early maritime fur trade.
Coda
When the reconstituted Hudson's Bay Company finally established itself on the Pacific Coast after 1821, the dominant American maritime presence
played a part in the newcomer's decision to open Fort
Langley in 1826. Other posts along the coast followed.
A decade later, the little coastal steamboat,the Beaver
reinforced the Company fort based strategy of out
competing the Americans. After the near anarchy of
the early maritime fur trade, even Hudson's Bay Company fiat law as laid down by George Simpson, the
Little Emperor, was something of a mercy. Fortunately,
that too was not to be tolerated forever.
In a one sentence overview - The future province of British Columbia and the future states of Washington, Oregon, and Alaska were initiated into European civilization by the flaying of little furry animals,
the flogging of sailors, and a profound disruption of
the indigenous nations of the Northwest Coast. •
The attack and massacre
of crew of ship Tonquin by
the savages of the N.W.
Coast.
BC Archives d-04434
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003
17 Hugh Watt: Physician 6t Politician
by Naomi Miller
Naomi Miller is the
former editor of the
British Columbia
Historical News, the
author of many
books and resides in
Wasa, BC.
Hugh Watt was a new graduate from medi
cal school in Toronto when he applied for
the posting as physician for the Royal
Cariboo Hospital in Barkerville. He was
forty years old and had had a career as journalist, photographer, and editor of two newspapers prior to entering the University of Toronto. His staunch Presbyterian ancestors came from Scotland to Fergus, Ontario
where his grandfather and great uncle acknowledged
that they were sons of James Watt, the engineer who
patented the steam engine.
In 1867 young Hugh married Mary Grain and
accepted the rites of the Church of England. Hugh sold
his interests in the Fergus News-Record and moved north
to Meaford. There he established the Meaford Monitor
and is credited with "stirring up local politicians to
make application for Meaford to attain full status as
a town."
Hugh and Mary had two sons. Alfred was born
in 1869 and Hubert Lome in 1871. In 1877 Hugh Watt
arranged for a co-owner of the Monitor to become editor while he was away studying. Watt sold his interest
in the paper in 1881 and apparently never visited Mary
at their home in Meaford following the sale date. He
served locums in Toronto to earn cash for his fare via
San Francisco and Victoria to Barkerville.
Barkerville in 1882 was, by western standards,
a well-established community when Dr. Watt arrived.
The hospital board oversaw the running of the hospital. Each merchant and government official had a definite role in the running of the town. The Masonic Lodge
was No.4 in the Grand Lodge of British Columbia.
There were sufficient families with children to keep
the school open. The churches offered services by lay
readers or travelling clergy. There were bakeries, barbershops, general merchants, a small Government Office, hotels, restaurants, saloons and the stage office.
There were dances, concerts and debating clubs, but
there was no longer a newspaper in town.
Dr. Watt purchased a small house on which he
built an annex to serve as his office. He received a government salary of $2,000 per year for caring for patients
in the hospital. From this he had to purchase drugs
and dressings that he expected to use. He was, however, allowed the option to charge for patient visits to
his office. Virtually none of the indigents could afford
to pay, so no bills were presented. The handful of affluent citizens, or their family members were also
granted courtesy visits as Watt felt he'd bring the recipients on side in elections for the hospital board. The
hospital board had the power to reappoint (or dismiss)
the physician at each annual meeting.
The doctor's medical duties were generally light
so he was able to explore the district. He drove a nice
rig with a fine horse visiting miners or ranchers nearby.
At times he was taken out to treat injured miners on a
distant claim, or he might be called down the old
Cariboo Road to the hamlet of Quesnel(le). He never
took out a Miner's Licence to try his luck with a gold
pan. But he managed to get on the school board for a
couple of years testing local political waters. Most of
all Watt exercised his journalistic curiosity to find out
the who, what, why, where, and when of people's lives,
thoughts and activities. Soon he was penning long letters to newspapers in Kamloops, Vancouver and Victoria. Some of his new neighbours were pleased when
they read their opinions relayed to the outside world.
Others resented the betraying of their confidences, or
Watt's arguments against their pet beliefs. During the
election campaign of 1886 he wrote at length describing the virtues and ineptitudes of the nine candidates
for the three seats open in Cariboo.
Earlier, February 1885, Watt penned a letter to
the Colonist, "Suggestion for an Industrial Home." In
long flowery sentences he comments that an
increasing number of pioneers were occupying beds
in individual hospitals at government expense. These
"aged, worn out or incurable persons" would be
better served in a farm setting. There, after the initial
capital expense, they could be maintained by a small
annual outlay. "A suitable manager and matron
would be engaged, and such inmates as were able
would be required to spend a few hours work in the
home, in the garden or the fields. In this way enough
fruits and vegetables might be raised for the support
of the inmates." (There was such a facility created in
Kamloops. The government purchased the land in
1893 and welcomed the first of many retirees when
an elegant building was completed in 1895.)
Another of his letters to the editor, datelined
"Quesnelle, November 30th, 1889" appeared in the
Vancouver World on 9 January 1890. (Was the mail service delayed, or did the editor wait until he needed a
big space filler?) The topic this time, "The Cariboo
District: Its Resources," "An area of many thousands
of square miles lying north of Lilloett and extending
to Cassiar...almost from the Rockies to the eastern
slopes of the Coast Range on the west." The letter
extolled, and named, the wonderful farms and cattle
ranches in the district. Lists of native fruits such as
wild strawberries, raspberries, and currents were
given with the prediction that domesticated fruits
18 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 would also flourish.
Watt described the several flour mills and sawmills. He further stated, "The educational needs of the
district are fairly well supplied by public schools at
Barkerville, at Quesnelle and 150 Mile House, and by
the Catholic mission at Williams Lake." and "There are
telegraph offices at Barkerville, Quesnelle and Soda
Creek. The stores in those and other points carry as
large and varied stocks of goods as those in more
thickly populated parts of the Dominion." Even winter weather was described as "enjoyable."
Dr. Watt repeatedly declared his intention to
remain in the Cariboo. His loyalty to the district led
him to enter the political arena in the 1891 election. On
election day he took the current hospital patients, bundled them up and drove them in his sleigh to the polling station at Stanley. Because his campaigning took
him away from the Barkerville hospital for six weeks
"Without Permission" he was forced to resign. He
pleaded that he had just paid for an expensive new
supply of drugs. Would the hospital board allow his
son to work in his stead for at least six months? The
newly minted Dr. Alfred Tennyson Watt arrived and
took over while Dr. Hugh holidayed in Victoria.
Premier John Robson, one of the sitting members from Cariboo, died suddenly while in London on
business in June 1892. A by-election was called. Dr.
Hugh Watt ran again and this time was elected. He
gloated in his newfound power. When the 1893 legislature convened the new Lt.-Gov. Edgar Dewdney gave
the speech from the throne. Tradition dictates that the
newest member (Watt) of the house reply. The Victoria
Daily Colonist of January 31,1893 published virtually
the entire speech. Watt observed all the anticipated
courtesies, presented many facts and figures about
education, road building, hospitals etc. He contrasted
mining in the Cariboo with the beginning mines in the
Kootenays. Then he extolled the agricultural prospects
of the Cariboo and other interior districts. From there
he drew attention to the need for quarantining immigrants to prevent further epidemics of smallpox. (He
advocated an isolation facility at Williams Head near
Victoria. Low and behold, his son Alfred became Doctor in Charge for the first twenty years of its operation). Last but not least, he advocated the creation of a
Provincial Home for the Aged.
There were a few Watt supporters left in
Barkerville. The doctor sincerely wanted to return to
familiar territory. The next annual hospital meeting was
hurriedly called. Quesnelle was not notified so no one
from that community appeared. Despite the trickery
which aimed to install a
new board of directors favourable to Watt, the
board was loaded with
anti-Watt individuals.
When Alfred Watt's interim appointment was
running out Dr. Hugh got
wind of interested applicants and wrote long letters to each of them. Dr.
Clarke of Soda Creek
withdrew his application
on the basis of Watt's misinformation. Dr. Reinhard
did go to Barkerville but
felt terribly harassed by
Watt's letters and Watt's
cronies.
Dr. Reinhard described the Barkerville
situation in a long letter to
Premier Theodore Davie.
In twenty pages Reinhard was attempting to ask the
government (which paid the physician in the Cariboo)
to administer the contracting directly. Further, he surmised, if the hospital committee were disbanded the
cause of much local wrangling would be removed.
In the subsequent provincial election Dr. Watt
sought to keep his seat but failed. He wanted to return
to Barkerville. There he was firmly told that he was
barred from the Royal Cariboo Hospital. He was able
to sell his house to Reinhard's successor, Dr. Tunstall.
He tried to settle in 150 Mile House then Clinton but
neither community welcomed the bombastic physician/politician.
Dr. Watt left his wife and sons in Ontario. The
boys were schooled at Upper Canada College. Alfred
then went to Medical School at the University of Toronto . Hubert graduated in Law from Osgoode Hall.
We surmise that Dr. Hugh financed their education.
Mrs Mary Watt died in Meaford. Her tombstone reads.
"Mary, wife of Dr. Hugh Watt, died September 25,
1888." Alfred Watt, as we have noted, came to British
Columbia. He returned to Collingwood, Ontario to
marry Madge Robertson, MA, in December of 1893.
Hubert remained in Toronto, practicing corporation
law with the Canada Life Insurance Company. He
married in 1896, at age twenty-five, to Kathleen Mack
of St. Catherines.
The latter years of Dr. Watt's life were spent in
Dr. Hugh Watt of the
Cariboo
BC Archives A-02533
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003
19 The symbolic laying of the
"cornerstone" of the Fort
Steele Diamond Jubilee
Hospital. Dr Watt is
centre front, white beard,
frock coat. The ladies,
left to right, are Mrs
Levett, Mrs Blaisdell, Miss
Bailey, and Miss frizzel.
the East Kootenay and are well documented. Hugh
Watt saw that Dr. Maclean of Fort Steele offered his
practice for sale and promptly negotiated the deal. Watt
arrived there in April 1897 and instantly advocated
changes for the rapidly growing community. There was
no hospital despite the earlier efforts of the Fort Steele
Mining Association. Spurred on by Watt and other
newly arrived citizens, locals decided it would be possible to garner sufficient funds to build a hospital. The
town's chief landowner donated four lots in a pretty,
quiet locale overlooking Wild Horse Creek. The site
was dedicated on 22 June, 1897 as an event celebrating
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. A canvass had already started with Miss Bailey, schoolteacher; Mrs.
Bleasdell, wife of the druggist; Mrs.Levett, boarding
house owner, and Miss Frizzel approaching all and
sundry. By September a modest building was in place.
RLT Galbraith furnished the private ward in memory
of his brother John. Citizens donated whatever they
could—sheets, pillowcases, blankets, dishes, broom
and dustpan, towels, lamps, cutlery, etc. Once the hospital was open the public contributed firewood, vegetables in season and did volunteer maintenance jobs.
Sarah Galbraith regularly supplied the milk, and when
her cow was dry she arranged for Mrs. Levett to deliver this daily.
Dr. Watt neglected to negotiate the annual government grant which had brought Dr. Maclean to the
district. Nonetheless Watt had sufficient finances to
indulge in real estate speculation - buying lots near Fort
Steele and in Lumberton. Watt wanted a clean steady
water supply for Fort Steele. No provincial money was
forthcoming so Dr. Watt found four partners to finance
the building of a water tower and set a steam pump,
capable of lifting 1,000 gallons a minute, over a well
adjacent to Wild Horse Creek. Work proceeded more
slowly than expected but the town rejoiced when water flowed through the mains in March 1898. A fire
department was promptly formed and trained. Businesses were now able to buy fire insurance!
Dr. Watt was often away from his new home
while visiting construction camps along the route of
the BC Southern Railway. The Canadian Pacific railway contracted him to treat patients on the spot, but
there was no allowance for any railway patient at Fort
Steele Diamond Jubilee Hospital. By the summer of
1898 the Roman Catholic Sisters were caring for CPR
workers in the new hospital at St. Eugene's Mission,
across the river from Fort Steele. Dr. Watt had a very
rudimentary building so on at least one occasion he
took a patient to St. Eugene's to use the operating room.
Dr. Watt arrived at the self-declared "Capital of
East Kootenay" when many newcomers were settling
in. The town's hierarchy was fluid at this time. His actions or pronouncements were accorded a line or two
each week in the Prospector. He was doing his duty
when attempting to insist on clean back yards, cleaner
outhouses, and fire prevention. He advocated the formation of a Board of Trade, frequently proclaiming the
advantages of this organization over the existing Mining Association. On September 1 the Board of Trade
was duly assembled and registered. Within a few weeks
the charter members investigated the whys and wherefores of incorporation. After all the population of Fort
Steele had expanded from 300 to 3000 during the summer.
Politics was a primary passion for Hugh Watt.
Fort Steele formed a chapter of the Liberal Association
with Watt as one of the directors. A pleasant occasion
came in September when the Liberal Federal Member,
Hewitt Bostock visited the community. Bostock, owner
of the Vancouver Province and a cattle ranch at Monte
Creek, was wined and dined, and taken on a tour of a
new hydraulic mining company up Wild Horse Creek.
The 1898 provincial election summoned up a
great deal of frustration for Fort Steeleites. The BC
Southern Railway, promised to their town, was being
rerouted through Cranbrook, Col. Baker's estate. Baker
had been MPP for the East Kootenay for many years.
He was now a traitor, a thief, and a cad who had exer-
20
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 cised his considerable influence to have the railway
supply his home rather than the earlier "Capital of East
Kootenay." The Liberals conducted a nomination meeting, determined to have a strong candidate to contest
the election and possibly to overthrow the incumbent.
Dr. Watt went as far as moving that every Fort Steele
voter pledge his vote to Mr. Wm. Baillie. When election day was over all but two votes were cast for Baillie.
The traitors ? Observers felt sure that Dr. Watt had supported Col. Baker.
The St. Andrews Day Supper and Ball in November, a social highlight hosted by Robert and Mary
Jane Mather in their Dalgardno Hotel, featured Dr. Watt
as Chairman for Toasts.
Presbyterians and Anglicans arranged to gather
in the schoolhouse for Sunday worship. The two congregations, led by lay readers, alternated afternoon and
evening services. A full time Presbyterian minister was
appointed to Fort Steele in January 1898. Reverend
Duncan moved services to the new Opera House.
Within a few weeks plans were laid and fund raising
was underway for a new church. Trustees elected to
direct the building were Messrs. Henry Kershaw,
Robert Mather, Malcolm McInnes and Hugh Watt.
Dr. Watt was a gregarious soul. His name appears in reports of every meeting and social affair described in the Prospector. Watt found fellow Masons and
they met unofficially until they could arrange a charter for North Star Lodge No. 30. The group met in
Parson's warehouse and later took over the top floor
of the Opera House. Watt was willing to travel to conferences or meetings far from the Kootenays. He occasionally went to Victoria, mainly to see his son's family, and Alfred visited Fort Steele in the fall of 1903.
Alfred was returning from the World's Fair in St. Louis.
Fort Steele faded but never deserved the name
"Ghost town." One of its most loyal citizens was Dr.
Hugh Watt. Over the years he enjoyed chatting with
Editor AB Grace of the newspaper. Mr Grace might
report on the lovely basket of strawberries grown by
Dr. Watt, or his gift of cigars at Christmas. But at election time the editor complained about "A certain gentleman who insists that he knows more than anyone
else in town just because he sat (in the legislature) for a
few months.". Grace was a very political animal but
not able to vote until he took out British / Canadian citizenship. When the government office and numerous
businesses moved from Fort Steele to Cranbrook,
the Prospector fell on hard times. Eventually Grace
relocated his newspaper to Cranbrook in mid-1905.
His early Cranbrook editions carefully recorded visits
to his new office by Fort Steele residents. Watt was
named frequently.
Dr. Watt and his hospital limped along until
1913. But there were dramatic changes in Watt's life
shortly before he closed the hospital and moved.
"On Monday September 9, 1912 Dr. Hugh Watt married
Alice, widow of the late John Nicholson of Morden,
Manitoba. Rev. G.A. Mackay, Presbyterian minister,
conducted the ceremony at the residence of the bride's
mother, Mrs. J.G. Clarke of Trail. Miss Jessie Nicholson of
Trail, as bridesmaid, attended her mother and Rev. R.A.
Wilson, missionary of Fort Steele performed the duties as
best man. The wedding was a quiet one, followed by a
supper attended by the officiating clergyman, the family
and a few intimate friends. The wedding party visited
Nelson and Balfour on their way home to Fort Steele."
("Cranbrook Herald September 19,1912)
Dr. Watt basked in the love and pampering of
his new lady. For thirty years he had portrayed the independent bachelor, now he had a supporter by his
side. He was able to arrange the closing of the Diamond Jubilee Hospital. He was able to ride a passenger train out of Fort Steele after many years of lobbying for the Kootenay Central Railway. Dr. and Mrs. Watt
moved to Elko, thirty-four miles or fifty-five kilometres distant, where the old politician soon convinced
his new neighbours to form a Board of Trade. But in
1913 bad luck befell his family. In April Hugh was summoned to the bedside of his gravely ill son, Hubert
Lome who died on May 15 in Toronto. On the west
coast his son Alfred was tormented by false accusations about his management of the Williams Head
Quarantine Station. Alfred's son became ill while at
boarding school in Toronto. By the time Alfred returned to Victoria he was a broken man, admitted to
St. Joseph's Hospital under Dr. Fraser. At 4:45 am on
July 27, when his private nurse had thought him sleeping, Alfred leaped from the window on the third floor
and died on the rocks below.
Hugh and Alice grieved with Madge in Victoria
then came back to the Kootenays and enjoyed several
months in their new Elko home, able to go to Lodge
meetings in Fort Steele and participate in church or
Board of Trade activities. His gallant heart stopped
beating on 14 March 1914. He was accorded a Masonic
funeral and lies in the Fort Steele cemetery. •
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003
21 Token History
A.G. Carlson, Dairyman of Revelstoke, B.C.
by Ronald Greene
West End Dairy
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CARLSON
Andrew Gustav Carlson was born in
Linkoping, Sweden in 1858. As a young
man of nineteen years of age he emigrated to the United States. He worked
in Chicago and later Zion City, Utah. Hearing of
opportunities in British Columbia he moved to
Malakwa in 1896, a community then largely composed
of Scandinavians, a short distance west of Revelstoke
and the closest community to Craigellachie where the
last spike of the CPR was driven. In Malakwa Andrew
worked for Eric Erickson. When Erickson' sister, Ida,
came out to join him she and Andrew fell in love and
despite over twenty years difference in age, the pair
were married 17 August 1901. The couple decided to
settle in Revelstoke.
By this time Carlson was involved in a mining
venture, the Great Western Mine. According to
Pioneers of Revelstoke Carlson fell through the ice on
the Columbia River while mining and was rescued
by his companions, but his feet were frozen and he
lost a big toe. While he was recuperating he decided
to work in a sawmill and save up until he could buy
a dairy herd.
As is often the case we are not able to say
exactly when Andrew Carlson became a dairy man,
his 1914 comments to city council [see below] would
indicate that he built up the business while still
working in the mill. His milk was not among the six
samples of milk sold in Revelstoke tested in June 1903,
but other dairies operating then were also not
mentioned. His obituary mentions that he had started
dairying seventeen years before, which would have
been 1904. He won first and second prizes for best
milk cows in Revelstoke's first fall fair in 1909. In 1910
the dairymen of Revelstoke formed an association
and Andrew Carlson was president, Tom Lewis was
the secretary. A year later these two were feuding in
the newspapers. The first newspaper advertisement
found was for Carlson's Milk from the West End Dairy
in March 1911. That year, 1911, must have been a tough
one for dairy operators. In the Mail Herald for 11 July
1911 there are two competing ads on the same page.
In his ad, A.G. Carlson says:
"Warning notice to the Public. There is no man in
this town who can sell pure milk at 11 quarts for a dollar
and make a living at it. Be not deceived! Pure milk maybe
sold a few times until you become a steady customer, after
that, look out for what you get. Yours truly, A.G. Carlson,
West End Dairy."
Immediately below was Tom Lewis' ad headed
by "Clean Milk!" and which read,
"Get your Milkman to produce a Government Certificate
like the following:
No. 1930 Contagious Disease (Animal) Act
Grade B Certificate.
This is to certify that I have inspected the premises and
herd of T. Lewis, of Revelstoke. The premises do not strictly
conform to the condition set forth in the 'standard' and
the herd has been tested for tuberculosis once a year and
has been found free from that disease. Remarks: Cows are
in good shape and milk handled in a sanitary manner.
(Signed) Dr. B.R. Ilsley, Inspector, July 3rd, 1911."
The ad went on to explain that the only fault
was that Lewis' stalls were 700 cubic feet when 800
was the 'standard' and finished by saying, "Milk sold
in Bottles at 11 quarts for $1; Hotels 25 cents per
gallon."
Two weeks later Carlson ran an ad offering
the West End Dairy for sale. Obviously the dairy did
not sell because just another month later six dairies,
with Thomas Lewis noticeably absent, ran the
following ad. "To Our Customers. As there is very
little pasture we are compelled to use hay and feed
more or less all the year round, therefore on and after
September 1st, milk will be eight quarts for a dollar,
or we will have to beef the cows." Carlson was one of
the signers of this ad, another was A. Cancelliere, also
associated with the West End Dairy at a later date.
There apparently continued to be accusations about
the quality of milk in Revelstoke. In February 1912
Carlson ran an intriguing ad headed, "Carlson's Milk
is Pure." Carlson states, "Mr. Griffith, manager for P.
Burns & Co., has accused me of watering my dairy
milk. He may know something about the (steer) but
he absolutely knows nothing about milk. He said I
put water in my milk and that his misses tasted the
water in the milk when she drank it." Carlson then
appended a list of about 140 names who endorsed
his milk and the following statement from the City
Medal Health Officer, "...water per 1000 parts, 858,
solids per 1000 parts 142; butter fat per 1000 parts, 38.
This is excellent milk. E.H.S. McLean, City Medical
Health Officer."
But this wasn't the end of this concern. In June
1913 another article—or maybe an ad as it was
repeated four days later—was in the form of a report
from Dr. McLean about a recent inspection in which
the Carlson dairy passed inspection satisfactorily.
Troubles of a different kind plagued Carlson in
the fall of 1913. His farm was on West First Avenue,
within city limits. A series of mysterious fires occurred
in Revelstoke that summer. In early August the City
Hotel was destroyed by fire. On a Sunday morning
22 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 A.G. Carlson on the last
day that he operated the
dairy (in 1919).
Photo courtesy of Mrs Andy
at the end of the month the stable of G.W. Bell was
destroyed by fire, and the same evening Andrew
Carlson's cow barn caught fire. The fire started in the
hay loft while the cows were being milked below. A
neighbour turned the alarm in, and the Carlsons
managed to get their cows out of the barn, and none
were lost, although about $1,500 damage was done
to the barn. An announcement two weeks later, "To
all my customers. Owing to the recent fire in my barns,
the cows will be shipped to Salmon Arm, and milk
will be delivered early in the morning. On and after
1st October the price of milk will rise one quart on
the dollar. All accounts must be paid every month as
I have a large bill to pay to Salmon Arm each month.
A.G. Carlson." This would indicate that he wasn't
using tokens at the time.
A couple of months following the fire there
was an attempt to put a steam laundry on Carlson's
land where the barn had stood. Most of the nearby
residents signed a petition against this. A Mr. Sibbald
was against a laundry there. The city had the power
to define districts in which a steam laundry could be
located—an early form of zoning. The battle went on
for several meetings and at one of them, Mr. Carlson
requested to speak to council. What he said explained
a little about how his dairy developed. He said that,
"... ten or eleven years ago [which would be about
1902-1903] Mr. Sibbald sold him his lots; at that time
Mr. Sibbald was very anxious to sell lots there.
.. .asked if he was going to build a house and he said
he was not, but he was going to build a cow stable.
They [Sibbald and his partner] said he would want
two lots more for that. He put up a building and had
two cows. People wanted milk and he extended until
he had 19 cows. ..." The steam laundry was not
allowed and Mr. Carlson continued on in the dairy
business until 1919 when he announced that he was
retiring from the milk business. He asked his
customers to have all bottles belonging to him ready
on the September 16 for pickup. There are two
versions of why Mr. Carlson left the dairy business.
His obituary indicated that it was due to ill health,
but the Pioneers of Revelstoke says that feed prices had
become so high that he decided to sell out. The latter
source said that Hector McKinnon, owner of the
Standard Dairy, had adequate hay supplies of his own
and bought all Carlson's cows.
Andrew Carlson had fought pneumonia once,
in February 1912. On an extremely hot July day in
1921 he was putting up hay and caught a chill which
developed into pneumonia. He succumbed to this on
19 August 1921, aged sixty-three. He left his widow
and seven children. The youngest, Andy, passed away
in February 1999. He was the last surviving of
Andrew's children.
Mr. Carlson used at least two different tokens,
one said West End Dairy on it, but the other didn't.
They were both aluminum, 25 mm in diameter (just
under 1 inch). •
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003
23 Book Reviews
Burrard Inlet: A History. Doreen Armitage.
Madeira Park, Harbour Publishing,, 2001. 324 p., illus.,
map. $32.95 hard cover.
li you want to learn about the people
and events that shaped the waterway that
dominates life in the Lower Mainland, then
this is the book to read. From the retreat of
glaciers to the advance of the cruise ships,
Burrard Inlet, chronicles almost every event
that happened along its shores.
While the title might infer that the
book is just about the harbour and ships, it
isn't. Through the eight chapters, each heading reflecting a significant era of the inlet's
history, local historian Doreen Armitage
narrates incidents, innovations, disasters
and personalities in a brisk informal style.
Some readers may find some stories reminiscent of books such as Milltown to Metropolis (Alan Morley) or The Enterprising Mr.
Moody, the Bumptious Captain Stamp 0ames
Morton), two earlier books about Vancouver's history.
The inlet has witnessed many events
since Capt. George Vancouver ventured
through First Narrows in 1792. While New
Westminster was established as the principal community in the Lower Mainland,
Burrard Inlet was limited to sawmills. Its
lumber exports created an active port almost
twenty years before the trains and ships of
the CPR arrived to link the inlet to Canada.
The name Burrard Inlet was more familiar
to seafarers than Vancouver. The arrival of
the railway, a condition of British Columbia's entry into Confederation, spurred the
development of new industry and brought
more settlers. Over the many decades covered by the book, we learn of how people
found work and developed what we now
call the "west coast lifestyle."
It was an event thousands of miles
away that would be the golden opportunity
for development of the port and the communities bordering the inlet. The opening
of the Panama Canal in 1916 brought the
markets of Europe thousands of miles closer
to the West Coast. The impact of the canal
on Vancouver in the decade following the
opening is a book in itself.
This highlights one of my frustrations
of the book: it narrates many events with-
Books for review and book reviews should be sent to:
Anne Yandle, Book Review Editor BC Historical News,
3450 West 20th Avenue, Vancouver BC V6S 1E4
out examining their importance or relationship to other significant events in Canada
or abroad. Perhaps Burrard Inlet should
have been planned as two books, divided
by the opening of the canal, rather than one.
With the important role that container
ships have in the modern harbour, it is unfortunate that the 1955 arrival of the Clifford
J. Rogers was overlooked. Launched in Montreal, she was one of the world's first purpose-built container ships that carried containers between North Vancouver and
Skagway as part of the Whitepass and Yukon transportation system.
Burrard Inlet is a place with many
lives. As a major seaport, the natural resources and manufactured goods that cross
its wharves keep economies moving. While
families and lumberjacks would once crowd
the docks to board coastal steamers, today
seaplanes move people to distant communities. At the foot of Howe Street, huge cruise
ships carrying thousands of tourists to
Alaska have replaced the steam ships that
linked Canada to Asia and Australia.
For those who live along its shores,
Burrard Inlet still provides opportunities for
cooling off on a hot day and sailors are still
found on English Bay. At night the flash of
Point Atkinson lighthouse still flashes (almost) as it has for generations and while
walking the seawall, strollers can still dream
about great voyages as ships, large and
small, pass under the Lions Gate Bridge.
Burrard Inlet is an opportunity to appreciate the long history of our waterway
and to understand how through geology
and opportunity, it has influenced the communities that prospered along its shores.
David Hill-Turner. David Hill-Turner is Curator of the
Nanaimo Museum.
Constance Lindsay Skinner: Writing on the Frontier.
Jean Barman Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.
359p., illus. $50 hardcover
According to noted Canadian biographer Charlotte Gray, "every biographer requires first-rate primary material, in the
form of personal papers." ('The New Biography' Queen's Quarterly, Summer 2001)
When BC historian Dr. Jean Barman chanced
upon Red Willows, a 1920 era novel resting
undisturbed in the UBC Library, her curiosity and experienced research skills led her
directly to the Manuscript Division of the
New York Public Library, repository of the
extensive personal papers of Constance
Lindsay Skinner (1877-1939), the Canadian
author of Red Willows.
The resulting biography of the prolific
Miss Skinner is a fine example of meticulously organized historical and bibliographic research. The copious notes and bibliography comprise seventy-four pages. Dr.
Barman writes primarily as historian, rather
than literary critic. As Constance Skinner is
an unsung writer of Canadian heritage,
whose works are largely unknown and unlikely to experience a revival in literary circles, it is appropriate that Barman has examined Skinner's works from a biographer's and social historian's point of view.
Constance Skinner, the only child of a
HBC clerk and a woman of frail but literary
countenance, was born in the Cariboo in
1877. Although she spent only her first ten
years in the true BC frontier, Skinner wrote,
worked and re-worked themes from those
frontier years into a lifetime of historical and
creative pieces. She was a prolific writer
from an early age, but by age twenty-one
had determined that to make her way as a
journalist, story writer, dramatist and poet
she must settle in California, then Chicago
and ultimately New York City. Skinner
never returned to Canada. Yet Barman concludes Skinner was 'in many ways the consummate Canadian' writer, exhibiting a
strong sense of place'.
Entirely dependent upon her own
creative efforts to earn a living and support
an ailing mother, Skinner variously adopted
the popular literary genre of the times—poetry with an authentic aboriginal rhythm,
short stories embracing the romance, heroic
male figure and action of the frontier, book
reviews, juvenile historical fiction and ultimately, historical non-fiction for the adult
public. It was a constant struggle to obscure
her financial state from the literary and academic world. She became at times a contrary
and eccentric figure, but Barman has a genu-
24
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 ine sympathy and understanding for Skinner, her tenacity and ingenuity. Just why
'fame' escaped Skinner is a consistent theme
and a chapter entitled 'Almost Famous'
describes those mature years which might
well have been the culmination of a convincing literary career.
Barman has the ability to let Skinner
speak for herself, without encumbering the
reader with excessive quotations from unfamiliar books and stories. She concludes each
chapter in Constance Skinner's biography
with a summation of the foregoing. As with
most of Skinner's fictional tales of the frontier, there is no happy, contented ending to
the biography. Skinner simply passed away
suddenly at the age of sixty-one.
Readers of "CLS" may not rush out
to scour Canadian libraries for those few
copies of Skinner's work languishing on
shelves, but JeanBarmanhas written a thoroughly successful story of a literary life.
Frances Welwood Frances Welwood, a Nelson resident, is
an enthusiastic women's rights advocate.
A Man Called Moses: the curious life of
Wellington Delaney Moses.
Bill Gallaher. Victoria, TouchWood Editions!Heritage
Group, 2003. $18.95paperback.
Because of its worsening budgetary
plight, British Columbia's most famous heritage site, the preserved and restored gold
rush town, Barkerville, has been much in the
news during recent months.
Why is this little place in the Cariboo
District so central to BC's history? Perhaps
nothing provides a more satisfying answer
to that question than Bill Gallaher's remarkable trilogy that began with The Promise
(2001) and The Journey (2002). Fascinating
and highly original though those two volumes are, Gallaher's latest addition to the
saga is better still. A Man Called Moses is of a
quality to place its author among the first
rank of B.C. writers.
Published as 'a novel', the new book
continues Gallaher's exploration of what, to
me, amounts almost to a new genre; events
found among archival records (journals, letters, news stories) and recounted in a style
of historical fiction that is as scrupulously
footnoted as an academic paper.
Yet Gallaher's story of Wellington
Moses is no mere academic paper; like his
two previousBarkerville episodes, this is
grippingly cinematic stuff. Moses, a black
ex-slave whose diaries repose in the British
Columbia Archives, arrived in Victoria in
1859. In this account of his BC life the British Columbian vicissitudes of the sensitive
and highly principled man have a truly
heart-wrenching quality.
James Douglas, the governor of Vancouver Island, had offered his Colony as a
sort of promised land for blacks seeking escape from slavery and racially motivated
abuse in the United States. What Moses
found in mid-nineteenth century Victoria was
an appalling disappointment. Racial exclusivity, hatred and violence were almost as
prevalent here in Douglas's promised refuge
as they had been in San Francisco. Although
this is an aspect of our history that British
Columbians have preferred to forget,
Gallaher in his typical fashion cites a fair sampling of the contemporary letters and news
items that corroborate his fictional account.
Disillusioned with Victoria and attracted by economic opportunities in the
gold-rush Cariboo, Moses decided in 1864
to make the arduous trek to Barkerville, and
there to set himself up in business as the
town's barber. In that rough and relatively
lawless place he was susrprised to find the
elusive Shangri-La that he had sought: a
community that was truly colour-blind. In
the Barkerville of the 1860s it was possible
for a black ex-slave to be not only happy,
but prosperous. There too, it was possible
for Moses to have among his closest companions a white friend, Charlie Blessing.
As it happens, however, Charlie Blessing became the victim in one of Barkerville's
most celebrated murder cases. The mystery
of Blessing's disappearance, which not only
plunged Moses into great personal distress
but also brought him under suspicion, was
finally resolved in an historic court hearing
on 4 July 1867, with Judge Matthew Baillie
Begbie presiding.
After the trauma of this climactic
event, the remainder of Moses' Barkerville
life was a quiet denouement. The still-extant
diary of those years is "largely a testimony
that most days passed uneventfully." Yet in
this uneventful record, and in Gallaher's
chapter that recounts the story on their
pages, we gain firsthand experience of ordinary life in Barkerville between 1865 and
1889; stagecoach travel, disastrous town
fires, dancehall entertainment, local births
and deaths.
I note that the publishers have chosen to describe Gallaher's first two
Barkerville books as 'creative non-fiction',
but have labelled A Man Called Moses 'a
novel'. How does one draw the line between
these categories? Working somewhere in
that rather ambivalent boundary-land Bill
Gallaher has here created a work that is
much more history than fiction, but far more
of an edge-of-your-chair cliffhanger than
any scholarly document. Anyone who has
an interest in the historical Barkerville will
be fascinated by Moses' saga, and anyone
who is not interested in Barkerville will be,
after he or she has been gripped by this story.
Philip Teece. Philip Teece is a retired Victoria librarian.
He is the author of B.C. books that include A Shimmer on
the Horizon (Orca, 1999)
Frank Gowen's Vancouver 1914-1931.
Fred Thirkell and Bob Scullion Surrey,
Heritage House, 2001. 176 p., illus. $29.95 hard cover.
In the last twenty years, BC's early
photographers have emerged from behind
their cameras to be appreciated as artists in
their own right, their work published in collections combining history with aesthetics.
Fred Thirkell and Bob Scullion, whose earlier books, Postcards from the Past and Vancouver and Beyond, were also published by
Heritage House, have now produced a
handsome volume of Frank Gowen's postcards, most of which are true photographs
rather than lithographed half-tone images
from a printing press.
Gowen, born in England in 1878,
formed a partnership in Vancouver with
Alfred James Sutton in 1920. As a sometime
postcard collector, I treasure a number of
Gowen-Sutton images and was interested to
learn about their careers and the involve-
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003 25 ment after 1924 of Joseph Spalding, who
moved on to form the Camera Products
Company, another firm publishing beautiful Vancouver images. This book concentrates on Gowen's black-and-white work,
with only passing mention made of the cards
he hand-tinted with his daughers Evelyn
and Kathleen. Understandably (due to cost)
but regrettably, there is no section of these
coloured images.
To my eye, the subjects seem much
fresher than those in other recent Vancouver histories. Gowen ranged all over the region: he was the official Stanley Park photographer for many years, but also took pictures in neighbourhood parks, on out-of-the-
way beaches and at long-vanished tourist
and summer-cottage sites. There are downtown views I'd never seen before and many
building interiors. Gowen was a natural
entrepreneur with a good eye and fine technical skills. The result is a collection to linger over-avery nostalgic one, even for those
of us too young ever to have seen places like
the old Hotel Vancouver.
The book's cover is a striking blue and
silver composition, matte-printed and, alas,
easily scratched, as it isn't varnished. The
book itself is in landscape format, 8 1/4" x
12", with photographs occupying most of
the page except in the opening essay and
the single-page introductions to each subject section. The text is inclined to be chatty
and familiar, addressing the reader directly.
While the format allows the photographs to
be beautifully reproduced, it ties the hands
of the authors, limiting the captions to just
a single line. That being so, it is a pity that
so many of them reject useful information
in favour of the sort of throwaway comment
one might make at a slide show. A few are
really banal, for example the one beneath the
magnificent 1916 image (also used for the
cover) of a native canoe near Brockton Point
with the huge Empress of Russia passing in
the distance: "One wonders what the Indians in their dugout canoe thought of all the
changes that had come into their world in
just a few years."
Such quibbles aside, the book is more
than worthy of shelf-space in my increas
ingly crowded Vancouver collection, and
provides a good portrait of the life of a working photographer in the first half of the 20th
century.
Michael Kluckner Michael Kluckner is the author of
Vancouver the Way It Was.
Great Central Book Project Committee
When the Whistle Blew: The Great Central
Story 1925-1952
Alberni District Historical Society, 2002. 211 p., illus.
$19.95 paperback. (Available from the Society, Box 284,
Port Alberni, BC,V9Y7M7)
Despite the recently expressed fears
of one historian, the historiography of workers in at least one industry in British Columbia does not appear to be withering. The
written history of forestry workers in BC is
expanding consistently. Recent publications
in the field reach a range of audiences.
Gordon Hak and Richard Rajala have each
published academic microstudies of working class experience in 20th century British
Columbia. Richard Mackie's award winning
Island Timber will soon be followed by a sequel written in the same semi-academic format, blending meticulous scholarly research
with very straightforward prose. Slightly
different in both form and content is When
the Whistle Blew: The Great Central Story 1925-
1952, a local history written by the Great
Central Book Project Committee and co-
published with the Alberni District Historical Society.
Written by former residents of the
town, When the Whistle Blew is a retelling of
community life in Great Central, the company town that existed around the
MacMillan & Bloedel sawmill on the southeast shore of Great Central Lake from 1925
until 1952. As often seems the case with local histories, this one is based on the collective memories of the authors, supplemented
with interviews and documents from other
former residents, combined with newspaper accounts and some archival research into
school and church records. Its presentation
is, essentially, anecdotal. It offers a series of
stories about life in the town from a variety
of perspectives; and the reader is keenly
aware of the interaction of men, women, and
children of a variety of ethnicities and social backgrounds.
There is certainly an element of
boosterism at work within the book, and
conflict among the workers themselves and
between labour and management tends to
be minimized. Brief glimpses of strike action and ethnic tension tend to be left unexplored in favour of more upbeat topics like
communal sports and outdoor activities in
the surrounding wilderness. But that clarity of purpose is one of the privileges enjoyed by authors of local histories. They construct their story in such a manner as to
present life 'as it was', told by those who
experienced it, without the burden of
overarching frameworks and lengthy critical analysis.
When the Whistle Blew offers an overview of day to day life in one specific context. It offers a window through which readers can observe what it was like to live in an
isolated, one industry town, dependent on
the company for necessities including electricity and provisions. Not only was the mill
the largest employer in the town, it also produced the town's electrical supply. Thus
residents had a vested interest in maintaining a good relationship with the company.
Those who could not keep that relationship
up tended to leave Great Central quite
quickly. As a result, a core group of families
seems to have emerged, existing in relative
harmony with the company. The authors of
the book were a part of this group.
The book provides information on a
series of topics, and discussions of logging
and sawmill work are accompanied by photographs in an especially beneficial manner.
Recollections of mill construction and employment give way to stories of bunkhouse
life for bachelors and household life for
those with families. There are picnics and
parties and camping trips sprinkled with
practical jokes and the occasional romance.
The reader is left with a sense that this was
truly a community connected through
shared experience, including the occasional
tragedy such as a mill accident or the death
of a local lad in the Second World War.
When the Whistle Blew is not an aca-
26
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 demic monograph. It is the legacy of a group
of individuals who are concerned that a vital piece of BC history is in danger of being
forgotten. They have taken it upon themselves to ensure that it is remembered in the
way that they recall it. Certainly there are
some gaps. There is little in the way of analysis. Communal solidarity is emphasized
while company paternalism is downplayed
and evidence of ethnic and social division
somehow remains neglected in the wealth
of detail provided. Regardless, When the
Whistle Blew is an important contribution
to the historiography of BC workers for the
way in which it suggests the complexity of
the series of relationships that affected the
day to day life of ordinary people, not just
in Great Central, but in company towns of
that era across the province.
1. Mark Leier. 'W[h]ither Labour History: Regionalism,
Class, and the Writing of BC History,' BC Studies 111
(Autumn 1996) 61-75
Tim Percival. Tim Percival is a graduate student at the
University of Victoria.
First Nations, First Do$s. Canadian aboriginal
ethnocynolo$y.
Bryan D. Cummins. Detselig Enterprises Ltd., Calgary,
2002. 351pp. Illus. maps. $32.95paperback.
Alas for the romance of the Canadian
dog, as we know him from Pauline
Johnson's Train Dogs ("freighters of fur from
the voiceless land"), Irene Rutherford
Mcleod's "Lone Dog" ("a lean dog, a keen
dog, a wild dog, and lone"), or Jack London's Buckresponding to the Call ofthe Wild.
Noble Companion to Noble Savage
0ohnson's "Indian driver, calling low"): one
proves as much as myth as the other, and in
both cases the reality is at least as interesting as the myth.
Shortly before I received this book, I
was surprised to see, in the cover photo of
the prestigious journal Science, a subject I
could identify a rare occurrence, as I am not
the scientist in this family. It was a dog. The
same issue [V.298, N.5598] published two
papers presenting DNA evidence on the origin of domestic dogs, by various authors,
one of whom I found cited in First Nations,
First Dogs. There seems, fortunately, to be
no end to the ways of approaching history,
and we must now pay attention to
Cynology, the natural history of dogs, with
its subspecialty Ethnocynology.
As the book's title suggests, Cummins
combines a careful academic approach with
a personal interest in dogs and their people.
After introductory chapters, "Canis
Familiaris meets HomoSapiens" and "Canadian First Nations and the North American Dog", he divides the country into regions, with a chapter for each: Arctic, Eastern Subarctic, Western Subarctic, Eastern
Woodlands, Plains, Plateau, and Northwest
Coast, and within each chapter a discussion
of the various Aboriginal peoples and
"their" dogs, species by species. Most readers will not curl up with this book,but many
sections make fascinating reading, and the
whole is a valuable reference for Aboriginal
history. Cummins concludes with Selected
Canadian Kennel Club Breed Standards, and
berates the kennel clubs for permitting the
extinction of most of the native breeds.
You may have to correct your careless
use of such terms as"Husky". Prepare to be
stripped of illusions about origins and methods of trapping, tracking and transport, and
most of all of the sentimental image of a primordial bond between man and beast. A
Native dog was not apt to be part of a human family or anyone's best friend. More
likely, it was part of the tool inventory or a
competitor for scarce food. Care was not up
to SPCA standards.
But the Native dog had a place in mythology and spiritual life, and not only as
an occasional ritual sacrifice. Cummins narrates several versions of the chilling Dog
Husband legend, and tells us that in some
cultures the dog once possessed human
speech, which it can still comprehend but
not, to its frustration, return.
With all its erudition, this book could
have been written only by a person who loves
dogs, who is enthralled by their variety and
enraged at their extinction, and who delights
in sharing his detailed information about
these forgotten species: the Kimmiq, the
Tahltan Bear Dog, and the dogs of the
Nootka, Carrier, Iroquois, and all the various rest.
We, in turn, may delight in such accounts as that of Spaniards who touched at
Gabriola Island in 1792, saw many ofthe
Clallam Indian Dogs (also wonderfully
known as "Little Woolly Dogs") of the Coast
Salish, and were offered blankets woven
from the dogs' hair. The Little Woolly Dog
was superseded by Hudson'sBay Company
blankets, as some northern species have
been replacedby snowmobiles.
And Cummins wins this reviewer's
approval by devoting considerable space to
the Newfoundland, despite his regretful
conclusion that this species, "known for his
sterling gentleness and serenity" is not indigenous to North America.
Phyllis Reeve Phyllis Reeve acknowledges the assistance of
Bern/point's Bernoulli, a Newfie born on Woolly Dog land.
Indian Myths & Legends from the North Pacific
Coast of America.; a Translation of Franz
Boas' 1895 Edition of Indianische Sa$en von
der Nord-Pacifischen Kuste Amerikas.
Randy Bouchard & Dorothy Kennedy, editors. Vancouver:
TalonBooks, 2002. 702 pp. Illus. maps. $75 cloth.
In 1973, the B.C. Indian Language
Project commissioned Dietrich Bertz' to undertake a translation of Franz Boas's
Indianische Sagen. This is an excellent source
of folklore collected by Boas from various
First Nations in British Columbia between
1886-1890. Intermittently over the years,
while undertaking many other projects,
Randy Bouchard and Dorothy Kennedy
have done an immense amount of researching, foot noting and annotating of the text
that greatly enhance the original documents.
The many stories are organized under
twenty-five different First Nations groups.
This publication is important in that
it provides context to Boas' stories. It reveals his philosophical intent in collecting
the material and the circumstances and
methods of his collecting. Bouchard and
Kennedy, often utilizing their own work
among the same peoples that Boas visited,
provide the many annotations necessary to
give greater depth and interpretative power
to these important stories.
One of the things that always perturbs
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003 27 me in reading folklore texts is the uncertainty in the use of general terms, place
names and especially the misidentification
of animals that often play such an important part in the stories. Bouchard and
Kennedy have paid special attention to clarifying these problems with extensive notes
on terminology and references to later works
of themselves, Boas and others.
Included is the important letter Boas
wrote to Powell of the Bureau of Ethnology
in 1887 which reveals his methodology at
that time. Boas believed that the "psychological causes" of cultural complexity cannot be understood "without a thorough
knowledge" of a people's history. He was
attempting to understand the complexities
of the interaction between Humans and their
"geographical surrounding". In visiting the
Northwest Coast, he considered it "necessary to see a people among which historical
facts are of greater influence than the surroundings".
Boas's scientific rigor and his willingness to try different approaches is a model
to emulate. Boas reminds us, that what he
collected are not just stories - they are oral
histories that are a reflection of the complex
interactions between human groups and the
human and non-human environments - as
seen through the historical experiences of
specific populations.
Bouchard and Kennedy also bring out
mistakes that resulted from Boas' often
quickly put together histories. Reproducing
Boas' lists of texts "as he wrote them" can
be useful in understanding how he may
have originally interpreted the stories. As
an example, Boas' reference to the Tlingit
word Kusta' qa as "Sea Otter" rather than
"land otter spirit" can be significant to the
understanding of the social complexities of
the story. The Kusta qwani, or "Land Otter
People" are intimately associated with the
world of the living and dead and shamanic
possession, and are not to be seen literally
as physical mammals.
Boas considered folklore of "great
importance, as it recalls customs which easily escape notice, or are extinct; and is the
best means of tracing the history of the
tribes". Many of Boas' ideas remain to be
examined and discussed - for example, his
statement that "Sun worship" played an
important role in cultures of the southern
Northwest Coast. The Day Dawn Spirit of
the folklore is obviously associated with this
concept and is in need of a modern re-examination.
Bouchard and Kennedy should be
congratulated for their extensive efforts in
making this wealth of information more accessible and more readable for a broader
audience. The recording of oral histories
needs to be examined, not only in light of
the changing nature and history of the discipline of anthropology, but also in light of
the circumstances and stage of experience
of the storyteller and researcher. Reading
this enhanced version of Boas' earlier work
in British Columbia will hopefully rekindle
an interest in re-examining our early folklore with new perspectives.
Grenat Keddie Greant Keddie is Curator of Anthropology,
Royal British Columbia Museum.
Bu$les on Broadway.
Milton Parent, Arrow Lakes Historical Society, Box 819,
Nakusp, B.C., VOG 1R0 376 pages, illus., $50 hardcover.
The title resonates with local old timers as a good many youngsters enjoyed a
year or two with Jack Bailey's Boys' Bugle
Band. The route of any parade in Naksup
included the main street Broadway.
This fifth book of the Arrow Lakes
Centennial Series is the final edition of a
carefully executed project. Our congratulations go to Milton Parent for his years of
detailed research, planning, careful recording of personal memories, and final presentation. Two books of that series of five have
won awards. Between 1989 and 2003 supporters of the Arrow Lakes Historical Society obtained 1718 pages of richly illustrated
history in hard cover at a modest price.
Bugles on Broadway is laid out
chronologically from 1922 to the late 1960s.
The evolution of businesses, forest practices,
transportation and social groups makes for
very good reading even if the reader never
lived in the district. Fighting fires in the hot
dry summer of 1925 was dangerous and
dramatic. The fire even gutted islands in
Summit Lake. There were no access roads
and no helicopters.The crew on a train engine risked life and limb to evacuate fire
fighters to safety. Reports of the summer of
2003 make this season easier to envision, and
to shudder about.
The Depression affected citizens in
rural B.C. less than those who lived in cities
or on the prairies.There was reduced employment but families survived by growing
their own food, cutting firewood for heat
and cooking, and cooperating with their
neighbours. There are many detailed anecdotes of the initiatives typical of coping,
getting some work, expanding community
facilities such as the fire department, creating roads connecting to other communities,
and supporting the traditional churches.
Schools continued in outlying areas as well
as in town but teachers had their wages cut.
A Community Christmas Tree was organized so that every child from birth to age
fifteen received some gift to mark the traditional season. New homes were built with
recycled lumber and recycled nails as far as
possible.
Steamers and small boats plying the
Arrow Lakes were being phased out in favor
of trucks and cars. The royal visit in 1939
was to raise morale. Many Nakusp citizens
travelled to Revelstoke to meet King George
VI and Queen Elizabeth. By the time World
War Twostarted there had been many
changes and the population was ready to
expand its horizons.
Although a degree of prosperity arrived, the young men who would have benefited most from the new jobs were leaving
to serve in the Armed Forces. The roads were
finally opened beween Nelson and Nakusp
to the east and Nakusp and Vernon to the
west. The provincial budget for highways
now could assign snow clearing equipment
to these roads which had been subject to closure in previous winters. Following the
evacuation of Japanese Canadians to inland
centres Nakusp attracted several Nisei citizens each of whom performed well in businesses, sports teams, work or school. The
28 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 town was without a resident physician for
many months and either the Japanese physician or local doctor in New Denver came
over to attend emergency cases. There were
wartime shortages and rationing but people carried on. Cars had no windshield wipers so alternative methods were devised for
the hardy traveller to maintain visibility
when negotiating muddy roads. Bus service was finally established. By 1944 the Community Christmas tree could be abandoned
but because news from the fighting front
listed the death of several local servicemen
gloom prevailed.
Loggers from post World War Two
Nakusp experimented with gasoline powered saws and former Army trucks. Small
sawmills sprang up to meet the need for lumber in the flush of economic recovery. Downtown Nakusp upgraded its firefighting
equipment but still, because pressure was
low, residents were asked to turn off sprinklers if the siren sounded. The flood of 1948
erased some road improvements and waterfront businesses. Extreme high water is a
problem, but then the High Arrow Dam
changed the lake level in the name of flood
control south of the 49th parallel.
Before that dam was built, Celgar
modernized logging, milling and lake transportation of booms. Nakusp benefited while
the Castlegar Pulp Mill was under construction. Operations could be continued year
round with huge machines doing loading,
peeling and chainsaws had now become a
comfortable size for use in the bush. The
train connection continued for some years
then it, too, was phased out. The prized
steamer S.S. Minto was officially retired in
1954. The community was able to receive
television signals when equipment was installed on a mountain top in 1960. (The installation of this was observed by the US
Airforce base in Spokane which classified it
as UFO activity.)
The final chapters and many pictures
in this book confirm the need for haste at the
final preparation. The author regrets having
to curtail the Nakusp story after the 1960s.
But the whole series have been a wonderful
insight into life in the Arrow Lakes District.
Naomi Miller. Naomi Miller is a former editor of the B. C.
Historical News
Honoured in Places; Remembered Mounties
across Canada.
William J. Hulgaard & John W. White. Surrey, Heritage
House, 2002. 224p., illus. $18.95paperback.
The subtitle of this book tells us what
it deals with: vis. the naming of communities and places after members of the Royal
North West Mounted Police and its successor, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The settlement of Canada, particularly in the
north and west has been inextricably linked
up with the Force. The authors state "Our
intent is to remind the reader of those place-
names' origins before their historical contexts are forever lost in time". In this they
have succeeded remarkably.
Historically, the Force came into being on 25 September 1873, when the first
nine officers were appointed. In June, 1874,
the "march west" was begun, taking the
small force into the western frontier, and
later in 1885 they were involved in battles
of the North West Rebellion. Subsequent expansion and service of the Force to the North
is legendary for Canadians.
I enjoyed perusisng the place names
with the name of the officer given and the
latitude and longitude if needed. Some officers, such as Colonel Sam Steele, had numerous places, streets and geographical features named after them. Others had just a
single place-name. The St. Roch, first ship
to sail through the NorthWest Passage (1940-
1942) had three places in the north named
after it. Another, Blackfoot Crossisng in
Alberta, was named by Jerry Potts, a scout
and interpreter for the North West Mounted
Police.
Predictably, most of the place names
are on the prairies or the north, with few
from British Columbia linked to the Force.
However, anyone interested in the history
of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or
the origins of place names in Canada, will
find this a fascinating reference book.
Arnold Ranneris. Arnold Ranneris President Victoria
Historical Society
Noteworthy Books
All Hell Can't Stop Us; the On-to-Ottawa Trek and Regina
Riot. Bitt Waiser. Calgary, Fifth House, 2003. $29.95
paperback.
Ch'askin; a legend of the Sechelt people. Donna Joe.
Illustrated by Jamie Jeffries. Madeira Park, Harbour
Publishing, 2003. $7.95 paperback.
Children, Teachers and Schools in the History of British
Columbia. Jean Barman and Mona Gleason. Calgary,
Detselig Enterprises, 2003.
The First Russian Voyage around the World; the journal
of Hermann Ludwig von Lowenstern, 1803-1806.
University of Alaska Press, 2003. $35.95 US hardcover.
The Heavens are Changing; nineteenth-century
Protestant missions and Tsimshian Christianity. Susan
Neytan. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003.
$75 hard cover.
Native American in the Land of the Shogun; Ranald
MacDonald and the Opening of Japan. Berkeley, Calif.,
Stone Bridge Press, 2003. $19.95 US paperback
Polar Extremes; the world of Lincoln Ellsworth. Beekman
H. Pool. Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press, 2002. $24.95
U.S.
Same-Sex Affairs; constructing and controlling
homosexuality in the Pacific Northwest. Peter Boag.
Berkeley, University of California Press, 2003. $24.95 US
Tlingit; their art and culture. David Hancock. Surrey,
Hancock House, 2003. $11.95
Tong; the story of Tong Louie, Vancouver's quiet Titan.
Madeira Park, Harbour Pubtishisng, 2003. $39.95 hard cover.
Uncle Ted Remembers; 26 short stones describing the
history of the Lakes District of North-Central British
Columbia. Dawson Creek, 2003. $15.
Undelivered Letters to Hudson's Bay Company Men on
the Northwest Coast of America, 1830-57. Judith Hudson
Beattie and Helen M. Buss. Vancouver, UBC
Press, 2003. $34.95 paperback.
Walter Moberly and the Northwest Passage by Rail.
Daphne Sleigh. Surrey, Hancock House, 2003. $17.95
paperback.
When Eagles Call. Susan Dobbie. Vancouver, Ronsdale
Press, 2003. $19.95 paperback.
Where the Meadowlark Sang; cherished scenes frm an
astist's childhood. Hazel Litzgus. Calgary, Fifth House,
2003. $27.95
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003 29 Web Site Forays
The University of Victoria History Department
By Christopher Garrish
I know that for myself, the word
"convergence" is still associated with
some of the worst excesses and
irrational exuberance connected to the
high-tech bubble of a few years back. Yet,
despite this, it is still the first word that
comes to mind when I visit some of the great
things that have been going on at the web
site for the University of Victoria's History
Department (UVHD).
I have long felt that the web is an
unconquerable medium in which to publish
worthy history's that might not otherwise
find a home in the more traditional venues
of academic Journal's, or books. That is why
I am so impressed with the pioneering work
being done by the UVHD, and Professor
John Lutz in particular, in "converging" the
telling of British Columbia history with the
Internet in a truly interactive manner. This
is a practice that the Department refers to as
"Micro History and the Internet."
What a micro history does is to take a
specific look at a place, person or event in
history that illustrates or explains larger
themes in macro history. As an example, a
micro history on a particular co-operative in
British Columbia would contribute to an
understanding of the co-operative
movement in British Columbia as a whole.
"Similarly, a website is only one small piece
of the ever expansive Internet that is made
up of many linking sites that cover larger
themes or topics." Therefore, as a micro
history site grows, it will link together a
broader picture of a particular historical
topic that, in turn, can link to other sites
presenting even wider views.
Where it all began for the UVHD was
with the introduction of the murder mystery
site Who Killed Will Robinson? (http://
web.uvic.ca/history-robinson) about six
years ago.
The site chronicles the demise of
William Robinson, a middle-aged African
American who moved to Salt Spring Island
in the late 1860s to escape racial persecution
in the US, only to end up murdered here in
British Columbia. The uniqueness of the site,
and the aspect that garnered it a somewhat
unprecedented level of attention in the late
1990s, was its interactivity.
Promoted as an "historical
whodunit," Who Killed Will Robinson?
engages visitors in historical research
through the use of contemporary newspaper
articles, letters, diaries, oral histories, official
correspondence, court proceedings, and
other relevant works.
According to the Authors of the site,
John Lutz and Ruth SandweU (whose Phd
thesis was on the history of Salt Spring
between 1859-1891), "there is not enough
evidence to convict or exonerate anyone
with 100% certainty. But there is enough here
to give us more than reasonable doubt about
the guilty verdict for the man convicted and
hanged, and there is enough to suggest other
suspects. These ambiguities are the site's
greatest pedagogical strength."
Who Killed Will Robinson? was
completely remodelled in 2000 and made
much more user friendly in terms of
navigation and graphics. Although there
remains a link offering visitors a chance to
experience the site as it was in 1997-98, this
seems to have now been removed.
The success of Who Killed Will
Robinson? has spurred an expansion on the
original theme of historical murder
mysteries. In June of 2003, the UVHD was
awarded a grant by the Department of
Canadian Heritage to build a pair of new
case studies for the new Great Unsolved
Mysteries in Canadian History project
(www.canadianmysteries.ca).
While the first will profile Aurore
Gagnon ("What Happened to Aurore
Gagnon?"), a twelve year old girl from
Quebec whose death in 1920 became a
"cause celebre" in the province, the second
mystery will revolve around Klatsassin,
whose name literally means, "We Do Not
Know His Name" in Tsilqot'in.
"Nobody Knows His Name:
Klatssasin and the Chilcotin Uprising" will
be an examination of the causes and results
of an 1864 between the Tsilqot'in people and
the Colony of British Columbia. Klatsassin
was hanged with seven others including his
seventeen-year-old son for the death of a
road building crew, a team of packers and
the only settler in the area. As the site states;
the mystery lies in asking why the Tsilqot'in
attacked, and in deciding who won the
Indian War that followed."
Both of these sites are currently
scheduled to go live on the 31st of March
2004. Be sure to check back, however, as the
project is seeking to create thirteen web-sites,
and is currently accepting proposals for
future profiles.
Finally, a third site associated with the
UVHD that is definitely worth visiting is
"Victoria's Victoria" (web.uvic.ca/vv).
Rather than another murder mystery, this
site is a look at our capital city during the
reign of Queen Victoria.
Launched in April 2002, the web site
is being maintained through a partnership
with the History Department at Malaspina
University College, and several regional
archives, and appears to be maintained (or
at least updated) by students enrolled in
courses being offered by these institutions
on micro- history and the Internet.
Easily navigable, and quite visually
appealing, Victoria's Victoria is essentially
a collection of short student essays that have
been compiled under a number of different
headings. There are, for example, historical
studies on Wharf Street in the 1860s, the
playing of cricket, the beginnings of the
Victoria Gas Company, and a synopsis on
the Victoria Brewing Company.
A rather intriguing few pages are
"Airing Victoria's Dirty Laundry," which is
billed as an exploration of prostitution,
murder, and (im)morality in Victoria. This
study presents two case studies of Victorian
prostitutes, Belle Adams and Edna
Farnsworth, while examining the influence
that London and San Francisco had on the
prostitution trade in Victoria.
In all, the pages presented through the
UVic History Department's web-site offer a
wealth of information that will keep any
visitor busy for hours, as I slowly realised as
one hour slowly 'converged' into many. •
30 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 Archives & Archivists
Sisters of Saint Ann Archives, Victoria
Margaret Cantwell, S.S.A.
In the James Bay area of Victoria, and
along the little creek that flooded with
an incoming tide and wound its way
into Ross Bay, the archives of the Sisters
of Saint Ann began to develop. For it was
here, in June 1858, that the first group of
Sisters of Saint Ann recorded their arrival.
In 2003, changes have occurred. The
creek is gone, the Sisters are no longer in the
pioneer log cabin that had been the home of
the Leon Morel family, the "Sea Bird" (on
which the Sisters had culminated their ocean
travel) foundered. But hand-written
documents, mostly in French, help a researcher
sense the spirit of the times and the earnestness
of the people, who, often with but little
awareness, were beginning to build the
Province of British Columbia and extend the
Dominion of Canada to the Pacific. A visit to
the Sisters of Saint Ann Archives helps bring
time spans and cultural changes together.
Beginning in 1864, the Sisters spread out from
Victoria to open schools at Cowichan and
Nanaimo, and soon along the Fraser, braving
the Cariboo Trail to Williams Lake, venturing
to bring educational facilities to a burned-out
Vancouver and to the tumbleweed, twin rivers,
and twin mountains of the Kamloops area.
Through the documentation housed in
the small, private Sisters of Saint Ann Archives,
Victoria, it is possible to create a "mind-set" of
the olden days. Letters, diaries, yearly
summaries of ministries in which the Sisters
were involved, the progress or failure of
institutions, dignitaries that visited, pageants
that embellished civic or religious anniversaries,
construction plans and bills-of-sale all help to
do so. Ledgers of receipts and expenses (recettes
& depenses), for example, of boarding-school
students attending St. Ann's Academy, New
Westminster, help document the cost of rubbers,
hair ribbons, notebooks, art lessons, combs, etc.
of the 19th century.
Besides seeing the spread of the Sisters
from Victoria to the mainland for educational
purposes, the 19th century also saw the
beginnings of their formal health care ministry.
St. Joseph's Hospital opened in Victoria
in 1876, through the joint efforts of Bishop
Charles John Seghers, Dr. John Sebastian
Helmcken, and Sister Mary Providence, S.S.A.
Among other memorabilia, the archives has
the engraved trowel used at the beginning of
the construction in 1875 (and used again as the
"C" Wing opened in 1928). When St. Joseph's
School of Nursing was initiated in 1900, the
Directress, Sister Mary Gertrude of Jesus, used
her own hand-written notes regarding medical
terms and procedures currently used by the
medical profession, as she had no available
printed texts for her lectures.
The archives hold surprises for
researchers. Such information might be about
the gold rushes in Alaska—the Juneau/
Douglas areas, Fairbanks, or Nome; the White
Pass and the Chilkoot in the Dyea/ Skagway
areas. The documentation might be of the
Dawson / Klondike region, Nellie Cashman,
St. Mary's Hospital, or Yukon River travel.
Other unexpected archival holdings have to do
with Haiti and Japan. This "surprising"
documentation comes from records gathered
as a result of Sisters ministering in those areas.
The restored St. Ann's Academy
(Victoria) can be called "an archives in stone."
Just by standing outside its facade and looking
up and around is almost as good as consulting
paper documentation in the archives. Much of
the restoration work (ca. 1995 of the 1871,1886,
1910 sections) depended on the graphic or
textual documentation in the archives of the
Sisters of Saint Ann. That "archives in stone"
frequently inspires people to consult the actual
archives for genealogical, health care,
educational, architectural, or cultural projects.
Although the Sisters of Saint Ann
Archives, Victoria, are closed at this particular
time, research requests by e-mail, fax, phone,
or letter are often received and given a
response. If feasible, an off-site appointment
may be set up for an interview. Although there
has been an ongoing effort to put the archives
"on line" (mainly through CAAP grants and
the work of a contract archivist), research is
still basically carried out by hard-copy Finding
Aids. Record Groups, a Series format,
institutional sequence by archdiocese or
diocese, and relevant prefixes maintain a
convenient control of all acquisitions, much of
which has a brief RAD description.
Within the archives itself, March 2003
has seen an effort to re-examine the Book
Collection Series. Within it are various
categories, including bona fide rare books,
volumes used by Sisters in their
Congregational and personal life, old "Teacher
Library" texts, library books of interesting
editions, autographed/ inscribed books, art
books, and others. The aim is to reclassify,
limit, and rehouse. Currently lists of available
books have gone out to institutions in the
Victoria area, as well as to appropriate
institutions of the Pacific Northwest. The
rehoused books, it is hoped, will conveniently
serve interested researchers.
Another ongoing project in the archives
is the assembling of an Education Series. This
series departs from that of particular
institutions or individuals and gathers into one
place a variety of lesson plans and other
pedagogical materials used by teachers in
various classrooms and eras. Accompanying
this Education Series (mostly textual) are a
number of audiotapes listed in the Audiotape
Collection. Tapes related to the Education
Series have recordings of songs used in a
classroom, selections for speech contests,
inspirational or restful music.
Both the book and the education
projects are part of the effort to enhance and
enrich research and to empower researchers.
Students from Camosun College, the
University of Victoria, or from lower mainland
institutions sometimes apply for research
appointments to gather information, such as,
curricula used in different time periods, the
development of Commercial Courses, the Art
Studios, the history of the 1858 chapel and its
Quebec architect, or early nursing programs.
The researcher's log book also records many
names of free-lance authors, university
professors, descendants of former students,
alumnae, communications media, event
planners.
These researchers, as well as any
researchers in any archives, provide the
archivists with a strong sense of
purposefulness and well-being. The
personal contact with people's visions and
dreams helps keep archivists alert and
grateful for the mission of preserving and
sharing history. Even with the Sisters of
Saint Ann Archives, Victoria, officially
closed, the archivists, Mrs. Mickey King and
myself, are proud to have a place in the
Archives Association of B.C. •
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003 31 Gerry Andrews, One Hundred Years Young
Gerry Andrews celebrated his one
hundredth birthday on
12 December 2003. It has been
suggested that donations be
made to the British Columbia Historical
Federation in lieu of birthday gifts. If you
wish to honour Gerry send a cheque marked
"endowment fund" or "scholarship fund"
to Ron Greene, the treasurer.
Gerry's long career is detailed in this
biographical sketch from the government's
Order of British Columbia website:
A teacher, an engineer, a forester, a land
surveyor and a writer, Gerry Andrews is truly
one of British Columbia's great trail blazers.
Born in Winnipeg, educated in Vancouver,
Toronto, Oxford, England and Dresden, Germany,
Gerry commenced his career as a school master
at Big Bar Creek and Kelly Lake in 1922. Teaching
gave way to land surveying in 1930. He was Chief
of Party, Flathead Forest Survey-1930; Tranquille
and Niskonlith Survey-1931; Shuswap Forest
Survey-1932.
He initiated the use of air photography
in 1931 and supervised air surveys for the
Province in Nimkish Forest, Kitimat, Okanagan,
the Kootenays and the Rocky Mt. Trench.
Mr. Andrews' career as a surveyor was
interrupted by distinguished war service
overseas between 1940 and 1946 wherein he
rose to the rank of Lt.-Col. He developed
improved air cameras for the Canadian Army
and undertook depth soundings of Normandy
beaches by wave velocities determined from air
photos. His army service took him on liaison
missions to some eighteen countries and he was
awarded an M.B.E.
Returning to British Columbia, between
1946 and 1950 he served as Chief Air Survey
Engineer for B.C.; and as B.C. Surveyor General
& Director of Mapping and Provincial Boundaries
Commissioner from 1952 to 1968.
He has acted as a consultant to several
countries including the Mekong River studies in
1958.
A keen historian of British Columbia,
Gerry Andrews is the author of some 50
publications, and continues to write articles for
the B.C. Historical Federation's magazine.
Among many honours and awards, he
received the Meritorious Achievement Award
Gerry Andrews at the 1997 BC Historical Federation conference in Mission.
John Spittle photo
from the Association of Professional Engineers
of B.C. and, in 1988, he received an Honorary
Doctorate in Engineering from the University of
Victoria.
BCHF President Jaqueline
Gresko Sends Birthday
Greetings and a Story
Members of the British Columbia
Historical Federation will join me in wishing
Gerry Andrews, our past honourary
president a happy one hundredth birthday
on December 12, 2003.
My husband Rob and I would like to
send Gerry Andrews birthday
congratulations. We have great memories of
his presentations on the history of surveying
and mapping in BC and beyond.
One story we love to recall relates to
Gerry and his wife hosting a BC Historical
council meeting at their home in Victoria in
the 1970s. Rob, a biology teacher, had driven
me there and was going to sit and do his
marking in the car. When I arrived Gerry
asked what Rob was doing sitting in the car.
Gerry went out to invite Rob to use his study.
So several hours later, after the meeting was
over, Gerry and Rob emerged from the study
still chatting about maps of Normandy and
World War Two battle plans.
Gerry Andrews has asked that donations to the BCHF's
endowment would be a lovely birthday gift in lieu of
cards.
Naomi Miller Asks "Did you
ever meet Gerry Andrews ?"
Gerry, past president of BCHF and
Honorary President BCHF and Order of BC
and Order of Canada turns 100 on
Dececember 12. His daughter has prepared
a small book about him. (see page 33)
He is a real character and his friends
were accepted into the "Order of the Red
Sock". That red sock in his hip pocket
contained a mickey of rum. Once, when all
planes in BC seemed off schedule, I met Gerry
in the waiting room of the Vancouver airport.
He offered me a sip from the red sock. His
librarian daughter Mary informs me that a
female was rarely offered that Privilege)
32
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 A Man and
His Century
A Man and His Century, is a slim book
outlining the life and times of a man of great
achievement, Gerald S. Andrews, former
Surveyor General of BC (1951-1968). Richard
Hargraves, current Surveyor General of BC,
describes the recently released book as a
delightful and fascinating read about a true
Canadian pioneer and visionary British
Columbia land surveyor. Gerry's work as the
longest serving Surveyor General in the
history ofBritish Columbia endures to this day.
Authors Mary E. Andrews and Doreen
J. Hunter have included many photographs
recording the life of Colonel Andrews, his
sketches, and excerpts from his writings, as
well as the story of postwar aerial
photography in BC. A Man and His Century,
designed and edited by writing coach and
editorial consultant Mavis Andrews (no
relation), ofVictoria, has received the support
of the Corporation of the Land Surveyors of
British Columbia and the Association of
Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of
British Columbia. Gerry Andrews, soon to
reach his 100th birthday, now lives in Fairfield
with daughter, Mary, surrounded by his
journals, publications, certificates of honour,
including the Order of Canada and British
Columbia, and mementos of his long and
colourful life. Barry Cotton, surveyor (ret'd)
and author, writes:
To the surveying profession, Gerry is still
regarded as an institution, the man who charted
the province through its most extensive period
of growth, the post World War Two years. Now
approaching his own centenary, his full and
interesting life is a story that all lovers of British
Columbia should know.
Retired editor of British Columbia
Historical News, Naomi Mller writes:
There were many firsts in Gerry Andrews life.
These are remembered in his own pithy passages
and in observations by those who worked with
him or followed his footsteps. From boyhood,
through student years, changing vocations to
working around the world, Gerry learned, made
friends and became a leader in a new specialty
(aerial surveying). The words and pictures in this
book illustrate many facets in the long and
interesting life of Colonel Gerry Andrews.
AMan and His Century is avaUable for $12.95 (no GST)
shipping and handling is an additional $5.00. Payment can
be addressed to Mary Andrews, 116 Wellington Avenue,
Victoria, BC V8V 4H7. For more information contact Mary
at maryeandrews@shaw.ca or by phone at 250.382.7202
Miscellany
From the President's Desk
I would like to send holiday greetings
to all the British Columbia Historical
Federation members and to our subscribers.
If you are looking for gift ideas
consider giving a subscription to the British
Columbia Historical News as a gift.
Jaqueline Gresko
Publication Name Change
At the September 20, 2003 BCHF
council the following motions passed: The
name of the journal of the British Columbia
Historical Federation shall be BC History,
effective vol. 38 no. 1, 2005. and subscribers to
British Columbia Historical News are invited
to provide comments on the name change by
February 1, 2004. (Ron Welwood's article
Time for a Change appears below and can
be found in the recent newsletter mailed in
mid December.)
Please send your comments to the
President, Jaqueline Gresko, as soon as
possible. [Contact details can be found at the front
of the magazine.]
Time For A Change?
A newsletter is meant to be exactly
what it is — an information sheet containing
news of interest to the members of the British
Columbia Historical Federation. News
should be as current as possible so the
Newsletter will be issued bimonthly and, if
warranted, perhaps more frequently in the
future.
In order to avoid confusion between
our new Newsletter and the Federation's
flagship quarterly, British Columbia Historical
News it may be appropriate to consider a new
title for the quarterly journal. It will continue
to publish its regular columns: Archives and
Archivists, Web Site Forays, News and Notes,
Federation News, etc.; but these "news"
features represent less than eight percent of
the journal's total content whereas the
remaining space contains historical articles
relating to British Columbia. Why not
emphasize this focus by changing the title to
British Columbia History?
Undoubtedly some members of the
Federation will be reluctant to change a
worthy tradition that has existed for over
thirty-five years. Nevertheless, many good
things undergo transformation at one time
or another—often for the better. Product
identification and image help both promotion
and sales. Unfortunately, "News" implies
something other than what lies within. Why
not proudly state what the magazine really
is? — British Columbia History.
The Federation has been fortunate to
receive provincial grants over the years to
help defray subscription costs to the journal.
That era has passed and, as a result, the
Federation has had to revise subscription
rates to the News. Subscription rates for
Federation members will now be $15.00 /year
and non-member subscription rates will be
$18.00/year. These new rates may help to
defray rising costs, but to provide a more
stable financial environment we need to
increase the number of subscriptions and
sales. A change in title may be the catalyst to
achieve this.
Do you have any comments about
changing the quarterly's name to British
Columbia History? li you do, please contact
President Jacqueline Gresko.
R.J. (Ron) Welwood
X
Conference Workshops
Announced
Once again Melva Dwyer will be
arranging pre-conference, all day,
workshops, Thursday May 6th on Archives
and Family History - thanks to a grant from
the Paths Program, Canada's National
History Society.
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003
33 The above painting is by Michael Kluckner, who is busy documenting the province for his upcoming
book Vanishing British Columbia to be published by UBC Press. Michael says his reasons for the book
are that "As familiar roadside icons disappear, the history of the province becomes harder to trace
and the sense of familiarity I feel as I travel through my home province gets more tenuous."
More information on the book and places to be included can be found at www.michaelluckner.com
" / believe this place is called the Marlow
house—it's one of the very few buildings along
the road running from the Beaton turnoff to
Trout Lake along Highway 31 in the Lardeau
region of the Kootenays. The road follows
Beaton Creek, which is marshy and flooding in
spots, probably due to beaver dams, the high
water seeming to drown the aspens along its
bank. On the late-November morning I was
there, a clammy mist had risen into the pale
sunshine from the rank grasses along the edge.
The house, with attached shed and privy, is
about as close as a British Columbia place gets
to the house-barn combinations typical of
Mennonite farms on the prairies. In this case,
though, the old log and frame barn buildings
are on higher ground—on the other side of the
road.
Michael would be interesting in learning more
about this house in the Lardeau region.
Contact him through his web site.
Lardo/Lardeau
Some comment and amplification re: Greg
Nesteroff's article in Volume 36, No. 2.
The name "Lardeau" has been applied
to two towns, one on the Northeast Arm of
Upper Arrow Lake, the other near the head
of Kootenay Lake. As well, it designates the
river and the District comprising the Fish
(Incomappleaux) and Lardeau Rivers.
"Lardeau" is the later and gentrified spelling
of what in each case was originally spelled
"Lardo."
"Lardo" was, in the nineteenth
Century, a vulgar adjective for a rich or fat
prospects. Note "Lardo" Jack Me Donald,
Kaslo prospector and miner of 1891. The
town on Kootenay Lake was not named for
Jack Me Donald but for the hope of mineral
riches in the Duncan Lake district nearby. The
word comes from the French, lardon, to
enrich lean meat with small pieces of pork or
bacon fat.
The name, "Lardo" was given to the
Lardeau and Fish Rivers district in 1865 by
James Turnbull, a surveyor and map maker
in his own right, though usually listed as
one of Walter Moberly's assistants.
Joseph Truch sent out Walter Moberly
and his assistants including Turnbull in
1865-66 to try to locate a route for a coach
road through the Gold. Selkirk and Rocky
Mountains. While Moberly explored farther
north he sent James Turnbull to check out a
reported Indian route from Upper Arrow
Lake to Kootenay Lake and a possible pass
(Jumbo Pass) from there to Lake
Windermere in the Upper Columbia Valley.1
Turnbull explored and named the Fish
River, by frenchifying the Aboriginal name,
"Nkema'puluks" into "Incomappleux." He
gave the district and the river the name
"Lardo," using the prospectors' term for a
rich or "fat" country, probably referring to
the abundance of fish and game.
That it was originally spelled "Lardo"
comes from a report by Gold Commissioner
and literary prize winner, Gilbert Sproat at
Farwell in 1888, "....the Lardo country has
not been actively prospected during the past
season..."
As well, Perry's Mining Map of the
West Kootenay published in 1893 designates
the region from the Northeast Arm of Upper
Arrow Lake to the head of Cottony Lake as
"Lardo Country." On it the "Lardo" River is
shown draining Trout Lake and two new
towns appear, "Lardeau" at the mouth of the
Fish River and "Lardo" at the head of
Kootenay Lake. "Lardeau/'which has no
French antecedent at all, was simply a Real
Estate Agent's more pretentious spelling of
the miner's old "Lardo,"
Lardeau, or Lardeau City, on the
Northeast Arm, was James "Pothole" Kellie's
pet development. Kellie was a miner and the
West Kootenay's first MLA. he served in the
legislature for ten years and infuriated the
Lardeau District's residents by vigorously
promoting his own clumsily located town as
the commercial centre of the Lardeau. With a
mile wide mudflat between the town and
deep water it was inaccessible to steamers
which were obliged to dock at Thompsons
Landing, some five miles distant. Kellie
obtained government funds for a bridge
across the Fish river to link his town to the
Thompson's wharf and for a road up the right
bank of the Fish River to the mining
developments at Camborne in order to bring
the mining traffic through his town.
All in vain, for when the Kootenay
Lumber Company built a large mill, cleared
a townsite and constructed a usable wharf
and steamer landing a half mile to west, the
residents of Lardeau City moved, buildings,
hotel and all, over to the new town and
Lardeau City disappeared, eventually
becoming a cattle ranch.
Bill Laux
1 See R.G Harvey, Carving the Western Path, p. 50.
34 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 More on the Chicken Oath
Betty O'Keefe and Ian Macdonald,
authors of Canadian Holy War, have written
BC Historical News to say that October 1901
was not the last time the Chicken Oath was
taken in a BC court. (See: The King's Oath
or Chicken Oath by Ron Greene vol 36/no.
4) They write: □
In September, 1924, at an inquest into the killing
of Janet Smith in Vancouver, Wong Foon Sing
swore on the chicken oath at the insistance of a
lawyer. The details are outlined in our book,
Canadian Holy War - A story of clans, tongs,
murder and bigotry, published by Heritage
House. The Chinese house boy eventually was
acquited of the charge of murder after suffering
one of the worst cases of racial injustice in B.C.
history.
CANADA S WAR
Can You Help?
Canada's War: The Lost Colour Archives
is a television series thatlooks at WWII from
a Canadian perspective, using only colour
film footage. In total, the project will entail
three one hour documentaries, which will
be screened nationally on the CBC, in June,
2004, to coincide with the 60th anniversary
of D-Day. The series is being produced by
YAP Films, a Toronto documentary
production company.
Yap Films has found some great
home movies of life in B.C during the war
at the B.C Archives in Victoria but there must
surely be more reels of 8mm and 16mm
colour reversal in the basements of the
province!
They are also looking for any letters
or diaries written during war as they will
provide a lot of the narration for the series.
Please contact Yap Films at
416.504.666.2237. They also have a toll free
number for anyone outside the Toronto area:
1.866. WARFILM; 1.866.927.3456.
CBC's website for the documentary is
at: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/
canadaswar/
Collecting Obituaries
Bill Etchell of the Vancouver Historical
Society is curious to know if anyone else
reads and collects obituaries of British
Columbians born in intereting places within
our province? It might be an early or pioneer
town or a place which no longer appears on
the maps. If this is one of your hobbies Bill
can be reached at 604.731.6247
The Lone Man, a correction
Yvonne Klan notes: In the penultimate
paragraph on page five (The Lone Man vol.
36/no. 4), I had written "...the Sekani
requested that the post be moved back to
the old Rocky Mountain Fort."D I should
have written that "...the Sekani requested
that the post be moved back to the old Rocky
Mountain Portage." □
T^\ HISTORIC
J JrVERS
OFBRITIJ
Fred Rogers, a long-time contributor
to BC Historical News has recently published
a book on the history of hardhat divers in
British Columbia. It is self published volume
limited to 1500 copies. It's 240 pages,
illustrated with many photos never before
published. The price is just 29.95. If you're
interested contact Fred Rogers, 530 First
Avenue W, Qualicum, BC V9K1J6
Winifred Dawson Thomas posing with her
loaded three ton GMC salvage truck in Duncan
BC, 1942. (top)
Loading the truck in Victoria opposite the
Hudsons Bay Company department store,
1942. (bottom)
Interesting Photographs on Hand?
Collecting salvage during World War
Two was one way people on the homefront
could assist the war effort. Posters,
newspaper advertisements and radio spots
all exhorted the value of saving scrap. To
collect it all the government created the
Salvage Corps of BC.
The photographs show Miss Winifred
Dawson Thomas and her truck in action. The
Salvage Corps publication SCRAP (May
1943) noted, "Miss Dawson Thomas has
loaded and driven from her home in Duncan
many hundreds of tons of steel and iron to
the sorting depot."
BC Historical News is interested in
other photographs that have a story to tell.
So flip through those albums.
John Atkin, Editor, BCHN
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003
35 * an article with illustrations
British Columbia Historical News
Index Volume 36 No. 1-4 Winter 2002/2003 To Fall 2003
Author
AFFLECK, EDWARD L. Steamboat Around the Bend: The Port Douglas-
Lillooet Route to the Cariboo. 36:1 (2002/2003): 42.*
—. —: The Brief Career of the Okanagan Sternwheeler Fairview.36:3
(2003): 40-41."
—. —: The Saga of the Sternwheeler Enterprise. 36:2 (2003): 41.*
ATKIN, JOHN. Edtorial. 36:4 (2003): 1.
BRACHES, FRED. Editorial. 36:3 (2003): 1.
COTTON, H. BARRY. The Buntzen Lake Project 1901-06: Hydro-Electric
Power for BC's Lower Mainland. 36:4 (2003): 12-17*
CROSSE, JOHN. John Meares: BC's Most Successful Real Estate Agent?
36:2 (2003): 14-15.*
DAVIS, CHUCK. A Palace of Entertainment: Vancouver's Orpheum Turns
Seventy-Five. 36:2 (2003): 16-20.*
FOX-POVEY, ELLIOT. How Agreeable Their Company Would Be: The
Meaning of the Sexual Labour of Slaves in the Nuu-chah-nulth: European
SexTrade at Nootka Sound in the Eighteenth Century. 36:3 (2003): 2-10*
GARRISH, CHRISTOPHER. We Can't Dispose of Our Own Crop, Challenges to
BC Tree Fruits and the Single-Desk Marketing System. 36:2 (2003): 21-25.*
—.—. Web Site Forays. 36:1 (2002/2003): 44: 36:2 (2003): 43; 36:3
(2003): 37: 36:4 (2003): 36.*
GREENE, RONALD. The King's Oath or Chicken Oath. 36:4 (2003): 38-39*
—.—-.Token History :The Grand Hotel of Nakusp. 36:1 (2002/2003): 36-38*
—. —: John McRae of Quesnel Forks. 36:4 (2003): 26-29.*
—. —: The Kaiserhof Hotel. 36:3 (2003): 38-39.
—. —: The British Columbia $10 and $20 Coins. 36:2 (2003): 42-43.*
GUNDRY, FRANCES, ed. Archives & Archivists: Fire Insurance Plans.36:4
(2003): 37-38.*
—. —: The Greater Vernon Museum and Archives. 36:1 (2002/2003): 43.
—. —: Maps and BC History. 36:3 (2003): 42-43.
—. —: The School Archives Program in Mission, BC. 36:2 (2003): 40.
KLAN, YVONNE. The Lone Man: Founding of Fort St. John. 36:4 (2003): 2-5. *
LEE, ELDON E. Early Prince George Through the Eyes of a Young Boy.
36:3 (2003): 25-27.*
LEWIS, NORAH L. The Women's Pages: Letters from Friends, a House
Full of Visitors or a Source of Help. 36:3 (2003): 11-16.*
MANLY, JIM. :"On the West Coast of Vancouver Island": A Little-Known
Account of "Charles Haicks's" Missionary. 36:3 (2003): 17-20*
MILLER, P.L. The Building of the Golden Museum. 36:1 (2002/2003): 28-29*
NESTEROFF, GREG. Edward Mahon and the Naming of Castlegar. 36:1
(2002/2003): 24-25.*
NICOL, JANET MARY. A Working Man's Dream: The Life of Frank Rogers.
36:2 (2003): 2-5.*
PALMER, ROD N. Alexander Caulfield Anderson: An Ideal First Inspector
of Fisheries. 36:2 (2003): 28-30.
—. Meziaden River Fish Ladders. 36:4 (2003): 18-21.*
PARENT, ROSEMARIE. Conference Impressions. 36:3 (2003): 47.
—. Mr. Sam Henry. 36:1 (2002/2003): 26-27.*
RAJALA, RICHARD. Pulling Lumber: Indo-Canadians in the British
Columbia Forest Industry, 1900-1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13*
SELLERS, MARKI. Negotiations for Control and Unlikely Partnerships:
Fort Rupert, 1849-1851. 36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
SUTHERLAND, EILEEN. My Skeena Childhood. 36:2 (2003): 6-13.*
VILUERS, EDWARD. The Station Agent's Rifle. 36:3 (2003: 21-24.*
WARE, REUBEN. The Demolition of the BC Archives. 36:2 (2003): 26-27.
WELWOOD, RJ. (RON). Baillie-Grohman's Diversion. 36:4 (2003): 6-11.*
WRIGHT, TOM. Palmer's Cup: A Memento of Colonial Days. 36:4 (2003): 22-25.*
Titles
Alexander Caulfield Anderson: An Ideal First Inspector of Fisheries
by Rod N. Palmer. 36:2 (2003): 28-30.
Archives Et Archivists: Fire Insurance Plans ed. by Frances Gundry.
36:4 (2004): 37-38*
—. — :The Greater Vernon Museum and Archives, ed. by Frances
Gundry. 36:1 (2002/2003): 43.
—. —: Maps and BC History ed. by Frances Gundry. 36:3 (2003): 42-43.
—, —: The School Archives Program at Mission BC ed. by Frances
Gundry. 36:2 (2003): 40.
Baillie-Grohman's Diversion by R.J. (Ron) Welwood. 36:4 (2003): 6-11*
The Building of the Golden Museum by P.L. Miller. 36:1 (2002/2003): 28-29. *
The Buntzen Lake Project 1901-06: Hydro-Electric Power for BC's
Lower Mainland by H. Barry Cotton. 36:4 (2003): 12-17.*
Candidates for the 20th Wrting Competition. 36:2 (2003): 31.
Conference 2003, Prince George. 36:3 (2003): 44-46.*
The Demolition of the BC Archives by Reuben Ware. 36:2 (2003): 26-27.
Early Prince George Through the Eyes of a Young Boy by Eldon E.
Lee. 36:3 (2003): 25-27.*
Editorial by Fred Braches. 36:3 (2003): 1.
Editorial by John Atkin. 36:4 (2003):1.
Edward Mahon and the Naming of Castlegar by Greg Nesteroff. 36:1
(2002/2003): 24-25*
How Agreeable Their Company Would Be: The Meaning of the Sexual
Labour of Slaves in the Nuu-chah-nulth: European Sex Trade at
Nootka Sound in the Eighteenth Century by Elliot Fox-Povey. 36:3
(2003): 2-10.*
John Meares: BC's Most Successful Real Estate Agent? by John Crosse.
36:2(2003): 14-15.*
The King's Oath or Chicken Oath by Ronald Greene. 36:4 (2003): 38-39.*
The Lone Man: Founding of Fort St. John by Yvonne Klan. 36:4 (2003): 2-5. *
Meziaden River Fish Ladders by Rod N Palmer. 36:4 (2003): 18-21.*
Mr. Sam Henry by Rosemarie Parent. 36:1 (2002/2003): 26-27. *
My Skeena Childhood by Eileen Sutherland. 35:2 (2003): 6-13. *
Negtiations for Control and Unlikely Partnerships: Fort Rupert,
1849-1851 by Marki Sellers. 36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23*
"On the West Coast of Vancouver Island": A Little-Known Account of
"Charles Haickes's" Missionary by Jim Manly. 36: 3 (2003): 17-20*
A Palace of Entertainment: Vancouver's Orpherum Turns Seventy-
Five by Chuck Davis. 36:2 (2003): 16-20.*
Palmer's Cup: A Memento of Colonial Days by Tom Wright. 36:4
(2003): 22-25.*
Pulling Lumber: Indo-Canadians in the British Columbia Forest
Industrry, 1900-1998 by Richard A. Rajala. 36:1 (20002/2003): 2-13.*
The Station Agent's Rifle by Edward Villiers. 36:3 (2003): 21-24.*
Steamboat Around the Bend: The Brief Career of the Okanagan
Sterwheeler Fairview by Edward L. Affleck 36:3 (2003): 40-41.*
—: The Port-Douglas Route to the Cariboo by Edward L. Affleck. 36:1
(2002/2003): 42*
—: The Saga of the Sternwheeler Enterprise by Edward L. Affleck.
36:2 (2003): 41.*
Token History: The Grand Hotel of Nakusp by Ronald Greene. 36:1
(200212003): 36-38*
—: John McRae of Quesnel Forks by Ronald Greene. 36:4 (2003): 26-29. *
—: The Kaiserhof Hotel by Ronald Greene. 36:3 (2003): 39.*
—: British Columbia $10 and $20 Coins by Ronald Greene. 36:2
(2003): 42-43.*
We Can't Dispose of Our Own Crop....Challenges to BC Tree Fruits and
the Single -Desk Marketing System by Christopher Garrish. 36:2
(2003): 21-25.*
Web Site Forays by Christopher Garrish. 36:1 (2002/2003): 44; 36:2
(2003): 43: 36:3 (2003): 37: 36:4 (2003): 36.*
The Women's Pages: Letters from Friends, a House Full of Visitors,
or a Source of Help by Norah L. Lewis. 36:3 (2003): 11-16.*
A Working Man's Dream: The Life of Frank Rogers by Janet Mary
Nicol. 36:2 (2003): 2-5.*
36
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 Subjects
AGRICULTURE: Garrish.Christopher. We Can't Dispose of Our Own
Crop....Challenges to BC Tree Fruits and the Single-Desk Marketing
System. 36:2 (2003): 21-25.* Welwood, R.J..(Ron). Baillie-Grohman's
Diversion. 36:4 (2003): 6-11.*
ANDERSON, ALEXANDER CAULFIELD Palmer, Rod N. Alexander Caulfield
Anderson: An Ideal First Inspector of Fisheries. 36: 2 (2003): 28-30.
ARCHITECTS Davis, Chuck. A Palace of Entertainment: Vancouver's
Orpheum Turns Seventy-Five 36:2 (2003): 16-20.*
ARCHIVES Gundry Frances, ed. Arcihves Et Archivists: The Greater
Vernon Museum and Archives. 36:1(2002/2003): 43.
—. —: Maps and BC History. 36:3 (2003): 42-43.
—. —: The School Archives Program at Mission, BC. 36:2 (2003): 40.
Ware, Reuben. The Demolition of the BC Archives. 36:2 (2003): 26-27.
AUTOBIOGRAPHIES Sutherland, Eileen. My Skeena Childhood. 36:2
(2003): 6-13.*
BC FRUIT GROWERS ASSOCIATION Garrish, Christopher. We Can't
Dispose of Our Own Crop....Challenges to BC Tree Fruits and the
Single-Desk Marketing System. 36:2 (2003): 21-25.*
BAILLIE-GROHMAN Welwood, R.J. (Ron). Baillie-Grohman's Diversion.
36:4 (2003): 6-11.*
BARBEAU, MARIUS Hyde, Ron. Songs of the Nisga'a: A Wonderful Piece
ofBC History. 36:1(2002/2003): 41
BEAVER HARBOUR Sellers, Marki. Negotiations for Control and Unlikely
Partnerships: Fort Rupert, 1849-1851.36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
BEAVER NATION Klan, Yvonne. The Lone Man: Founding of Fort St.
John. 36:4 (2003): 2-5.*
BLANSHARD, RICHARD Sellers, Narki. Negotiations for Control and
Uneasy Partnerships: Fort Rupert, 1849-1851. 36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
BODEGA Y QUADRA Crosse, John. John Meares: BC's Most Successful
Real Estate Agent? 36:2 (2003): 14-15.*
BRITISH COLUMBIA ARCHIVES Ware, Reuben. The Demolition of the BC
Archives. 36:2 (2003): 26-27.
BUNTZEN, JOHANNES Cotton, H. Barry. The Buntzen Lake Project 1901-06:
Hydro-Electric Power for BC's Lower Mainland. 36:4 (2003): 12-17. *
CANADIAN FRUIT GROWERS ASSOCIATION Garrish, Christopher. We
Can't Dispose of Our Own Crop....Challenges to the BC Tree Fruits and
the Single -Desk Marketing System. 36:2 (2003): 21-25.*
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY Nicol, Janet Mary. A Working Man's Dream:
The Life of Frank Rogers. 36:2 (2003): 2-5.* Rajala, Richard A. Pulling
Lumber: Indo-Canadians in the British Columbia Forest Industry, 1900-
1998. 26:1 (2002/2003): 2-13*
CANALS Welwood, R.J. (Ron). Baillie-Grohman's Diversion. 36:4 (2003): 6-11*
CANNERIES Sutherland, Eileen. My Skeena Childhood. 36:2 (2003): 6-13.*
CASTLEGAR Nesteroff, Greg. Edwatd Mahon and the Naming of
Castlegar. 36:1 (2002/2003): 24-25*
CENSUS Smith, Brenda L. Post-1901 Census Release Moves One Step
Closer to Reality. 36:1 (2002/2003): 40-41.
CHINESE CANADIANS Chow, Lily. Dedicaiton of a Chinese Monument in
Prince George. 36:1 (2002/2003): 39.* Greene, Ronald. Token History:
John McRae of Quesnel Forks. 36:4 (2003): 26-29.'Parent, Rosemarie.
Mr. Sam Henry. 36:1 (2002/2003): 26-27.* Rajala, Richard A. Pulling
Lumber: Indo-Canadians in the British Columbia Forest Industry, 1900-
1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13*
COAL MINING Sellers, Marki. Negotiations for Control and Unlikely
Partnerships: Fort Rupert, 1849-1851.36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
COINS Greene, Ronald. Token History: The British Columbia $10 and $20
Coins. 36:2 (2003): 42-43*
COLUMBIA RIVER Welwood, R.J. (Ron). Baillie-Grohman's Diversion.
36:4 (2003): 6-11.*
COMMUNITY ARCHIVES ASSISTANCE PROGRAM Ware, Reuben. The
Demolition of the BC Archives. 36:2 (2003): 26-27.
COMPETITIONS Candidates for the 20th Writing Competition. 36:2 (2003): 31.
CONFERENCES Conference 2003, Prince George. 36:3 (2003): 44-46*
McDonald, R.A.J. (Bob). BC Studies Conference. 36:2 (2003): 38.
Maclachlan, Morag. Fort Langley: Outpost of Empire. 36:1 (2002/2003):
41.* Parent, Rosemarie. Conference Impressions. 36:3 (2003): 47.
COOK, JAMES (CAPTAIN) Fox-Povey, Elliot. How Agreeable Their
Company Would Be: The Meaning of the Sexual Labour of Slaves in the
Nuu-chah-nulth: European Sex Trade at Nootka Sound in the
Eighteenth Century. 36:3 (2003): 2-10.*
COQUITLAM LAKE Cotton, H. Barry. The Buntzen Lake Project 1901-06:
Hydro-Electric Power for BC's Lower Mainland. 36:4 (2003):12-17'.*
CORLEY-SMITH, PETER Turner, Robert D. Peter Corley-Smith. 36:2
(2003): 38.*
CUNNINGHAM, ROBERT Sutherland, Eileen. My Skeena Childhood. 36:2
(2003): 6-13.*
CUPS Wright, Tom. Palmer's Cup: A Memento of Colonial Days. 36:4
(2003): 22-25.*
DAMS Cotton, H. Barry. The Buntzen Lake Project 1901-06: Hydro-
Electric Power for BC's Lower Mainland. 36:4(2003): 12-17.*
DOUGLAS, JAMES (SIR) Sellers, Marki. Negotiations for Control and
Unlikely Partnerships: Fort Rupert, 1849-1851.36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
EDITORIALS Atkin, John. Editorial. 36:4 (2003): 1.Braches, Fred.
Editorial. 36:3 (2003): 1.
EDITORS Lewis, Norah L. The Women's Pages: Letters to Friends, a
House Full of Visitors, or a Source of Help. 36:3 (2003): 11-16*
ELECTRICITY Cotton, H. Barry. The Buntzen Lake Project 1901-06:
Hydro-Electric Power for BC's Lower Mainland. 36:4(2003): 12-17.*
THE ENTERPRISE Affleck, Edward L. Steamboat Around the Bend: The
Saga of the Sternwheeler Enterprise. 36:2 (2003): 41.*
EXPLORATION Crosse, John. John Meares: BC's Most Successful Real
Estate Agent? 36:2 (2003): 14-15.*
THE FAIRVIEW Affleck, Edward L. Steamboat Around the Bend: The Brief
Career of the Okanagan Sternwheeler Fairview. 36:3 (2003): 40-41*
FARWELL, ARTHUR S.Welwood, R.J. (Ron). Baillie-Grohman's Diversion.
36:4 (2003): 6-11*
FEDERATION NEWS.36:1 (2002/2003): 46; 36:2 (2003): 44.
FICTION Manly, Jim. "On the West Coast of Vancouver Island": A Little-
Known Account of "Charles Haicks's" Missionary. 36:3 (2003): 17-20*
FIRE INSURANCE PLANS Gundry, Frances, ed. Archives Et Archivists: Fire
Insurance Plans....36:4 (2003): 37.*
FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE Fox-Povey, Elliot. How Agreeable Their
Company Would Be: The Meaning of the Sexual Labour of Slaves in the
Nuu-chah-nulth: European Sex Trade at Nootka Sound in the
Eighteenth Century. 36:3 (2003): 2-10.* Klan, Yvonne. The Lone Man:
Founding of Fort St. John. 36:4 (2003): 2-5.* Manly, Jim. "On the West
Coast of Vancouver Island": A Little-Known Account of "Charles
Haicks's" Missionary. 36:3 (2003): 17-20.* Palmer, Rod N. Alexander
Caulfield Anderson: An Ideal First Inspector of Fisheries. 36:2 (2003):
28-30.—. Meziaden River Fish Ladders. 36:4 (2003): 18-21.* Sellers,
Marki. Negotiations for Control and Unlikely Partnerships: Fort Rupert,
1849-1851. 36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23*
FISH LADDERS Palmer, RodN. Meziaden River Fish Ladders. 36:4 (2003): 18-21.*
FISHING INDUSTRY Palmer, Rod N.Alexander Caulfield Anderson: An
Ideal First Inspector of Fisheries. 36:2 (2003): 29-30.Sutherland, Eileen.
My Skeena Childhood. 36:2 (2003): 6-13.*
FOREST INDUSTRY Rajala, Richard A. Pulling Lumber: Indo-Canadians in
the British Columbia Forest Industry, 1900-1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13.*
FORT LANGLEY Maclachlan, Morag. Fort Langley: Outpost of Empire.
36:1 (2002/2003): 41.*
FORT RUPERT Sellers, Marki. Negotiations for Control and Unlikely
Partnerships: Fort Rupert, 1849-1851. 36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
FRASER RIVER Affleck, Edward L. Steamboat Around the Bend: The
Saga of the Sternwheeler Enterprise. 36:2 (2003): 41.*
FUNERALS Parent,Rosemarie. Mr. Sam Henry. 36:1 (2002/2003): 26-27*
GOLDEN AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY Miller, P.L. The Building
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003
37 of the Golden Museum. 36:1 (2002/2003): 28-29.*
GRAND HOTEL, NAKUSP Greene. Ronald. Token History: The Grand
Hotel of Nakusp. 36:1 (200/2003): 36-38.*
GUNS Villiers, Edward. The Station Agent's Rrifle. 36:3 (2003): 21-24.*
HAICKS, CHARLES Manly, Jim. "On the West Coast of Vancouver Island": A
Little-Known Account of "Charles Haicks's" Missionary. 36:3 (2003): 17-20*
HARRISON LAKE Affleck, Edward L. Steamboat Around the Bend: The
Port Douglas-Lillooet Route to the Cariboo.36:1 (2002/2003): 42.*
HECTOR, JOHN Greene, Ronald. Token History: The Grand Hotel of
Nakusp. 36:1 (2002/2003): 36-38*
HELMCKEN, JOHN SEBASTIAN Sellers, Marki. Negotiations for Control and
Unlikely Partnerships: Fort Rupert, 1849-1851. 36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
HENRY, SAM Parent, Rosemarie. Mr. Sam Henry. 36:1 (2002/2003): 26-27.*
HORNE-PAYNE, R.M. Cotton, H. Barry. The Buntzen Lake Project 1901-06:
Hydro-Electric Power for BC's Lower Mainland. 36:4(2003): 12-17.*
HOTELS Greene, Ronald. Token History: The Grand Hotel of Nakusp.
36:1 (200212003): 36-38.*
—. —: John McRae of Quesnel Forks. 36:4 (2003): 26-29*
—. —: The Kaiserhof Hotel. 36:3 (2003): 38-39*
HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY Klan, Yvonne. The Lone Man: Founding of Fort
St. John. 36:4 (2003): 2-5.*Palmer, RodN. Alexander Caulfield
Anderson: An Ideal First Inspector of Fisheries. 36:2 (2003): 28 30.
Sellers, Marki. Negotiations for Control and Unlikely Partnerships: Fort
Rupert, 1849-1851. 36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
Illustrations
COVER Buntzen Lake Dam. 36:4 (2003).Hotel Keeper John Hector and
His Wife Augusta Nillson and Their Two Daughters. 36:1 (2002/2003). Port
Esssington on the Skeena. 36:2 (2003). Woman From Nootka. 36:3 (2003).
IMMIGRATION Rajala, Richard A. Pulling Lumber: Indo-Canadians in the
British Columbia Forest Industry, 1900-1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13.*
INDEX 35:1 Winter (2001/2002) to 35:4 Fall (2002). 36:1 (2002/2003): 47-52.
INDO-CANADIANS Rajala, Richard A. Pulling Lumber: Indo-Canadians in
the British Columbia Forest Indusry, 1900-1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13*
INSPECTORS Palmer, Rod N. Alexander Caulfield Anderson: An Ideal
First Insspector of Fisheries. 36:2 (2003): 28-30.
INTERIOR DESIGN Davis, Chuck. A Palace of Entertainment: Vancouver's
Orpheum Turns Seventy-Five. 36:2 (2003): 16-20*
JAPANESE CANADIANS Rajala, Richard A. Pulling Lumber: Indo-Canadians in
the British Ccolumbia Forest Industry, 1900-1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13.*
JOURNALS Klan, Yvonne. The Lone Man: Founding of Fort St. John. 36:4
(2003): 2-5.*
KAISERHOF HOTEL Greene, Ronald. Token History: The Kaiserhof Hotel.
36:3 (2003): 38-39.*
KAPOOR SINGH Rajala, Richard A. Pulling Lumber: Indo-Canadians in the
British Columbia Forest Industry, 1900-1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13.*
KOOTENAY RIVER Welwood, R.J. (Ron). Baillie-Grohman's Diversion.
36:4 (2003): 6-11.*
LABOUR UNIONS Nicol, Janet Mary. A Working Man's Dream: The Life of
Frank Rogers. 36:2 (2003): 2-5.* Sellers, Marki. Negotiations for Control and
Unlikely Partnerships: Fort Rupert, 1849-1851.36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23*
LAND CLAIMS Crosse, John. John Meares: BC's Most Successful Real
Estate Agent? 36:2 (2003): 14-15.*
LAND RECLAMATION Welwood, R.J. (Ron). Baillie-Grohman's Diversion.
36:4 (2003): 6-11.
LARDEAU Nesteroff, Greg. Lardo vs. Lardeau. 36:2 (2003): 39.*
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 36:1 (2002/2003): 43.
LILLOOET Affleck, Edward L. Steamboat Around the Bend: The Port
Douglas-Lillooet Route to the Cariboo. 36:1 (2002/2003): 42.*
LUMBER INDUSTRY Rajala, Richard A. Pulling Lumber: Indo-Canadians in
the British Columbia Forest Industry, 1900-1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13.*
McLEOD, A. RODERICK Klan, Yvonne. The Lone Man: Founding of Fort
St. John. 36:4 (2003): 2-5.*
McRAE, JOHN Greene, Ronald. Token History: John McRae of Quesnel
Forks. 36:4 (2003): 26-29.*
MAHON, EDWARD Nesteroff, Greg. Edward Mahon and the Naming of
Castlegar. 36:1 (2002/2003): 24-25.*
MANOR HOUSES - IRELAND Nesteroff, Greg. Edward Mahon and the
Naming of Castlegar. 36:1 (2002/2003): 24-25.*
MAPS Gundry, Frances, ed. Archives Et Archivists: Maps and BC History.
36:3 (2003): 42-43.
MAQUINNA Crosse, John. John Meares: BC's Most Successful Real Estate
Agent? 36:2 (2003): 14-15*
MARKET GARDENING Parent, Rosemarie. Mr. Sam Henry. 36:1 (20021
2003): 26-27.*
MARKETING BOARDS Garrish, Christopher. We Can't Dispose of Our Own
Crop....Challenges to BC Tree Fruits and the Single-Desk Marketting
System. 36:2 (2003): 21-25.*
MAYO SINGH Rajala, Richard A. Pulling Lumber: Inod-Canadians in the
British Columbia Forest Industry, 1900-1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13.*
MEARES, JOHN Crosse, John. John Meares: BC's Most Successful Real
Estate Agent? 36:2 (2003): 14-15.*
MEMORIALS Turner, Robert D. Peter Corley-Smith. 36:2 (2003): 38.*
White, Howard. A.J. Spilsbury. 36:3 (2003): 35.*
MEZIADEN RIVER Palmer, Rod N. Meziaden River Fish Ladders. 36:4
(2003): 18-21.*
MINERS Sellers, Marki. Negotiations for Control and Unlikely
Partnerships: Fort Rupert, 1849-1851. 36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
MISSION, B C Gundry, Frances, ed. Archives Et Archivists: The School
Archives Program at Mission, BC, 36:2 (2003: 40.
MISSIONARIES Manly, Jim. "On the West Coast of Vancouver Island": A
Little-Known Account of "Charles Haicks's" Missionary. 36:3 (2003): 17-20*
MONUMENTS Chow, Lily. Dedication of a Chinese Monument In Prince
George. 36:1 (2002/2003): 39.*
MURDERS Villiers, Edward. The Station Agent's Rifle. 36:3 (2003): 21-24.*
MUSEUMS Miller, P.L. The Building of the Golden Museum. 36:1 (20021
2003): 28-29.*
NAKUSP Greene, Ronald. Token History: The Grand Hotel of Nakusp.
36:1 (2002/2003): 36-38.* Parent, Rosemarie. Mr. Sam Henry. 36:1
(200212003): 26-27*
NASS RIVER Palmer, RodN. Meziaden River Fish Ladders. 36:4 (2003): 18-21*
NAWITIIKWAKWAKA Sellers, Marki. Negotiations for Control and
Unlikely Partnerships: Fort Rupert, 1849-1851.36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
NEWS AND NOTES 36:1 (2002/2003): 45; 36:3 (2003): 48.*
NEWSPAPERS Lewis, Norah L. The Women's Pages: Letters to Friends, a
House Full of Visitors, or a Source of Help. 36:3 (2003): 11-16*
NISGA'A NATION Hyde, Ron. Songs of the Nisga'a: A Wonderful Source
of BC History. 36:1 (2002/2003): 41.Palmer, RodN. Meziaden River Fish
Ladders. 36:4 (2003): 18-21.*
NOOTKA SOUND Crosse, John. John Meares: BC's Most Successful Real
Estate Agent? 36:2 (2003): 14-15.* Fox-Povey, Elliot. How Agreeable
Their Company Would Be: The Meaning of the Sexual Labour of Slaves in
the Nuu-chah-nulth: European Sex Trade at Nootka Sound in the
Eighteenth Century. 36:3 (2003): 2-10.*
NUU-CHAH-NULTH Fox-Povey. How Agreeable Their Company Would Be:
The Meaning of the Sexual Labour of Slaves in the Nuu-chah-nulth:
European SexTrade at Nootka Sound in the Eighteenth Century. 36:3
(2003): 2-10.*
OBITUARIES Watson, Bruce M. Edward (Ted) Affleck. 36:3 (2003): 34-35.*
OKANAGAN FALLS Affleck, Edward L. Steamboat Around the Bend: The Brief
Career of the Okanagan Sternwheeler Fairview. 36:3 (2003): 40-41.*
OKANAGAN VALLEY Garrish, Christopher. We Can't Dispose of Our Own
Crop....Challenges to the BC Tree Fruits and the Single-Desk Marketing
System. 36:2 (2003) 21-25*
ORCHARDS Garrish, Christopher. We Can't Dispose of Our Own Crop....
Challenges to BC Tree Fruits and the Single-Desk Marketing System. 36:2
(2003): 21-25.*
38
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003 ORPHEUM THEATRE Davis, Chuck. A Palace of Entertainment:
Vancouver's Orpheum Turns Seventy-Five. 36:2 (2003): 16-20*
PALDI Rajala, Richard A. Pulling Lumber: Indo-Canadians in the British
Columbia Forest Industry, 1900-1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13.*
PALMER, HENRY SPENCER Wright, Tom. Palmer's Cup: A Memento of
Colonial Days. 36:4 (2003): 22-25*
PANTAGES, ALEXANDER Davis, Chuck. A Palace of Entertainment:
Vancouver's Orpheum Turns Seventy-Five. 36:2 (2003): 16-20*
PENTICTON Affleck, Edward L. Steamboat Around the Bend: The Brief
Career of the Okanagan Sternwheeler Fairview. 36:3 (2003): 40-41*
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES Lee, Eldon E. Early Prince George Through
the Eyes of a Young Boy. 36:3 (2003): 25-27.* Miller, P.L. The Building of
the Golden Museum. 36:1 (2002/2003): 28-29.* Sutherland, Eileen. My
Skeena Childhood. 36:2 (2003): 6-13.*
POINT GREY Roberts, John E. (TED): Noon Breakfast Point: What's in a
Name?36:3 (2003): 35-36.*
PORT DOUGLAS Affleck, Edward L. Steamboat Around the Bend: The Port
Douglas-Lillooet Route to the Cariboo. 36:1 (2002/2003): 42.*
PORT ESSINGTON Sutherland, Eileen. Ny Skeena Childhood. 36:2 (2003):
6-13.*
PRINCE GEORGE Lee, Eldon E. Prince George Through the Eyes of a Young
Boy. 36:3 (2003): 25-27.*
PRITECA, BENJAMIN MARCUS Davis, Chuck. A Palace of Entertainment:
Vancouver's Orpheum Turns Seventy-Five. 36:2 (2003): 16-20*
THE PUNJAB, INDIA Rajala, Richard A. Pulling Lumber: Indo-Canadians in
the British Columbia Forest Industry, 1900-1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13.*
QUESNEL Affleck, Edward L. Steamboat Around the Bend: The Saga of
the Sternwheeler Enterprise. 36:2 (2003): 41*
QUESNEL FORKS Greene, Ronald. Token History: John McRae of Quesnel
Forks. 36:4 (2003): 26-29.*
REPORTS 36:1 (2002/2003): 39-41*; 36:2 (2003): 38-39.*; 36:3 (2003): 35-
36.*
ROGERS, FRANK Nicol, Janet Mary. A Working Man's Dream: The Life of
Frank Rogers. 36:2 (2003): 2-5.*
ROYAL ENGINEERS Wright, Tom. Palmer's Cup: A Memento of Colonial
Days. 36:4 (2003): 22-25.*
SAILORS Fox-Povey, Elliot. How Agreeable Their Company Would Be: The
Meaning of the Sexual Labour of Slaves in the Nuu-chah-nulth: European
Sex Trade at Nootka Sound in the Eighteenth Century. 36:3 (2003): 2-10*
Sellers, Marki. Negotiations for Control and Unlikely Partnerships: Fort
Rupert, 1849-1851. 36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
SALMON Palmer, Rod N. Alexander Caulfield Anderson: An Ideal First
Insepctor of Fisheries. 36:2 (2003): 28-30.
—. Meziaden River Fish Ladders. 36:4 (2003): 18-21.* Sutherland, Eileen.
My Skeena Childhood. 36:2 (2003): 6-13.*
SEX TRADE Fox-Povey, Elliot. How Agreeable Their Company Would Be:
The Meaning of the Sexual Labour of Slaves in the Nuu-chah-nulth:
European Slave Trade at Nootka Sound in the Eighteenth Century. 36:3
(2003): 2-10.*
SIKHS Rajala, Richard A. Pulling Lumber: Indo-Canadians in the British
Columbia Forest Industry, 1900-1998. 36:1 (2002/2003): 2-13.*
SKEENA RIVER Sutherland, Eileen. My Childhood on the Skeena. 36:2
(2003): 6-13.*
SLAVES Fox-Povey, Elliot. How Agreeable Their Company Would Be: The
Meaning of the Sexual Labour of Slaves in the Nuu-chah-nulth: European
Sex Trade at Nootka Sound in the Eighteenth Century. 36:2 (2003): 2-10*
SOCIAL LIFE ft CUSTOMS Lewis, Norah L. The Women's Pages: Letters to
Friends, a House Full of Visitors, or a Source of Help. 36:3 (2003): 11-16*
Sutherland, Eileen. My Skeena Childhood. 36:2 (2003): 6-13.*
SODA CREEK Affleck, Edward L. Steamboat Around the Bend: The Saga of
the Sternwheeler Enterprise. 36:2 (2003): 41*
STERNWHEELERS Affleck, Edward L Steamboat Around the Bend: The
Brief Career of the Okanagan Sternwheeleer Fairview. 36:3 (2003): 40-41.*
—. —: The Port Douglas-Lillooet Route to the Cariboo. 36:1 (20021
2003): 42.*
—. —: The Saga of the Sternwheeler Enterprise. 36:2 (2003): 41.*
STRIKES Nicol, Janet Mary. A Working Man's Dream: The Life of Frank
Rogers. 36:2 (2003): 2-5.*Sellers, Marki. Negotiations for Control and
Unlikely Partnerships: Fort Rupert, 1849-1851.36:1 (2002/2003): 14-23.*
SWARTOUT, MELVIN Manly, Jim. "On the West Coast of Vancouver Island": A
Liitle-Known Account of "Charles Haicks's" Missionary. 36:3 (2003): 17-20*
THEATRES Davis, Chuck. A Palace of Entertainment: Vancouver's
Orpheum Turns Seventy-Five. 36:2 (2003): 16-20.*
TOKENS Greene, Ronald. Token History: The Grand Hotel of Nakusp.
361 (2002/2003) 36-38.*
—. —: John McRae of Quesnel Forks. 36:4 (2003):26-29.*
—. —: The Kaiserhof Hotel. 36:3 (2003): 38-39.*
TROUT LAKE Cotton, H. Barry. The Buntzen Lake Project 1901-06:
Hydro-Electric Power for BC's Lower Mainland. 36:4(2003): 12-17.*
UNION STEAMSHIP COMPANY Sutherland, Eileen. My Childhood on the
Skeena. 36:2 (2003): 6-13.*
UNIONS see LABOUR UNIONS
VANCOUVER, GEORGE (CAPTAIN) Crosse, John. John Meares: BC's Most
Successful Real Estate Agent? 36:2 (2003): 14-15*
VANCOUVER Davis, Chuck. A Palace of Entertainment: Vancouver's
Orpheum Turns Seventy-Five. 36:2 (2003): 16-20.* Nicol, Janet Mary. A
Working Man's Dream: The Life of Frank Rogers. 36:2 (2003): 2-5*
VANCOUVER ISLAND - WEST COAST Manly, Jim. "On the West Coast of
Vancouver Island": A Little-Known Account of "Charles Haicks's"
Missionary. 36:3 (2003): 17-20.*
VERNON Gundry, Frances, ed. Archives Et Archivists: The Greater
Vernon Museum and Archives. 36:1 (2002/2003): 43.
VICTORIA Greene, Ronald. Token History: The Kaiserhof Hotel. 36:3
(2003): 38-39.*
VICTORIA FALLS Palmer, Rod N. Meziaden River Fish Ladders. 36:4
(2003): 18-21.*
WEB SITES Garrish, Christopher. Web Site Forays. 36:1 (2002/2003): 44;
36:2 (2003): 43; 36:3 (2003): 37; 36:4 (2003): 36.*
WOMEN Lewis, Norah L. The Women's Pages: Letters to Friends, a
House Full of Visitors, or a Source of Help. 36:3 (2003): 11-16*
ZEBALLOS Guppy, Walter. The Zeballos Story. 36:1 (2002/2003): 39-40.*
Book Reviews
ADAMS, JOHN. Old Square -Toes and His Lady: The Life of James and
Amelia Douglas. Reviewed by Dave Parker. 36:1 (2002/20030: 3.
ARMSTRONG, CLIFF. Sternwheelers on the Skeena. Reviewed by Ted
Affleck. 36:1 (2002/2003): 31-32.BAIRD,
IAN AND PETER SMITH. Ghost on the Grade: Hiking and Biking
Abandoned Railways on Southern Vancouver Island. Reviewed by Ken
Wuschki. 36:3 (2003): 29.
BAKER, EMILY REYNOLDS. Caleb Reynolds: American Seafareer.
Reviewed by Philip Teece. 36:2 (2003): 32-33.
BRACHES, HELMI, ed. Brick by Brick: The Story of Clayburn. Reviewed
by Daphne Sleigh. 36:2 (2003): 34.
BRAUN, BRUCE. Intemperate Rain Forest: Nature, Culture and Power on
the West Coast. Reviewed by Cara Prior. 36:3 (2003): 32.
CAMPBELL, ROBERT A. Sit Down and Drink Your Beer: Regulating
Vancouver's Beer Parlours, 1925-1954. Reviewed by Ian Kennedy. 36:1
(2002/2003): 30-31.
COLE, TERENCE AND ELMER E. RASMUSEN. Banking on Alaska: The
Story of the National Bank of Alaska.Reviewed by Donald Steele. 36:1
(2002/2003): 31.
CORLEY-SMITH, PETER. Pilots to Presidents: British Columbia Aviation
Pioneers and Leaders, 1930-1960. Reviewed by Robert W. Allen. 36:1
(2002/2003): 34.
THE CORPORATION OF THE VILLAGE OF ASHCROFT. Bittersweet Oasis:
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | WINTER 2003
39 A History of Ashcroft and District, 1885-2002. Reviewed by Esther
Darlington. 36:2 (2003): 37.
DAVIS, CHUCCK. Port Coquitlam: Where Rails Meet Rivers. Reviewed by
Werner Kaschel. 36:4 (2003):30.
DUWA, SANDRA. Professing English: A Life of Roy Daniells. Reviewed by
Betty Keller. 36:4 (2003): 30-31.
FINCH, DAVID. R.M. Patterson , a Life of Great Adventure. Reviewed by
George Newell. 36:2 (2003): 33-34.
GALLAHER, BILL. The Journey: The Overlanders' Quest for Gold.
Reviewed by Philip Teece. 36:4 (2003): 34.
GILMOUR, NARIANAND GAIL BUENTE. Heritage Hall: Biography of a
Buildding. Reviewed by Donald Luxton. 36:4 (2003): 31.
HARRISON, EUNICE M.L. The Judges Wife: Memoirs of a British Columbia
Pioneer. Reviewed by Donna Jean McKinnon. 36:3 (2003): 31-32.
HAYES, DEREK. First Crossing: Alexander Mackenzie, His Expedition
Across North America, and the Opening Up of the Continent. Reviewed
by Brian Gobbett. 36:3 (2003): 30-31.
HEWETT, SHIRLEY. The People's Boat: HMCS Oriole: Ship of a Thousand
Dreams. Reviewed by Philip Teece. 36:3 (2003): 33.
HIGUCHI, JIRO, comp. The Biography of Major-General Henry Spencer
Palmer, R.E.,F.R.A.S. (1838-1893). Reviewed by Frances M. Woodward.
36:4 (2003): 31.
HOU, CHARLES AND CYNTHIA. Great Canadian Political Cartoons, 1915-
1945. Reviewed by Tim Percival. 36:4 (2003): 31-32.
HUMPHREYS, DANDA. On the Street Where You Live, vol. 111: Sailors,
Solicitors and Stargazers. Reviewed by George Newell. 36:3 (2003): 31.
JOHNSON, PETER. Voyages of Hope: The Saga of the Bride Ships.
Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve. 36:4 (2003): 34-35.
KORETCHUK, PATRICIA. Chasing the Comet: A Scottish-Canadian Life.
Reviewed by Ron Sutherland. 36:4 (2003): 33-34.
MILLER, NAOMI. Gold Rush to Boom Town. Reviewed by Ron Welwood.
36:3 (2003): 30.
NOSI, GOODY. Magnificently Unrepentant: The Story of Merve Wilkinson
and Wildwood. Reviewed by Arnold Ranneris. 36:3 (2003): 28-29.
O'KEEFE, BETTY AND IAN MACDONALD. Merchant Prince: The Story of
Alexander Duncan McRae. Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve. 36:1 (2002/2003): 35.
OVEREND, HOWARD. Book Guy: A Librarian in the Peace. Reviewed by
Arnold Ranneris. 36:3 (2003): 33.
PEARKES, EILEEN DELEHANTY. The Geography of Memory: Recovering Stories
of a Landscape's First People. Reviewed by Ron Welwood. 36:4 (2003): 33.
PERRY, ADELE. On the Edge of Empire: Gender, Race and the Making of
British Columbia. Reviewed by Donna Jean McKinnon. 36:2 (2003): 36.
PIDDINGTON, HELEN. The Inlet. Reviewed by Ian Kennedy. 36:2 (2003): 36-37.
SIEBERT, MYRTLE. From Fjord to Floathouse: One Family's Jouney from
the Farmlands of Norway to the Coast of British Columbia. Reviewed by
Ellen Ramsay. 36:2 (2003): 35.
SMITH, ROBIN PERCIVAL. Captain McNeill and His Wife the Nishga
Chuef. Reviewed by Pamela Mar. 36:3 (2003): 30.
TERRACE REGIONAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 20th Century Anecdotes
from the Terrace Area. Reviewed by Kelsey McLeod. 36:2 (2003): 32.
TIBBITS, ETHEL BURNETT. On to the Sunset: The Lifetime Adventures
of a Spirited Pioneer. Reviewed by Sharyl Salloum. 36:4 (2003): 32-33.
TODD, ALDON L. Abandoned: The Story of the Greely Arctic Expedition,
1881-1884. Reviewed by Carol Lowes. 36:3 (2003): 28.
TRAIL CITY ARCHIVES. Historical Portraits of Trail. Reviewed by Alice
Glanville. 36:1 (2002/2003): 32-33.
WHEELER, WILLIAM J., ed. Flying Under Fire: Canadian Fliers Recall the
Second World War. Reviewed by Mike Higgs. 36:3 (2003): 29.
WILLIAMS, JUDITH. Two Wolves at the Dawn of Time: Kingcome Inlet
Pictographs, 1893- 1998. Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve. 36:2 (2003): 35-36.
WRIGHT, RICHARD THOMAS. Overlanders. Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve.
36:1 (2002/2003): 44-45.
40
BC HISTORICAL NEWS - Vol. 37 No. 1 | Winter 2003
British Columbia History
British Columbia Historical News 2003
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