Thirty-Fourth Report ^1 November 1, 1970 4 PENTICTON (R.M. Atkinson} MUSEUM 785 MAIM STREET PENTICTON, B.C. V2A5E3 THIRTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT of the OKANAGAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY Founded Sept. 4, 1925 Cover picture: One of the earliest glances at an emerging Keremeos. The view is from Pudding Head Mountain, with the Central Hotel, fittingly, in the centre. November 1, 1970 r THE OKANAGAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY HONORARY PATRONS Colonel the Honourable John R. Nicholson, P.C, O.B.E., Q.C, LL.D. Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia The Honourable W. A. C Bennett, P.C, LL.D., D. Pol. Sc. Premier of British Columbia The Honourable Frank X. Richter Minister of Mines and Petroleum Resources, and Minister of Commercial Transport PATRON Mrs. Charles Patten HONORARY PRESIDENTS Dr. Margaret Ormsby, Mr. H. C S. Collett, Mr. G. P. Bagnall, Mr. G. D. Cameron, Mrs. W. R. Dewdney, Mr. Harold Cochrane. PRESIDENT Mr. Kenneth V. Ellison, Oyama, B.C. IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Mrs. W. R. Dewdney, 273 Scott Ave., Penticton, B.C. VICE PRESIDENTS Mr. J. E. Jamieson Mrs. Duncan Tutt Mr. Victor Wilson SECRETARY R.F. Gale, Box 24, Pineview Drive, Kaleden, B.C. TREASURER Mr. John Shephard, Box 313, Vernon, B.C. ESSAY SECRETARY Mr. E. D. Sismey, 1348 Government St., Penticton, B.C. AUDITOR Mr. T. R. Jenner, 3105 29th Ave., Vernon, B.C DIRECTORS Vernon: Mr. E. B. Hunter, Mrs. Harold Cochrane, Mrs. Harry Gorman Kelowna: Mr. D. S. Buckland, Mrs. T. B. Upton, Mr. G. D. Cameron Penticton: Mrs. G. P. Broderick, Mr. E. D. Sismey, Mr. H. Cleland Oliver-Osoyoos: Major H. Porteous Similkameen: Mrs. Ray Walters DIRECTORS AT LARGE Mrs. A. E. Berry Rev. E. Fleming Mrs. H. C Whitaker Mrs. Ray Walters Major H. Porteous EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Editor: Mr. G.J. Rowland, 186 Nanaimo Ave., W., Penticton, B.C. Mrs. W. R. Dewdney Mr. Harold Cochrane Mrs. T. B. Upton Major H. Porteous 1970-71 BRANCH OFFICERS VERNON BRANCH President: Harold Cochrane, 3106 32nd St. Vice-President: Mr. Kenneth V. Ellison, Oyama, B.C. Secretary: Mrs. H. Gorman, 3503 Barnard Ave. Treasurer: Mr. H. Cochrane, 3106 32nd St. Directors: E. B. Hunter, Mrs. M. Middleton, Mr. G. P. Bagnall, Mrs. K. Kinnard, Mrs. A. E. Berry, Mrs. H. Cochrane, Mr. W. A. Martin. Editorial Committee: Mr. Harold Cochrane, Mrs. I. Crozier, Mrs. G. P. Bagnall. KELOWNA BRANCH President: Mr. J. L. Piddocke, Rittich Road, R.R. No. 2. Vice-President: Mrs. T. B. Upton, Okanagan Mission, B.C. Secretary: Mr. R. C Gore, 480 Queensway. Treasurer: Mr. J.J. Conroy, 2259 Aberdeen St. Directors: Mr. G. D. Cameron, Mr. F. G. DeHart, Mrs. Duncan Tutt, Mrs. John C. Surtees, Mr. H. K. Keating, Mr. J. L. Neave, Mr. J. S. Duggan, Mr. J. E. Marty, Mr. L. N. Leathley, Mr. Fraser Black, Mr. William Spear, Mr. Allan Lansdowne, Mr. Eric T. Sherlock, Mr. D. S. Buckland, Mr. Hume M. Powley. Editorial Commmittee: Mrs. T. B. Upton, Mr. A. W. Gray, Mrs. J. C Surtees. PENTICTON BRANCH Honorary Life President: Mrs. W. R. Dewdney, 273 Scott Ave. President: Dr. W. H. White, 702 Winnipeg St. Vice-President: Mr. Hugh Cleland, Upper Bench Road. Secretary: Mrs. G. P. Broderick, 1825 Fairford Drive. Treasurer: Mr. D. H. Gawne, 91 Newton Drive, West Bench. Directors: Mr. R. N. Atkinson, Mr. H. O. Rorke, Mr. R. F. Gale, Mayor F. D. Stuart, Mr. E. D. Sismey, Dr. J. J. Gibson, Mr. Wells Oliver, Mrs. H. C Whitaker, Mrs. Donald Orr, Mrs. Louise Gabriel, Mrs. F. A. MacKinnon, Mrs. Faye Scott, Mr. J. R. Phinney, Mr. Morris Thomas. Director at Large: Mr. Victor Wilson. Editorial Committee: Mrs. W. R. Dewdney, Mr. E. D. Sismey. Delegate to Arts Council: Mrs. W. R. Dewdney. OLIVER - OSOYOOS BRANCH President: Mr. D. Corbishley, R.R. No. 1, Oliver, B.C Vice-President: Mrs. H. Lewis, Osoyoos, B.C. Secretary: Mrs. P. M. Field, Osoyoos, B.C. Treasurer: Mrs. P. M. Field, Osoyoos, B.C. Directors: Mr. Carleton McNaughton, Mrs. H. Porteous, Mrs. Peggy Driver, Mrs. E. M. MacLennan, Mrs. Retta Long. Historian: Miss Dolly Waterman. Editorial Committee: Major H. Porteous. Director at Large: Major H. Porteous. SIMILKAMEEN BRANCH President: Mrs. Ray Walters. Vice-President: Mrs. Arthur Advocaat. Secretary: Mrs. L. Innis. Treasurer: Mrs. Douglas Parsons. Directors: Mr. G. Cawston, L. Innis, D. Parsons, R. Walters, Mrs. Arthur Advocaat, Mr. S. Manery. Editorial Committee: Mrs. Ray Walters. Director at Large: Mrs. Ray Walters. EDITOR'S FOREWORD The frequent quotation and even more frequent misquotation from three centuries ago, informing us that life in a state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" only emphasizes that Thomas Hobbes, the famous philosopher whose well-worn phrase we yet again invoke, was not spared to meet Mrs. Grace Worth of Trinity Valley. Mrs. Worth would be the one to explain, no doubt impatiently, that she certainly had experienced the wilds and every state of nature, as well as some solitude and hard times. But, with many another pioneer whose stories are told in the following pages, her memories hold nothing of the nasty or brutish. And as for life being short? Well into her nineties, a typewriter by her side, she received the editor of this current report with zestful interest when he called at her Vernon home to cautiously discuss an abridgement of the second and so-called concluding part of her autobiography, which at the time seemed as unquenchable as her own spirit. It may suffice to add that, hours later when the editor left, it was with even more manuscript from her. So "unquenchable" may indeed be the operative word. Persistence was what sprang from pioneering days. There was endurance through many years. We think of Joe Kass (who also tells his own story in this issue) who is in his nineties in his retirement at Vancouver. And of Joe Richter, nearing the century mark, who looks to the hills from his home now in Penticton and thinks of the bucks he used to hunt. And of many others whose records are essentially the same—in the overcoming of odds. If the spirit of persistence would seem to be a valuable matter for consideration we would ask the reader to give more than a passing glance to one small reference in Mrs. Sharpe's history of Deep Creek, and to the woman with mail who, in the event of a mis-delivery, would return over her 22-mile route to correct her mistake. Somehow, in reading this in the midst of this summer's postal discords, your editor was suddenly moved to refill his pre-dinner drink. It was for a toast. To the pioneers. There are these and other stories before you. —G. J. Rowland CONTENTS LIST OF OFFICERS 3 CAWSTON'S PIONEERS (Manery) 9 JOSEPH RICHTER (Sismey) 13 THE HARD TIMES BALL 16 WITH MANY A MEMORY (Walters) 18 L. S. COLEMAN REMEMBERED 19 THE SIMILKAMEEN INDIANS (McGlashing) 23 LACHLIN GILLANDERS (Sismey) 25 HE WITNESSED DISASTER (Walters) 28 57 YEARS IN OKANAGAN CENTRE (Upton) 28 THE SACRED HEART CHURCH (Sismey) 29 MEDICINE AMONG THE INDIANS (Watkins) 30 CELEBRATED HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY (Upton) 32 QUIL'STEN ("Observer") 33 FERDIE BRENT 35 MINEOLA (Emery) 36 TO A WILDFLOWER (Estabrooks) 39 PIONEER DAYS (Holden) 40 AT 106 YEARS OF AGE 44 OKANAGAN FALLS PIONEER 44 H. & K. TRADING COMPANY (Atkinson) 45 FRANK OSCAR McDONALD (Dewdney) 47 MAJOR HUGH FRASER (Sismey) 50 E. O. ATKINSON (R. N. Atkinson) 55 CHARTER MEMBER PASSES ON (Upton) 61 STREETSFUL OF MEMORIES (Bone) 62 HISTORIC CHURCH MARKER (Dewdney) 67 FESTIVAL OF REMEMBRANCE (Phillips) 73 AN HONORED DOCTOR (Orr) 77 JAMES GAWNE (Dewdney) 79 MY OWN STORY (Sismey) 81 THE GELLATLY PIONEERS (Gellatly) 85 LOGGING AT WESTBANK (Bouvette) 89 FATHER PANDOSY TREK (Upton) 91 THE STORY OF THE AUXILIARY (Gale) 93 A DISTINGUISHED DIPLOMAT 100 LAWN BOWLING IN KELOWNA (Whillis) 101 A GRIZZLY ENCOUNTER (Drinkwater) 105 A GOLDEN WEDDING (Upton) 109 CHARLES MAIR, POET AND PIONEER (Gray) Ill OKANAGAN LANDING SCHOOL DAYS (Hodgson) 116 SINCE 1910 (Worth) 120 HISTORY OF DEEP CREEK (Sharpe) 141 REMINISCENCES OF MABEL LAKE (Simard) 145 ON SILVER STAR (McAllister) 156 MY LIFE IN THE ENDERBY AREA (Kass) 159 ALFRED WADE STARTED IT (Atkinson) 166 NORTH OKANAGAN OBITUARIES (Cochrane) 168 KELOWNA AREA OBITUARIES (Upton) 170 FORT OKANOGAN MEMORIAL CEMETERY 173 THE MINUTES 174 ANNUAL MEETING NOTICE 190 MEMBERSHIP LIST 191 ILLUSTRATIONS Cawston Medal Winners 8 Joseph Richter 13 Keremeos Pioneers 17 Mary Jane Foster 18 Keremeos Scenes 20, 21, 22 Lachlin Gillanders 25 Indian Church at Chopaka 29 Mrs. Gabriel, Donald Watkins 30 Quil'sten Views 34 Mineola Townsite ?7 The Wheeler Sawmill 38 Eustace C. Holden 40 Holden Original Home 42 H & K Plant 45 The HK Trademark 46 Frank McDonald 48 Major Hugh Fraser 51 Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson 56 Ethel and Fred Bradburn 62 Original St. Sqviour's Church 67 Frank Lefroy and Mrs. Dewdney 68 Ellis Memorial Chapel 71 Canon Harris, Rev. Norman Tannar 74 St. Stephen's Church 76 Dr. W. H. B. Munn 77 James Gawne 79 Eric D. Sismey 81 David Gellatly, and House 86 Eliza Gellatly 87 Father Pandosy's Trek 92 Kelowna Hospital Opening 94 Auxiliary Garden Party 99 Kelowna Lawn Bowling Club 102 Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Tutt 109 Charles Mair's Family 110 Bernard Avenue in 1894 112 Mair's Benvoulin Store 113 Mair with C. D. G. Roberts 114 At the Landing 117 Harry and Grace Worth 120 Getting Ice 124 Mother and Worth Sons 128 The Worth Meadow 135 On Mabel Lake Road, 1908 146 The Well-Dressed Traveller 149 The Frog Ranch 150 Mrs. Hall's Store 150 Launching a Canoe 153 Rest Period 154 At Falls Creek 158 Marker for the "Unknown" 173 Essay Contest Writers 179 Mrs. Frank Richardson 179 CAWSTON'S PIONEERS Centennial medal winners of the Cawston area, from left seated: W. D. Lang, Mrs. Chris Tickell (now of Penticton), Mrs. Gertrude Sutherland (Vancouver), Joseph Richter (Penticton); standing: Samuel R. J. Manery, Mrs. Mollie McDonald, Mrs. Elizabeth McGowan (Vancouver), L. V. Newton (Penticton). Mrs. Newton, Michael Thomas Terbasket (deceased), and Robert S. Wainwright (deceased) also merited medals. L CAWSTON'S PIONEERS 9 CAWSTON'S PIONEERS By S. R. Manery Pioneers of the Cawston area were honored recipients of centennial medals, then were given congratulations in the following year (1968) by their fellow residents. The following are thumb-nail sketches of these long-time residents, who did so much to build up the name of their part of the expanding country. MRS. CHRISTOPHER TICKELL (Nellie Manery) Born in Kelowna, June 12,1890, she was the second of ten children. She was brought over Mission Mountain from Kelowna via Penticton to the lower Similkameen when she was three weeks old. Nellie was raised on the old Manery Ranch and received her education in the little old red schoolhouse south of Cawston. She became Mrs. Christopher Tickell in 1915 and lived in Cawston until 1929 when she moved to Kelowna with three children. Later a fourth child was born to Mr. and Mrs. Tickell. They moved to Penticton in 1935 where they still reside. SAMUEL R.J.MANERY Sam was born on the old Barcelo Ranch in Cawston, March 14,1888. He was the fourth white child born in the Similkameen and the eldest of ten children. He was raised on a cattle ranch seven miles from the Boundary at South Similkameen. Primary education was in the little red school house. He attended Columbian College, New Westminster in 1907 and 1908 where he received his diploma as a full fledged accountant. In 1911 he married Mabel Elizabeth Broder and the raised two sons and four daughters. Sam's parents had been married in Ontario, his mother being the former Mary Ellen McCurdy. They travelled, to Kelowna then by horseback down the east side of Okanagan Lake to Penticton and over to the Similkameen Valley. Sam entered the fruit and vegetable canning business in New Westminster in 1912; moved to Nanaimo where salmon and clams were canned; from there he went to Vernon where he and his brother-in-law installed and operated a fruit cannery. He continued with the canning business in Okanagan Centre and Kelowna and was in charge of the apple and pumpkin canning department for Western Canners in Kelowna. In 1923 he became manager and processor for the Cawston Canning Company and held that position until 1933. Owing to the very strong opposition from the Dominion Canners, the cannery operated periodically. For eleven years Sam was trustee and secretary of the Cawston School Board. In 1920 he purchased an orchard and is at present residing on the same property. LOUIS VICTOR NEWTON Born in Alliston, Ontario, December 10, 1885, the third in a family of five children, he received his primary education in Alliston and North Bay. In 1905 Mr. Newton finished his apprenticeship of four years in Pharmacy and came west to Winnipeg the same year where he worked for twelve months. 10 CAWSTON'S PIONEERS He travelled to Victoria but opportunities in the East called him back and he was employed in Ontario until 1914 when he decided to come west and to Cawston. Mr. Newton operated a store and postoffice there in conjunction with a ten acre orchard until 1927. He then moved to Penticton and entered into partnership with H. D. Neve. Four years later Mr. Neve passed on and Lou Newton operated the pharmacy under the name of Neve-Newton until 1948 when he retired. He is still living in Penticton. MRS. MABEL NEWTON (Mrs. L.V.) Mrs. Newton was born in Crystal City, Manitoba in 1887, the fourth in a family of seven. She received her education both primary and high in Crystal City and taught school for a short time before her marriage. One daughter, Dorothy (now Mrs. B. Boyle) was born while the Newtons were residents of Cawston. Along with her husband she is residing in Penticton. MRS. MOLLIEMcDONALD Born Mary Lillico Bickerton in Elkhorn, Manitoba, August 24, 1884, she received her education in Two Creeks school, Manitoba. She was the fourth child in a family often children and is the mother of four. She married A. J. Swan at Hargrove, Manitoba in 1906 and lived in Elkhorn until 1934. She came west to Cawston in the same year and married D. C McDonald. After his demise she carried on in Cawston still living in the old home. ROBERT S. WAINWRIGHT Mr. Robert Wainwright was born in the village of Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, England, on December 13, 1870. After leaving school he worked a year in the office of the Midland Railway, and then at the age of 17 he left to join others of his family who had come to Canada and the U.S.A. earlier. His first job in the New World was as a shipping clerk with a cotton goods plant at Fall River, Mass. From there, about a year later he went to Winnipeg to join his brother-in-law and started his career in Canada as a helper in a bake shop. In 1889 he became a member of the C.P.R. Telegraph staff in Winnipeg and stayed there until 1912 by which time he had become chief clerk. From 1912 to 1920 he was with the C.N.R. Telegraphs and a firm of auditors. In 1916, influenced no doubt by the glowing accounts of fruit growing in the sunny Similkameen, he bought a lot in Cawston and moved out in 1920 with part of his family to take up a new life. While fruit-growing never provided too great a monetary return it did provide a very happy period of his life and many cherished friendships. Mr. Wainwright was married to Marion Wicks in Winnipeg in 1892, and had three children. The eldest, Frank, now lives in Toronto. Harry lives in Montreal and is a frequent visitor to Cawston. Arthur, who came out to the valley with his father in 1920 still resides and farms in the area. Mrs. Wainwright predeceased her husband in 1956 after 63 years of happy life together. Mr. Robert Wainwright passed on in July of 1966 in his 96th year. WILLIAM DICKSON LANG He was born on a farm near Ottawa on October 1, 1874 and came west in 1890 with his parents and settled at Indian Head, Sask., where he farmed for 30 years. He was married at Indian Head on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, 1906 to Jessie Hellen Stewart who passed away in 1956. He has one son, J. Stewart CAWSTON'S PIONEERS 11 Lang, Vancouver, and four daughters, Agnes (Mrs. J. N. Bush), Cawston; Jean (Mrs. G. E. Willis), Keremeos; Lilian (Mrs. R. C Gibbs), and Frances (Mrs. E. C Maynard) both of North Vancouver. In 1920 Mr. Lang came to B.C. and settled at Cawston where he planted an orchard and engaged in fruit growing until 1956. He now lives in retirement with his son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. J. N. Bush on the old home place at Cawston. JOSEPH RICHTER Joseph Richter was born in the lower Similkameen Valley in 1874. His pioneer father, Francis Xavier Richter, left his home in Bohemia in 1853, and eventually made his way to this valley, crossing the border at Osoyoco driving 42 head of cattle over the Richter Pass, in 1864, and settling on 320 acres, the present Cawston Ranch. Joseph is the son of Francis and Lucille Richter. He attended the only government school in Okanagan and Similkameen, at Okanagan Mission. He then joined his father and brothers on the ranch. In 1910 he married Sarah McCurdy, the daughter of another Similkameen pioneer, and his wedding present was the Ingram Ranch near Midway, Sarah died in 1915, and Joseph later married Gertrude Henderson. Like all of the Richters, Joseph was an outstanding athlete, sportsman and horseman. As a young man he was known as a champion foot racer, and has never missed a hunt since he was old enough to carry a rifle, or failed to bring home a buck. He has won many medals for trap shooting, and remains to this day good competition at local shoots. (His life is more extensively featured in a special article in this report.) MRS. JAN ELIZABETH McGOWAN (nee Dunnet) Mrs. McGowan was born on Victoria Avenue, Eglinton, North Toronto, then the family moved to Youn Street, Bedford Park. She attended Eglinton Public School and Jarvis Collegiate in Toronto. In 1908 the family (there were four children of which she was the third) moved to Indian Head, Saskatchewan. Here she held the newest baby born to the Lang family who were friends and this baby grew up to be Mrs. Agnes Bush. Due to the illness of a brother the family moved to Cawston where he died one month later. Mrs. McGowan drove the first four students to high school, then six students for a number of years. After the death of her parents, she carried on with the ranch and Guy Lepingwell managed it for her. In 1955 she married her cousin James Grant McGowan who died December 17,1966. Guy Lepingwell, who had continued to manage the ranch died November 2, 1966. The property was sold to Arthur Wainwright in 1966. MRS. GERTRUDE SUTHERLAND Mrs. Sutherland was born Gertrude M. Kemp in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her birthdate is the same as the city of Vancouver, April 6th, 1886. Her parents cameto Winnipeg from Ontario before the railroad arrived. She has two sons and one daughter. Her oldest son, Gordon works as a projectionist for Odeon Theatres for B.C. Her daughter is married to Mr. Paulsen's oldest son, Karl Paulsen with whom Mrs. Sutherland now resides. She has been a resident of B.C. since 1919. MICHAEL THOMAS TERBASKET (better known as Tommy) He was born on the Frank Superant ranch in Keremeos, better known 12 CAWSTON'S PIONEERS as the Frank Richter ranch, and a pioneer settler in the Similkameen, in 1882. Tommy sawthe first light of day in an original Indian tee pee made of willow poles and skins. He lived on Blind Creek, east of Cawston on his parents' property for many years. He attended school at the Similkameen school house for a number of years. He acquired property on the Indian reserve and raised cattle. He took part in many cattle drives out of the Valley. He was first in a family of fourteen and was the father of ten children. He passed away at home in 1966. JOSEPH RICHTER 13 JOSEPH RICHTER By ERIC D. SISMEY Joseph Richter celebrated his birthday in Penticton on February 22, 1970. He was 96 years old. Joe was born in the Lower Similkameen in 1874. His four brothers have passed on but a much younger half- brother, The Honourable Frank Richter, has represented the Similkameen in the provincial legislature since 1953. He is Minister of Mines and Petroleum Resources. Their pioneer father, Francis Xaxier Richter, left his home in Bohemia, at the age of 16, for the New World in 1853. Landing at Galveston, Texas, he worked for a short time in San Antonio but finding the job uninteresting hit the trail for the silver mines in Arizona. During the civil war while serving as a scout he was captured by the Apaches. He escaped but was wounded by two arrows. After recovering from his wounds he journeyed west, and learning of open land and good range Joseph Richter in Canada, came north. In 1864 he crossed the border at Osoyoos driving 42 head of cattle. Learning of good land in the Similkameen he crossed over what is now Richter Pass where he filed on 320 acres of land — the present Cawston Ranch. Richter planted the first fruit trees in the Similkameen and cultivated produce for sale in 1880. Other orchards were set out in 1886 and 1897. Fruit did well in the sunny, warm climate and in 1906 the Richter ranch won twenty-three prizes for fruit and vegetables in the New Westminster Provincial Exhibition. But it was cattle, branded "O" on the left hip, known from Fort Hope to the Kootenays, that was the mainstay of the Richter ranch. Over the years, reaching into the 20th century, the original Richter holdings grew from the first 320 into 10,000 acres of farm and range in the Similkameen, Okanagan and Boundary country, one of the great farms and cattle empires in the history of British Columbia. This was the heritage that F. X. Richter passed on to his heirs. Joseph Richter, hale in his 96th year, remembers his boyhood clearly. He talked to me from an easy chair in front of a wide window. .It was cold outside, but his electrically-heated living room was cosy. A television set against one wall was awaiting the turn of a switch to bring news or entertainment. In the kitchen a refrigerator hummed softly and a coffee percolator gurgled on the electric range. "When I was little", he said, "coal oil was brought 70 miles from Hope on the backs of horses. It was used sparingly. My mother made candles in a 14 JOSEPH RICHTER special mold and after the cotton wick was threaded it was filled with our own tallow. She made soap from waste fat and lye. Some of our clothing was made from buckskin traded from the Indians. Mother fashioned into coats, shirts and pants. Take it from me, buckskin garments are warm, soft and comfortable". Ranch-churned butter was packed in ranch-made tubs. It sold for a dollar a pound at Hudson's Bay posts from Fort Hope to Fort Sheppard in East Kootenay. When school days came Joe attended the only government school in Similkameen and Okanagan at the Mission, later Okanagan Mission. It was a two day ride to school stopping half way at the Tom Ellis ranch in Penticton. Joe and his brothers boarded with the Frederick Brents near the Mission. After Joe finished seven years schooling he joined his elder brothers to do a man's work around the ranch. There was lumber to cut in the whip-saw pit, snake fences to build and repair, cattle to tend and hay to mow by hand. Timothy, red-top and clover grew waist-high in the lower meadows, head-high oats waved in the fields and alfalfa flourished on the irrigated bench lands. At first hay was mowed with a scythe, grain crops with scythe and cradle—a forked device attached to the snaith, that gathered the falling stalks holding them until dumped at the end of the swath. Grain was threshed on the barn floor — sheaves were laid crossways and horses driven round and round for about half an hour or until the grain was trodden from the straw. After straw was forked away the grain was winnowed by a hand- cranked machinethat blewthe chaff and alien seeds away. "Our first wagons were ranch made; wheels were cut from rounds of large logs. Oxen were used for draft animals until work horses could be imported from the United States. Later when proper machinery became available it was taken apart at Hope, packed on horses to the ranch, where it was put together again," Joe recalled. By the turn of the century, with machine aid now, one thousand tons of hay was cut and stacked for winter use and cattle grazed the meadows after harvest days were done. During the mining boom along the Boundary in the '90s, fat cattle drives from the "R" ranch were frequent. One drive in the fall of 1892 Joe remembers particularly. Two hundred and fifty head were driven from Keremeos to West Kootenay where Pat Burns waited to receive them. The drive followed the Dewdney Trail from Keremeos over Richter Pass to Osoyoos, up over Anarchist Mountain to Rock Creek through Midway, Greenwood and Grand Forks over the hill to Rossland where fifty head were leftatthe slaughterhouse. Joe and his brother Ed, together with the drovers spent the night where the city of Trail now stands and in the morning the rest of the herd was driven to the Columbia River (Castlegar) where two Indians were hired to help take the cattle across. By prodding and pushing about twenty head at a time were forced into the river and with a canoe on either side the cattle swam to the opposite bank (Robson) where they were coral led. Thedrivetook twenty days, ten miles being a fair day's travel. On the trail the cattle followed a bell-mare, packed with the cook's supplies. They plodded behind her in a long string, never wandering or hesitating when passing through frontier camps and settlements. Trail camps were no more than a cooking fire, saddles for pillows and JOSEPH RICHTER 15 saddle blankets for cover. At night the horses were hobbled and the mare's jangling bell kept the drive together. Soon after daylight the drive was on the trail again for another ten mile trek and when it was delivered to Pat Burns the animals were in excellent shape and not a single head had been lost. Joe smiled when asked how much cattle were worth in those days. "About $35 a head," he replied. Today they bring 25 cents a pound. "At first our only neighbours were Similkameen Indians. We often hired them to help in the fields or on the range. Fluency in Chinook jargon was necessary and I learned to understand but not to speak the Okanagan tongue. "On one occasion", Joe chuckled, "when I was trading deer hides for buckskin gloves I heard the kloochman say to her husband in Okanagan, 'These are very good skins.' But when he turned to me he said in Chinook, 'Yaka skin tenas kloshe' (skins not much good). "Oh! Joe said. "Your kloochman just told you that they were good skins. After that I got the trade I expected." "I suppose" Joe remarked, "that today most people would think that our early days were rough. We worked hard, we had everything we needed. We were a closely knit, affectionate family, self-sufficient, yet depending on one another, each respecting the other's worth under the guidance of wise parents. "Our dealings with the natives were those of mutual respect. They regarded our father astheir friend and trusted counsellor. "I shall never forget those early ranch days." Joe spoke softly as if talking to himself. "The valley was all ours, our lush meadows, hay fields and miles of bunch grass range, dotted with cattle, stretched as far as we could see, to be broken here and there by snake fences. Near the house our saddle stock and milk cows grazed in the rich home pasture. "Along the river great cottonwoods grew and from the far bank Goat Mountain reared straight up to dizzy heights until its summit touched the clouds. As winter came we watched the snow creep down until it blanketed the meadows and when the cottonwoods budded green the snow line ran away. "This is the picture I remember, more beautiful than anything else in the world. This is the picture I want to remember and to keep bright, not the blossoming Keremeos orchards, beautiful though they are!" When Joseph Richter married Sarah McCurdy, daughter of another Similkameen pioneer, in 1910, his wedding present was the Ingram Ranch near Midway. This fine 600 acre ranch was complete with a large log house, farm buildings, stables, machinery, cattle and horses. Sarah died in 1915 leaving Joe with three young daughters — Juanita, Mrs. H. M. Moll of North Surrey; Josephine, Mrs. E. Scheibner of San Diego, and Jean, Mrs. W. Harper of Los Angeles. Later Joseph Richter married Gertrude Henderson, an English girl, and their family was two girls and a boy. Inez, Mrs. R. A. Johnson of Rossland and Joan, Mrs. H. Morrish of Trail. Their son Joseph, was born in the United States and is, in consequence, an American citizen. He enlisted when he was 17 in the United States Marines and saw police action in the Pacific after the last war. He lives in Canada now and following his father's footsteps, holds a responsible position with a large cattle company in the Nicola Valley. Joe and Gertrude Richter lived on the Midway ranch until 1945 when 16 JOSEPH RICHTER the ranch work and its responsibilities became a bit too much for his advancing years. After the ranch was sold in 1945 they lived in Nelson, Rossland, and in other Boundary towns before finally settling in Penticton in 1958. Here they live in quiet comfort looking forward eagerly to the regular visits of their children, twelve grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Joseph Richter, like all the other Richters, was an outstanding athlete, sportsman and horseman. In the days before stampedes were commercialized bronco busting was not only fun but a necessary part of ranching, Joe was among the best. As a young man he was known from the Coast to the Kootenays as a foot-racer. He showed me one medal for a quarter mile sprint won at the Caledonian Games at New Westminster in 1898. When I asked about hunting I learned that he had never missed a hunt since he was old enough to carry a rifle and that was 83 years ago. Since then he has never failed to bring his buck; more than one in the old days. Joe took several awards from a drawer. Among them a silver medal for Greenwood City Rifle Match in 1915, a gold medal for the district shoot in the same year, and in 1918 he won the Old-Timers Trap Shoot at Greenwood. At Rock Creek he played low handicap golf and his musical accomplishments, first learned from Father Pandosy at Okanagan Mission, were always in demand at Boundary entertainments. In 1963, at a public shoot sponsored by the Penticton Fish, Game and Rifle Club 89 year old Joe Richter bested many of the younger fry. In open competition he took home bacon — literally, too — for he went away with a slab of bacon under one arm and a turkey under the other. In 1969, Joe, accompanied by his son, took his usual hunt in the Merritt Mountains. This hunt included a twenty mile ride on horseback. His deer was shot with a .300 Savage rifle without optical help, either telescope sights or eyeglasses. Recently when last year's hunting was discussed he asked if I had been hunting. When I replied in the negative he said. "If you want to go hunting this fall why not come with me?" THE HARD TIMES BALL When a Hard Times Ball was given in Raymer's Hall in Kelowna on Thanksgiving Night of 1905 (with dancing to start at 8 o'clock) the following advance publicity heralded what lay ahead. "Prizes will be given to the most appropriately dressed lady and gentleman. Every lady who comes must wear a poverty gown or some dress equally appropriate. No gentleman with boiled shirt collar will be allowed in unless he pays the fine. "Ladies wearing evening dress, jewelery, white kid gloves, no gloves, fancy hair pins, new dress, glasses, or using perfume will have to pay a penalty of 10 cents for each violation. "Any gentleman wearing the following list of wearing apparel or articles or violating the rules will be fined 10 cents for each offence: Evening dress, white kid gloves, no gloves, jewelery, creased trousers, flowers, glasses, red sox, silk tie, using perfume, making love or flirting. "Tickets 50 cents." ' KEREMEOS CENTENNIAL WINNERS 17 KEREMEOS PIONEERS Recipients of medallions in Canada's centennial posed together to comprise a picture of Keremeos pioneering. From the left, seated, were Mrs. Joseph DuMont, Lachlin A. E. Gillanders, F. M. Barnes, Lome S. Coleman,- and at rear, Mrs. Harry Robinson, Mrs. Harry Lawrence, Mrs. Herbert McGuffie, and Mrs. William F. Corkle. Mrs. William Foster and Mrs. L. V. Newton, not in the picture, were also awarded medallions. 18 WITH MANY A MEMORY WITH MANY A MEMORY By MRS. RAY WALTERS (Mrs. Mary Jane Foster) Mrs. Mary Jane Foster, born Mary Jane Newman, in Tilbury, Ontario, in Jan., 1880, emigrated to the United States at an early age with her parents and three sisters. There she married Mr. Foster in Grand Rapids, Michigan—on the first day of the 20th Century—New Year's Day of 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Foster gradually moved west until they settled in the state of Washington where their family increased to six. By 1912 glowing reports of homesteads opening in the Merritt- Princeton area, lured the family to Canada just before the First World War broke out. Many a story Mrs. Foster can tell of homestead life with its joys, sorrows and adversities. The nearest town, Merritt, was 17 miles away with its stores, doctors and dentists, but the Fosters being a healthy family, a doctor was seldom needed, and a shiny pair of forceps was used by Mr. Foster to extract aching teeth, when required. A school was soon established in the Aspen Grove area after the arrival of the Fosters, the Newmans and the Marshalls—all relatives. As many as ten of the native people also learned "the three R's" at the Aspen Grove school. The Fosters moved to the Okanagan in 1918 where the family—eight by this time—could have an opportunity for better schooling. After the war and the returning soldiers were put to work on the South Okanagan Lands Project at the young town of Oliver, Mr. Foster established Mrs. William (Mary Jane) Foster (left) chatting with Mrs. Dorothy Barnes. ' WITH MANY A MEMORY 19 a barber shop and watch-repair business on the Main Street of Oliver, in a small building that he erected himself. The family meanwhile lived in a tent at the back of the lot, where the Oliver Variety store now stands. Comfortable living quarters were built at the rear of the shop, before the winter set in. Mrs. Foster was called many times to help Dr. Kearney, with nursing cases or just to help nurse sick people and children back to health, since no hospital or nursing service was established until much later. Mr. and Mrs. Foster retired to Sidney on Vancouver Island, in 1945, where Mr. Foster passed away within a few years. Mrs. Foster returned to Oliver shortly after that, where she could enjoy her friends of many years and make new ones. Now, past 90, she has an apartment in Keremeos close by her daughter. She still keeps house for herself, enjoys her radio, writing to her family, reading and visiting. Her mind is unusually alert for one of her years. L. S. COLEMAN REMEMBERED Funeral services were held on February 29 at St. John's Anglican Church, Keremeos, for Mr. Lome Stanley Coleman who passed away in Penticton Hospital on February 26,1968. Pallbearers were Jim Wheeler, Sig. Frambach, Frank Manery, Wally Parks, Jack McKay, Len Innis. Interment was at Keremeos Cemetery. Mr. Coleman was retired, living in Penticton since selling property a year before his death. He was pre-deceased by his only sister Mrs. Mable Cavers in 1965 in Ontario. Born in Stayner, Ontario, December 4, 1890, he came to Pincher Creek, then to Trail, B.C. in 1897, where hrs father was a druggist. He moved to Keremeos in 1905, and attended high school in Vancouver. Mr. Coleman enlisted in 1914 with the C.M.R.'s. He returned in July 1919 and took up business as surveyor and engineer, then in 1920 took over a general store from his father and operated it till 1946. He was married to Miss Marguerite (Rita) Kirby in 1921, the first couple married in St. John's Anglican Church, Keremeos, and of which he was secretary for 40 years. An active community worker, well-known and highly respected, Mr. Coleman was Superintendent of Keremeos Irrigation District for 23 years, until retirement in 1960. He was a member of B.P.O. Elks Lodge No. 56, Exalted Ruler in 1946; a member of Hedley Masonic Lodge No. 43; and recipient of the Centennial Medallion in 1967. He is survived by his wife, Marguerite, son Dick and two grandsons of Victoria; two nieces, Mrs. Webb Thomas and Mrs. Howard Williamson both of Falconbridge, Ontario; one nephew, W. Cavers, West Indies. 20 KEREMEOS SCENES Ezra Mills is in the foreground of the well-known Keremeos store, in 1926. This was Coleman's store, "The Big Store," in 1910. Later it was Armstrong's store, and Pauline Johnson sang in the hall. KEREMEOS SCENES 21 Pioneering in 1906. The picture shows Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Mills and family on the Green Mountain Road. Keremeos was well on its way, in this picture of its Main Street in 1926. 22 KEREMEOS SCENES Few buildings date back close to a century ago. Here is the Keremeos grist mill, built in 1877 by Barrington Price. There were babies, indeed there were, as Keremeos itself grew up. This is a baby clinic in 1922. INDIANSOFTHESIMILKAMEEN 23 THE SIMILKAMEEN INDIANS By GREG McGLASHING Editor's Note:—Greg McGlashing, a Grade 8 student of Keremeos, tied for a first prize for his submission in the Historical Society's essay contest last year. His essay was illustrated with many detailed drawings. Indians survived by using their wits and could find food in bleak, barren and rocky areas where white men would starve. The Similkameen Indians were nomadic in their travels. They stayed as long as food held out and then moved on to a new area. It is interesting to note the ways these Indians lived, hunted and trapped. The perfection of many of the flint arrowheads and other objects has long aroused the admiration of many. Flint nodules were found along creeks, and sometimes the arrowhead material was broken from rocky ledges. Jasper, chalcedony and obsidian were also used in making arrowheads. A hammer stone was used to split the flakes from the larger stones. These were sometimes roughly shaped by chipping their edges with an antler mallet. Sometimes the flakes were buried for a time in moist earth to make them even-tempered and to prevent them from drying out. A common chipping tool was made from an antler point or a piece of bone. Sometimes this chipping tool was struck with the mallet, but as the arrowhead developed, smaller bits were chipped away by pressing the chipping tool against the edges. A piece of thick glass can be chipped in the same way. When primitive man picked up a stone and used it to break or crush an object, he discovered both tool and weapon. No one can tell how many years passed in the history of man before this happened. The Indians often made axe handles from saplings. The tough bark was left on, for the end of the handle wrapped around the stone head. This was cut then to make it pliable. It was then bound tightly (to make it pliable rawhide was soaked in water) with rawhide or sinew, which shrank as it dried, fastening the handle to the stone head. Sometimes the stone head was grooved so that it could not slip out of the handle binding, once it was bound tightly in place. Sometimes the Indians made a small saw from roughly shaped flint. This was used in cutting up bone and wood. Sometimes Indians used the shoulder blade of a deer for a saw. With a piece of sandstone, notches were cut into the thin edges of the blade. The coming of the white man perhaps produced more conflict among Indians in a few generations than had taken place in scores of centuries. The white man drove various tribes from their established homelands into those of their neighbours. He also turned tribes against each other in his drive for supremacy. Thus some Indiansturned againstthe white man. In this valley, it has been said, when Indians raided at night, a pumpkin with a candle in it set on a fence post "scared the Indians willy." Such a meek defence hardly seems able to hold off hordes of Indians but this must have been an "evil spirit" to the Indians. A favourite weapon of the Indians was the war club. These were made in various styles but one favorite was made by tying a sapling into a knot near the roots and then allowing it to grow. Thus a little Indian boy could knot a sapling in his childhood and when he had grown and was old enough for the war trail, his war cub was ready too. He simply cut off the roots and 24 INDIANSOFTHESIMILKAMEEN trimmed the handle to the proper length. With only a knife an Indian could easily get through a winter by making traps, a shelter, and getting food. All Indians preferred a good steel knife but if this was not available they would use what was at hand. The main way Indians obtained their food was by trapping. Other ways were to shoot game with guns, pistols or bows and arrows. Indians waited in ambush at game trails, water holes or salt and mineral licks for deer, goats, mountan sheep, the odd moose, bear and smaller game including grouse, coyotes, bobcats and ground squirrels. Sometimes Indians had rabbit drives. They beat the sagebrush and scared rabbits into waiting nets, pits and clubs. Deer sometimes were driven into dead end canyons and were speared, shot with rifles and with bows and arrows. Birds such as grouse were netted or shot with arrows. They were also snared and trapped. Ducks were caught by nets or lured close by decoys and then shot. One way to attract deer is to imitate a buck beating on shrubs and trees. This lures other challenging bucks into range of rifles and arrows. Trapping not only fed the Indians but gave them wealth in furs. Along streams, Indians trapped mink, marten, weasel, fisher, bobcat, coyote and other animals. Grouse and other land birds were snared, or killed in deadfalls. Even the powerful bears would be killed instantly by heavy deadfalls. Deer sometimes were killed in pits. Rabbits were easily killed in nooses placed carefully along their runways. Before dams were put further down in the United States, Indians had a river abounding with fish of all sizes. These were speared or netted, or caught in wire traps. Indians obtained some metal hooks for fishing by trading. If no metal hooks were available they were made from thorns or bone. They made feathered jiggs and lures from metal pieces, feathers, wood and other material. In Indian life the death of a chief was a very tragic event. A special place was selected for his grave. They laid him in and everyone came and laid a valuable possession beside his body. All this was for his trip to the "happy hunting grounds". Some of the objects were bows, arrows, knives, rifles, food, beads, shields, spears, gold, precious stones, coins, copper ornaments and his favourite horse was shot by his grave so he would have something on which to ride to those "happy hunting grounds." Most of the Indians in the valley used a tent as a shelter. These tents were large enough to accommodate many people and a fire. Rocks were often used to keep the ends of the tent down. Sometimes stakes were used. Many of these circular marked depressions are still visible. The rocks are in a circle, these are called "Kee-quillee Holes". Many of these holes are visible today, some of these remain untouched up Ashanala. From all these bits and pieces of our history of the Indians we ha learned much about their everyday habits and there are still more facts to be uncovered. Chief's Death — His Grave LACHLIN GILLANDERS 25 LACHLIN GILLANDERS — 80 YEARS IN THE SIMILKAMEEN By ERIC D. SISMEY Eighty-eight year old Lachlin Gillanders and his younger half-brother, Jack Woodward Barber, are Similkameen pioneers. They live at Keremeos in a cottage surrounded by a colourful garden. You'll not see their place as you drive through town because it lies at the foot of a tall mountain on the other side of the river. Lachlin Arthur Ernest Gillanders — who has never been known either as Art or Ernie — was born in what is now Chilliwack of November 15, 1881. After the death of his father Lachlin's mother married John Barber and in 1890 the family, which included an elder brother, William, moved to Chopaka in the Similkameen where John Barber had taken up land. He served for a time as Canadian Customs Officer. Lachlin does not remember the details of the trip nor the exact number of days on the road. The first part from Chilliwack to Okanagan Lake was first by train, by steamboat and then by wagon. When the family stepped from the train at Sicamous it boarded the little stern-wheel steamer "Red Star" belonging to R. P. Rithet which ferried them up the Spallumcheen river to Fortune's Landing — it's Enderby now. From there it was by wagon over a bumpy road to Okanagan Landing. Lachlin has never forgotten the voyage down Okanagan Lake on board the new, twin-screw, S.S. Penticton owned jointly by Captain Dolman Shorts and Thomas Ellis of Penticton. He had never seen so much water nor hills so devoid of trees. There was nothing at Penticton, a landing was made on the beach. From the lakeshore the family with all their possessions was moved by wagon to the Tom Ellis ranch house where the night was spent. In the morning, after a farmhouse breakfast, the journey continued. Dog Lake, it's Skaha now, along by Billy Kruger's place on the Reserve to the benchlands, now known as Kaleden Flats, past the freighter's barn at the Junction ranch and up the long hill leading to Hiram Inglee's place at White Lake where they had lunch. From there the road skirted Horn Lake ducked down through Olalla to Keremeos and along the Similkameen valley to Chopaka about a mile west of the Boundary. It was dark when the log house was reached; Lachlin's home for many years. In pioneer days schooling was usually patchy. If the parents had little themselves there was likely no schooling at all. However, Lachlin and elder brother, William, were fortunate for while the kitchen table was the school Lachlin Gillanders of Keremeos 26 LACHLIN GILLANDERS desk and mother the teacher she grounded her two boys thoroughly in the three R's while their step-father taught them the ways of farming, of haying and horses and cows. Through the 1890s and into the present century Fairview was booming. In 1896, when Lachlin was only 15, he, with elder brother William, tooled four horse teams from the Chopaka ranch with loads of hay and farm produce to the booming camp. While on the road he learned to recognize the first pioneers of Similkameen and lower Okanagan; Theodore Kruger, Customs, postmaster and storekeeper at Osoyoos; Okanagon Smith who planted the first orchard on the shores of Osoyoos Lake in Washington in 1857 and who sold fruit to mining camps on both sides of the line, even as far as Rock Creek, in the late 1880s. Then too, F. X. Richter, R. L. Cawston and W. H. Lowe, Similkameen ranchers. When Lachlin was there Fairview was the largest town in the Interior. People had money to spend; they spent it on luxury goods, for gee-gaws and the clothing fashions of the day displayed in Shatford's general store. Then, too, a lot of money was shoved over the polished mahogany bars in the general saloons. Yes! Fairview was booming; it was noisy too. By day and by night the stamp mills slam-banged at the Stemwinder, the Jim Dandy and at half a dozen other mines. Wagons rambled down the Gulch loaded with cordwood to feed hungry boilers and machinery, supplies and materials were freighted down from Okanagan Falls. In the Oro (Oroville, Washington) newspaper, Madre D'Oro, Volume 1, Number 1, dated August 27, 1892, an advertisement showed that S. T. Stanton's Oro-Penticton stage made the journey north to Penticton in eight hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Elsewhere in the same first issue we find: "This camp (Fairview) is on the same gold belt as we are, and it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is the most extensive gold belt in the world" . . . But Fairview did not live up to the promise printed in the paper. Soon after the turn of the century, after the rich surface gold lodes had been worked out, the town slowly faded away. There is nothing left there now but the shell of the little jail house, the ruins of Moffat's log saloon a mile or so up the Gulch and the pile of ashes, tumbled down bricks and twisted iron left after the Hotel Fairview, the Big Teepee, burned to the ground in 1902. In 1900, Lachlin Gillanders accepted a job in Shatford's well stocked store. He saw Fairview during its upswing but like so many others failed to recognize the beginning of the end. But, no matter, during the year he served behind the counter he decided that this was not the sort of work he wanted to follow. So he left the store and he never did see much of Fairview again. It can hardly be expected that Gillanders should remember details of the work he followed 50-60 and 70 years ago. Besides freighting from the Chopaka ranch to Fairview he worked a number of years for Dave Innis at Keremeos frequently driving Dave's four horse rigs from Princeton to the workings at Copper Mountain. Time has changed the Innis livery and freighters barn to a Shell garage and service station. At other times he drove for Harry Tweedle whose Keremeos Center hotel and livery buildings stood deserted at the forks of the road until a few years ago. One summer he drove from Kelowna taking supplies to the irrigation dam under construction on Canyon Creek. In 1916, Lachlin Gillanders, he was 35 at the time, answered the Canadian Army call for experienced outdoor men. He enlisted in the 69th LACHLIN GILLANDERS 27 Forestry Battalion. The 69th sailed for Europe on the S.S. Olympic. Most of Gillanders army service was spent in the Vosges mountain forests where timbers were cut, lumber sawn for front line dugouts, for duckboards and other military use. When the German army was at the gates of Paris in 1918 the rumble of gun fire was plainly heard and the fire flash seen at night. After armistice in 1918 the 69th battalion returned to Canada on board the S.S. Scotian. Now it is necessary to back-track a bit. While freighting has been mentioned, Lachlin Gillanders spent a great part of his life as a professional trapper. Beginning in 1910 and for the next forty years — that's close enough — his trap line extended from Ashnola Forks into and through the Cathedral Lake country. Early in the game he used Harry Tweedle's cabin for several years but eventually built cabins on Gillander's Creek and Pine Flat. Several lakes adjacent to his trap line, and originally barren, were stocked with trout which he moved from one lake to another in a bucket. There is good fishing in these lakes today. Soon after, about 1910, after Lachlin arranged his affairs to his satisfaction he devoted his entire time to trapping. Summers were spent in the maintenance of cabins, line shelters, trap line trails and extensions. Food caches, firewood stacks and other chores arranged in preparation of winter. He always trapped alone. Sometimes the weather at the top of his mile-high line was mighty cold and on one occasion when the thermometer outside the cabin door read 40 below he noticed a porcupine a dozen feet up in a tree. Several days later, the cold snap still unbroken, porky was alive, still there and seemingly not bothered at all by the cold. In reply to a question Lachlin remarked that he had always made a fair living, had been his own boss while living in a country he loved. This, in his philosophy, is as much as any man should expect. His catch consisted of marten, mink, otter, weasel, lynx, bob-cat and skunk. All of which fetched a good price, especially mink before fur farming days. One winter he trapped 25 coyotes and on another he took a cougar which brought a bounty in addition to the value of the skin. Lachlin Gillanders' Ashnola country shelters a large band of California Bighorn. Early railroad construction and westerly migration in the United States exterminated them except for those in a few isolated pockets in British Columbia. Even here they were almost wiped out by senseless 19th century slaughter, often by Europeans. Among them Arch Duke Ferdinand of Austria whose assissination at Sarejevo, Servia, triggered the first war. After strict protection in the closing years of the last century he watched the bands recover only to be shocked after return from the war in 1918 to find the bands decimated again. Protection restored he has seen the bands recover slowly. Lachlin has done his share of hunting and shooting. He only killed for the pot, and who is more entitled to a spike buck hanging in the meat house than a lone trapper thirty snowshoe miles from the nearest store? Firearms have always interested him, the 30.16 being his favourite. He always shot hand-loads with bullet weights suited to his particular needs. On the trap line he carried a lighter arm. Gillanders is glad to see an area, far too small at the moment, once part of his trapping territory, set aside as Cathedral Lakes Park. It is not nearly large enough, he claims. Too much of the fragile alpine flora and Bighorn range is unprotected from grazing cattle. More of its mountain 28 LACHLIN GILLANDERS majesty, unsurpassed in Canada, should be included within the park boundaries. Surely, he maintains, we should match park areas with those on the Washington side. "This is my country! I want to see it preserved for others to enjoy; a place to climb, to scramble as I did in my younger days for no other reason than to gaze in silent wonder to the mountain fastness and the snowy heights around me." HE WITNESSED DISASTER By Mrs. Ray Walters Born in Ontario in September, 1885, Mr. Francis Malcolm Barnes has lived on both sides of the U.S. Border but has made his home in British Columbia since coming back to Canada in the early 1900's, where his parents settled at Armstrong. Mr. Barnes has followed the lumber and saw-milling line of work and still has an interest in a small saw-mill in the Keremeos area. With his wife and children, he lived at Blakeburn during its prosperous years, and there he witnessed the tragic disaster when over forty miners lost their lives. In Blakeburn, Mr. Barnes produced the logging to shore up the walls of the mine tunnels, some of the shafts being over a half mile into the hillside, and requiring thousands of board feet of timber. His family, two sons and a daughter, are still living near their father, within a radius of 150 miles from Keremeos. 57 YEARS IN OKANAGAN CENTRE Mrs. Jessie Ross Goldie was born in Toronto on April 27, 1888, a third generation Canadian. She died on July 22,1970, at her home at the Rainbow Ranche, Okanagan Centre, where she had lived for 57 years. She first visited the Okanagan in the summer of 1912, accompanying a friend who was visiting a brother, James Goldie, partner and manager of the Rainbow Ranche. She next returned as a bride in the spring of 1913 having been married to James Goldie in Toronto on Feb. 20,1913. She loved the Okanagan, but hated to see the holdings and ranches subdivided, and industrialization started. Her early memories were of travelling to Vernon or Kelowna by launch, and of riding for miles in the countryside without being stopped by a fence. A very warm person, interested in people, she had the faculty of being a good listener, and she could recount many stories about old timers. Visitors and strangers alike were always made welcome at the Goldie home. She followed the careers of her grandchildren with avid interest. She is survived by her husband who came to the Okanagan in 1908; Mrs. Sidney J. (Anne) Land, Okanagan Centre; Mrs. Peter F. (Nancy) McDonnell, Vancouver; Robert N. Goldie, Galiano Island; one sister in Toronto; seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. (Primrose Upton). THE SACRED HEART CHURCH 29 THE SACRED HEART INDIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AT CHOPAKA Researched by ERIC D. SISMEY In the early days it appears that both Chopaka and Incameep were served from St. Mary's Jesuit Mission at Omak, 40 miles below the Border. Rauffer's book—Black Robes on the Last Frontier—includes a map following page 178, drawn by Father de Ronge showing the Jesuit Missions served from St. Mary's. Both Chopaka and Incameep appear on this map. On page 205-206 this is found: 'Chopaka church probably built by Father de Ronge in 1892-1893. (1). Father Collins, the present missionary at Penticton has a personal record which reads: "The old church at Chopaka has disappeared. (2) The present one was built by Father Marchal in 1890. It was moved by the railway company when the Great Northern ran their line from Oroville to Princeton in 1907. In 1923 Father Collins put a cement foundation under it and builta sacristy in the rear and living quarters for the priest. (1). Date based on a 1965 interview Mrs. Lacey of Osoyoos to an old timer. (2). No doubt this refers to an earlier church built by Father de Ronge and which had disappeared. From color slide by John Barber, Keremeos, October 1968 Sacred Heart Indian Catholic Church at Chopaka. This church is serviced by the missionary on the Penticton Indian Reserve. 30 THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AMONG INDIANS THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AMONG THE INDIANS By DONALD WATKINS Editor's Note:—As was pointed out in the 33rd report, Mr. Watkins is working for his doctorate in linguistics and has chosen the Okanagan language as the subject of his thesis. "He has completely mastered the delicate nuances of unfamiliar Okanagan sounds," wrote Eric D. Sismey in an appreciative comment last year. The limitations of usual typography cannot give full scope to certain techniques Mr. Watkins has evidently devised to convey such nuances, and his own spelling is therefore not reproduced with complete faithfulness in the following article. But it is approximated as closely as possible. Mr. Watkins himself has praised the co-operative assistance he has received from Okanagan Indian participants in the valuable project which is of such interest to the Okanagan Historical Society. Sickness of one kind or another has plagued mankind since his beginnings. Attempted cures have been practiced for an equally long time. While today the practice of medicine has become a science, it was in the past an art carried on with a good deal of success. One estimate has it that almost half of natural remedies have proved to be effective. There are numerous examples of Indian remedies preceding modern techniques. In South America Indians used the coco plant to alleviate pain. Today this plant is a constituent in the manufacture of cocaine and novocaine. Curare was used as an arrow and dart poison, and today is an effective adjunct in anaesthesia. The bark of the quinoa tree was used in Mrs. Louise Gabriel discussing with Donald Watkins the various plants used by Okanagan Indians for medicinal purposes. THE PRACTICEOFMEDICINEAMONG INDIANS 31 medicines; later on, quinine was derived from it. There is also an account of how Jacques Cartier on his voyage to Canada lost twenty-five men as a result of scurvy, and saved the remainder of his crew through use of an Iroquois cure consisting of pine bark and needles — a rich source of Vitamin C Among the Okanagan Indians sickness was believed to be the consequence of a breach of taboo, or the intrusion of a disease-causing spirit, or the loss of a person's soul. Individuals who believed they understood the cause of a sufferer's illness often made use of plant remedies, frequently with good results. But when special healing skills were required, Okanagans went to their shaman. A shaman was an Indian possessed of great powers. They had been acquired after a long and demanding period of training which included fasting and the taking of steam baths, a purifying process which cleansed him of bad bodily humours. Today the Indians used the word chaAlix to describe this ceremonious cleansing. Later in his training an Indian spent long periods alone on the mountain communing with the spirits. On the successful completion of such preparation, an Indian became a shaman or tl'akwelix, as the Okanagans called him. Both men and women became shamans, deriving their powers directly from the spirit world. The skill of the shaman was required in cases of loss of soul. If an Indian offended the spirit world his soul wandered away and the shaman was called in to restore it. Curing was often a ceremonious affair where the patient was laid out near a fire and the shaman went through a ritual of dancing and singing of power songs, sometimes wrestling with the spiritual powers. These powers resided in animal spirits and frequently worked at night time, departing when the sun rose. Surrounded in this way with darkness and supernatural power the shaman became a figure of awe commanding respect from tribal members and often returning their reverence with harsh and mean acts. The more powerful shamans were believed possessed of the power of inifinite endurance, capable of returning to life even after their bodies were dismembered and remains burnt. To restore a lost soul a shaman blew or breathed on his patient, thus curing him. This act suggests that Indians distinguished the living from the dead by the presence or absence of breathing. Today we talk of the breath of life and apply it in reviving victims of drowning. The Okanagan word pohunt still has two meanings, to blow and to cure. In cases of less serious illness the powers of the shaman were not required. Herbal remedies were applied instead. The remedies that follow were commonly used in the Okanagan Valley and are still well known to most elderly Indians today. sqalqalqw or spruce bark. Used as a spring tonic when boiled and taken internally. Also used as a medicine for any chestor lung affliction. Iloxllxweyllp or wild cherry. These cherries were dried and used for making tea. Asa hot drink the beverage was useful for alleviating coughing. tikakallekst or wild sarsparella. The leaves of this plant were gathered and carefully cleaned. When boiled the resulting liquid was used to help cure internal injuries. xaxalawxops. A small pretty red flower found growing on the hills around the Okanagan Valley. These flowers were used as a cure for constipation. sinsinsatkillp'aqan or Prince's Pine. The name of shoots at the top of young pine trees. These shoots were boiled and taken as a tonic to help fight 32 THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AMONG INDIANS the aches and pains that appeared during the damp weather of spring. skoles or bearberry, and skolsellamlix or the bearberry leaf. These were medicaments for counteracting diarrhoea. skikowellp or Rose bush leaf. When suffering from a bee sting, an Indian would chew this leaf and apply it to the afflicted spot to reduce swelling and pain. Skikowellp was also used in food preparation. The leaves were broken up and placed under spetl'am, bitter root, a food that looks much like maccaroni. In boiling, the juices of the rose leaves rise and add to the flavour of the spetl'am. qolqolamnellpor mature sage brush. Parts of this plant were placed in boiling water. When breathed by the cold sufferer the steam loosened up the nasal passages and made breathing easier. papallmilx or young sage plant. This was also used for the relief of colds. In addition, the plant was used for making tea, and when drunk helped dispel colds and other spring afflictions. t'ets' and sinlakw known as pine pitch and bear grease. These two substances were mixed together and were used in a poultice or as a salve for the curing of sores. kowaraxkinekst. This is a plant found growing in marshes and other boggy places. When blossoming, it has a green flower amid its broad leaves. These leaves are cut up and used as a poultice on septic sores. ponllp or Juniper. The tips of the Juniper bough are gathered, chopped up and softened in hot water. The shoots are wrapped in a cloth and applied to arthritic joints. A green sap escapes through the cloth and fries on the skin, thereby giving relief. ntetayexaya' or Milkweed. Sap from this plant was believed to be a sure cure for warts. staktakxwellp or thorn shoots. These shoots were sought out and taken internally as a cure for diarrhoea. CELEBRATED HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY The death occurred on July 6, 1970, of Charles Edward Weeks. On April 23 of this year he had celebrated his 100th birthday when he received messages from Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth 11, the Dominion Government of Canada, Premier and Mrs. W.A.C Bennett, and many messages and telegrams from England and other points. Born in the village of Woodchurch near Ashford, Kent, England, Mr. Weeks came to Canada in 1891, settling first in Brandon, Manitoba. He came to the Benvoulin district near Kelowna in 1906 where he was a successful market gardener. For a number of years he was on the School Board as a Trustee of the Benvoulin (Okanagan) School. In the Kelowna Centennial Museum is a sterling silver medal which Mr. Weeks won for the second prize for the largest apple in the first Canadian National Apple Show held in Vancouver in October, 1910. In 1938 Mr. Weeks moved to Burnaby. Mrs. Weeks predeceased in 1946. Of Mr. Weeks' six children three survive. They are Charles B. Weeks of Kelowna, Mrs. Sylvia Cowan of Burnaby, and Mrs. Florence Kenney of Vancouver, and eight grandchildren, twenty great-grandchildren. (Primrose Upton). QUIL'STEN OKANAGAN STEAM BATH 33 QUIL'STEN — OKANAGAN STEAM BATH By"OBSERVER" Shiny white bathrooms in new homes on the Penticton Indian Reserve do not take the place of the traditional quil'-sten or sweat lodge in the minds of middle-aged Okanagan Indians. It is difficult to say what quil'-sten is currently used for unless you know an owner. And unless he has complete confidence that your interest is genuine and not frivolous, you will see nothing, learn nothing, and questions will be answered by a stare or a shake of the head. Quil'-sten is much more than a steam bath; it has a ritualistic significance. A bath is taken not only to cleanse, but the sweat-house is also a place to meditate, to contemplate and to seek "shoo-mesh" (spiritual strength). In the old days it had a function in curing sickness. It is a retreat for both temporal and spiritual purification and is one of the most venerated Okanagan institutions. The construction and use of the sweat-house are governed by strict rules, said to have been originated with Coyote (Sin-ka-lip), the great lawgiver and to break any of the rules is to invite misfortune, if not disaster. Only after a period of continence may the builder of a new quil'-sten begin his work. The structures are dome-shaped, circular at the base, from five to eight feet in diameter. Willow shoots, saskatoon, or other pliable stems are planted round the circumference, bent, then tied together at the top with strips of bark. There must never be less than eight ribs. This frame is covered with any suitable material, quite often finished with a topping of sod. Fir bough whisks, if obtainable, are regarded as strong medicine which give the bather strength. As with other Indian people — Athapaskans from the north through to Arizona — the Okanagan quil'-sten faces east. This is traditional and associated with the birth of another day; a gift from the great spirit, Amot- gen. The most auspicious time to take a steam bath and the time when the bather is most likely to gain shoo-mesh, is at dawn. Inside the quil'-sten (body warming place) is a small pit (skl-ch-ch-is'- chn) which serves as a receptacle for stones heated outside in a dedicated fireplace. Fist-sized stones (ska-list), smooth and unchipped, must be dry land stones, never river rocks which would explode. Quil'-sten stones are saved, used again and again, carefully stored outside where they are held in high regard. No Indian would ever defile them. In preparation for quil'-sten (Sklalo-sist) a mat of fir boughs is lain outside and over the dirt floor. The boughs are never burned but are carefully piled outside after use where they are left to rot and return to mother earth again. When the stones are sizzling hot they are forked inside. After the bather enters he pulls the covering (tup-chin) over the entrance, sprinkles water over the hot stones and stays in the dense hot steam supplicating the spirit of Quil'-sten for as long as half an hour. Leaving the steamy interior he crawls outside to dip in the cold creek, or in winter roll in the snow. 34 QUIL'STEN OKANAGAN STEAM BATH _8!^BK'*8(?*-"' < Two views of a typical Quil'-sten. Photographs by Eric D. Sismey And this is the legend of Quil'-sten which was recorded nearly a hundred years ago. Tle-tla-hep (The Old One) was travelling over the earth, visiting QUIL'STEN OKANAGNAN STEAM BATH 35 people and putting things to right. He taught the people how to sweat-bathe how to make sweat houses (Quil'-sten). He told them. "When you sweat- bathe, pray to Quil'-sten that you may be healthy and obtain success in hunting." Soon after this he met Quil'-sten and said to him: "Henceforth people will make sweat-houses and when they sweat-bathe they will supplicate you, to whom the mystery of sweat-bathe belongs. When they pray for relief from pain, for health, lightness of body, fleetness of foot, wisdom, wealth, success in hunting and in war, grant their desires, gather their sickness when they are in the sweat-house, take it from their bodies and cast it to the winds." Then the Old-One visited water and said to him; "when my children wash and bathe themselves draw sickness from their bodies, heal their wounds, refresh them and while they pray to you, answer their supplications. You shall be the guardians of those who constantly seek you". Tle-tla-hep also visited the fir tree and said to him: "When my children take your branches to wash themselves may your mysterious power help them". And that is why Okanagan people use fir branches, and sweat-bathe and plunge into cold water to the present day. "FERDIE" BRENT LAID TO REST Ferdinand Brent passed away in the Penticton Hospital on December 4, 1969. He was 84. Born in Okanagan Mission, on June 24, 1886, he was the grandson of Frederick Brent who built and operated the Brent grist mill, Kelowna's first industry. He was the eldest son of Joseph Brent of Shingle Creek Ranch. In 1898, in company with his father, mother, brothers and sisters he moved to Okanagan Falls where he drove freight team for his father and for the Basset Brothers. In 1902 he and his father staked part of what is now the Shingle Creek Ranch, and in 1903, he, with his uncle, John Brent, moved to Shingle Creek and started development. The rest of the family followed in 1904. Ferdie, as he was known to his many friends, moved later to Allen Grove where he was an active member of the Allen Grove Cattlemen's Association and also a school trustee. In 1950 he moved to Peachland where he resided until his death. Through the early 1900s Ferdie Brent was a well known figure at British Columbia stampedes. He held championships for saddle bronc riding on more than one occasion, and there have been earlier references in the Historical Reports to his life. 36 MINEOLA MINEOLA By DON EMERY Editor's Note — A nostalgic look at a part of the Okanagan, once flourishing, now obliterated by time, won for Don Emery, of Penticton, a Grade 11-B student, the first prize in the Okanagan Historical Society's 1969 essay competition. This young author gives credit to Ben Mayne, N. L. Barlee, and E. Campbell, of Summerland, and to E. Campbell, Ed Walker, and Findlay Munro, of Penticton, whom he interviewed in carefully preparing his essay. We often read and hear a great deal about the early mining towns of the British Columbia Interior which have contributed greatly to the development of our country. Such familiar names ar Barkerville, Fairview, Granite Creek and Sandon have been remembered as a result of the roles they played in promoting the settlement which opened up the province. Another type of town, perhaps more significant to the growth of British Columbia, has been all but forgotten over the years. This was the early lumber town. These short-lived towns, scattered throughout British Columbia, were essential to her rapid growth as they supplied the necessary lumber to build the towns, bridges, roads, railways and flumes which developed her into a prosperous province. One of these towns was Mineola. Mineola, first called Meadow Valley, is in a picturesque, level valley surrounded by high tree-clad mountains. It is situated about ten miles from Summerland, about the same distance from Peachland and five miles from the Kettle Valley Railway siding of Faulder. In earlier days the valley was the route of the Hudson's Bay Company Fur Brigade Trail, as it afforded an excellent camping ground, feed and water for the horses, an abundance of fish and game as well as good shade. Thomas Ellis, the first white settler in Penticton, was the first land owner in the valley. He used it for a summer range for his growing cattle empire. Lumbering initially started in Meadow Valley in 1904 when the Thomas Greenhow Ranch of Vernon built a sawmill to supply lumber to a growing Summerland, and for use in the construction of irrigation flumes. In 1910 a new lumber company was founded by two associates, J. W. Wheeler and Ben Mayne. The company known as the Mineola Lumber Company, bought the original Greenhow Mill and named the site Mineola, after Mr. Wheeler's former home town in New York State. The miR was a wooden structure covered with a shiny tin roof. Near the mill, towards the centre of the flat stood, and still partially stands, the mill's mortar and stone beehive drying kiln. This was used to dry the cut lumber before hauling it away. There was a bunkhouse and mess hall for the single men employed at the mill. These buildings were operated by Chinese who were reputed to be "clean and tidy" and the food was "of the best". The mill was operated by the sole use of steam power. Sawdust and shavings from the previously cut lumber were burnt to produce the heat to generate the steam, which powered the engines. Fifteen to twenty men were employed in the mill while a number of others worked in the bush falling and hauling the logs. Some of the men who worked at Mineola in the early days still live in Summerland. These include H. Rennie, H. Milley, and Ben Mayne. MINEOLA 37 nifte-elcu /owAsiTg (JJ C-.itt&><_. Ci^ii-TdPi. © r.ii ti%.-k*kf © k}U«Jor Wi'll G~o. ^jo.ww* 6c_*jt M*w< ~ws/ tft-S HeU- © tow bin.. (2) nui _L».f> vLi 0/ Cki»i«.st/ Cowtii @ ScAcol . The timber cut for the mill was all choice pine, and is still readily available today. In summer the logs were hauled in specially constructed wooden wagons equipped with side bunks and pulled by four-horse teams. Sleighs were used in late fall, winter, and early spring under conditions of snow. As many as twenty-two teams of horses were utilized to haul the timber in this season of the year. Timber hauled to the mill in the winter was stored in large stockpiles beside the mill to await cutting. These operations were carried on throughout the year, only ceasing for short periods in the event of severe weather conditions or an extreme forest fire hazard. 38 MINEOLA When the Wheeler Mill started producing lumber in 1910, the wood was only utilized by the nearby districts and municipalities. Mineola lumber was used in the construction of most of the houses of West Summerland and the flumes of the outlying agricultural areas, along witb the first Summerland Co-operative Packing House. The completion of the Kettle Valley Railway through the Okanagan and Trout Creek Valleys in 1915 altered this situation for a time. Mineola lumber, then priced at sixteen dollars per thousand board feet, was transported for use to many other parts of the Valley and the British Columbia Interior, as well as for the construction of K.V.R. water towers. Soon after the close of World War I, the company decided to diversify their interests into the fabrication of box shook. A factory was built at Mineola to supply shook to the numerous small packing houses then in West Summerland such as the Occidental, Mutual, K.Y., Agnew, R. Pollock and A. Stevens fruit companies. The shook was hauled from the factory at Mineola to the packing houses at West Summerland in wagons similar to the eariy grain wagons on the prairies. A round trip consumed the greater part of a full day and often proved quite dangerous as the drivers encountered many steep and hazardous hills and bends on the road. Supplies for the company store and post office as well as the mail were brought back with the wagons on their return trip. In 1920, after the business was in full swing the company purchased two trucks called, "Republics". They had solid rubber tires and rode very rough but proved beneficial in the hauling of shook. A school had been built by the farm and mill families of the area, with the government supplying a small cash grant of $150, the desks, and a teacher. Professor J. J. Baker, M.A. was the first teacher. Some of the families whose children attended the school were those of Findlay Munro, J. Photo by E. F. Smith The Wheeler Sawmill under construction at Myren in 1922. It operated in 1923 with machinery from the Mineola Mill which was similar in design and size. MINEOLA 39 W. Wheeler, S. R. Darke, Aubrey King, Herbert Dennis, H. V. "Paddy" Acland, Charlie Campbell, and R. M. H. Turner. The Wheeler Mill at Mineola shut down in 1923 and moved operations to Myren. The same year the box factory moved to Summerland where it became the Pacific Box Company. The families moved away from Mineola, the buildings fell and all but disappeared. The small lumber town of Mineola, which ledth the growth and development of part of the Okanagan, has since been obliterated by time. TO A WILDFLOWER By Mayda D. Estabrooks Wee flower abloom amid the summer grass, Could it be you're watching as I pass? Your tiny face records no fear Lest I, in passing, might approach too near. Lightly - clinging roots in sandy bed Upbear a stem as fine as silken thread. With golden heart that does not droop or doubt, Lone—and erect you stand in rain and drought. O, shy inheritor of lowly state, Unnoticed, delicate and feather-weight, Although excluded from that favored throng Of flowers much praised in poetry and song, You share a home in Spirit's boundlessness Where dwell all things in loving usefulness. With "lilies of the field" you are joint-heir— Not lost in vastness or a vague "somewhere." As low I stoop to scan your sunny face, My m ind sees more than my eye can trace: On planet earth you take so little room; But you are great—because God made you bloom. 40 PIONEER DAYS OF HOLDEN PIONEER DAYS OF EUSTACE C HOLDEN By CLAUDE W. HOLDEN It was while turning up the furnace control to 70 on getting up this March morning in the year 1970, that the thought occurred to me of what I should have had to do to get warm in the era of 1910 to 1913, when my parents and myself arrived in the South Okanagan. The contrast is so surprising that I feel it is worth while to jot down a few recollections of the days of nearly 60 years ago and of the life of the fruit pioneer of that time. It was in the summer of 1910 that my father, a consulting engineer of Bolton, England, first arrived in Canada to scout out the land to try and find a climate where peaches could be "picked off the trees" and the sun shone for more than one day per week. After touring the Kootenays and Vancouver Island, he was told by the authorities that the South Okanagan should fill the required specifications. Seventeen acres of raw land were purchased on the Naramata Rd. from Mr. I. M. Stevens, after which my father returned to Bolton to sell his business. It was not until the fall of 1911 that my father "Eustace" and his wife Kitty accompanied by a large number of packing cases marked "settlers effects" actually disembarked from the lake steamer. They put in at the Penticton Hotel on what is now known as lower Vancouver Ave. In retrospect, his choice of land, dictated very largely by the view and considering his astonishing lack of knowledge of fruit growing, or indeed, of any kind of farming whatsoever, proved fortunate. In this he was perhaps not exceptional in that his neighbors and friends arriving from all points of the compass, from the Yukon to Bonnie Scotland were little better informed as far as fruit growing was concerned, though some had more farming experience. It was widely maintained, without successful contradiction, that the prairies alone could eat all the fruit that the Okanagan could possibly produce and that only the production of the fruit stood between a grower and a golden reward. To return to the Penticton Hotel and the fortunes of our 40 year old Eustace C. Holden, of Range Gate Orchards, Naramata Road, Penticton. PIONEER DAYS OF HOLDEN 41 pioneers, whose two sons had been left in England until a house had been built on the orchard property, it was immediately evident that transportation was necessary. A bay cayuse, by the name of Johnnie was purchased for $70 with buggy and taken out to he homesite which being near the gate onto the range to the east was named "Range Gate." Johnnie proved a good buy although his persistent liking for every hitching post in front of the bar did nothing for his former owner's reputation as a well-known "man about town". It was found not possible to start the house immediately so a shack was decided upon of single board construction with lean-to on the side of it for Johnnie. Packing cases were hauled out and a few unpacked and made into chicken sheds for the 36 birds. They were of a special strain that had been ordered from a well known poultry king of Bolton, Lanes. A neighbor came and helped with the shack construction for 25 cents per hour. An earthen stream for irrigation, the main ditch, passed through the estate, the shack was built along side for domestic water purposes. The shack was furnished with coal oil lamps, a heater and a cook stove, both for wood. There was an outdoor toilet, and water was drawn by a bucket from the ditch and the wood came from a dead pine tree above the shack. The tree was cut up laboriously by man-power. In short, this couple of not too young city-bred folk faced the oncoming Canadian winter of which they knew nothing, with very little but complete self-confidence as did many others of their kind. The winter was to test their mettle but in few cases to break it. Several times the temperature slipped to zero and turns were taken during the night to keep the stove going with more wood and the kettle from freezing. The combs of the prize white leghorns froze and fell off and Johnnie kept his feet warm by kicking the side of the shack nearest the bed with an unholy tattoo but there was no thought of returning to the Penticton Hotel. How could the chickens and Johnnie be brought through the winter if they were not cared for? The pioneer maxim of "do it yourself or do without" was a very real testing ground of Penticton's early fruit growers but in the main they emerged more experienced and stronger from their amateur efforts. In February of 1912 the boys were "sent for" from England and were parked on friends in Summerland until the house could be built and made liveable. The big job of planting the orchard loomed ahead and the question of what to plant carefully over. The final decision being Jonathans and Wagner apples with a few Spitz and Newtons. Also some white-fleshed peaches to "pick off the tree". While these would be some years away from producing anything whatever in cash, one acre was laid aside for small fruits; 200 raspberries, 200 snider blackberries, 200 gooseberries bushes were ordered. Improvements were planned for the chicken buildings. With the emergence of Spring in March, 1912, the building of wooden flumes with a carpenter at 30 cents per hour was commenced. These were 2 by 8and 2 by 6 nailed together in 16 foot lengths. The local lumber being very green these eventually warped into fantastic shapes under the Okanagan sun. Intermittent water and mud was helpful but not very and in the trestles the footings washed out. As the orchard had considerable raw land to the east of it above the irrigation ditch it was decided to make use of its "bunch grass" and a cow was purchased and named "Jill". She shortly produced a calf naturally named "Jillette". The wealth of golden sun-flowers in April had an unfortunate effect of Jill's milk, making it of a stringy, chewing gum 42 PIONEER DAYSOF HOLDEN appearance which, while it had no noticeable ill effect on Jillette was far from popular with our few bachelor customers. This complication and a remark from one of our disgruntled neighbors re "milk fit for pigs" inspired the happy thought of "bacon and eggs" and ten small pigs were purchased to reduce our milk overflow and go with the de-combed leghorns produce. The fluming was finally finished and water was ready for the spring planting - holes were dug on about 12 acres and fruit trees planted. The 600 small fruit bushes, chicken houses, were erected and the pig styes built. The day was never long enough for all the work to be done. The boys were detailed to milking chores, wood cutting. Another horse "Joe" was brought to make up a team for cultivating and plowing the orchard. The spring tooth and harrow were in great use to maintain the precious water for the trees. The irrigation system, so called, of that day, was unbelievably primitive and needs a little explanation, unlike today's effecient sprinklers. The basis of this system was 2Vi acre feet guaranteed the growers by the S. O. Land Co. via the Municipality of Penticton and was their right on buying the land and paying the irrigation rate each year. However the fly in the ointment was that no time was specified as to when this should be delivered. The result of which was that the water petered out in some years by the end of July leaving the growers with no water, for August and September in an area which was a natural desert. Without irrigation the only way in which the trees could be saved from drought and an early demise was by continuous cultivation of the soil maintaining a 6-inch mulch to prevent evaporation. After a few years of this the soil had no humus left and was ready to drift. As was previously stated the main ditch flowed through Range Gate, and itwas in one of those hottest week ends that the pigs got away and some The original living-quarters of the Holden family, 1911. With some minor changes it is still standing above the Naramata Road. PIONEER DAYS OF HOLDEN 43 fell in the flume and were carried away — one of which got stuck in a pipe line and effectively shut off the water to 120 acres further north. The howls of rage from the deprived orchards were conveyed to Range Gate by the irrigation superintendent in no uncertain terms. The main ditch debouched from Penticton Creek at De Beck's orchard and discharged occasionally into Four Mile Creek at the North Boundary of the Penticton Bench. No proper measuring devices were used to regulate each orchardist's supply except that the ditch rider "set the gate" which gave one so many days' water over a week periodically. The result of this casual measurement was that the unfortunate four milers saw their water diminish by 10 a.m. and not return till 10 p.m. When evaporation ceased and interference with the gates diminished "indignation meetings" were held in Poplar Grove School House where offspring from Naramata Rd. to Paradise Ranch were to gather for educational purposes. A resolution was presented to have Jackson fired. This Mr. Jackson, superintendent of irrigation, was generally to be found, if at all, on a lean white horse with a rocking horse motion anywhere between the south end of Dog Lake to 4 Mile Creek someten miles by slow motion. His day being from dawn to dusk itwas impossible to catch him at home so protests awaited his arrival at every orchard gate. This continuous murmur of complaint induced in him a taciturn manner and a melancholy mein. It may have had something to do with the generally held opinion by the growers that, "something should be done about Jackson." Though how much more he could have done, under the circumstances seems hard to imagine. In pursuit of his duties Mr. Jackson carried the tools of his trade, one long handled shovel over his shoulder, a hammer, saw, and a piece of 2 by 4 for patching purposes tied to his saddle. After a spirited discussion and some upholding of Jackson problems by the council member in attendance — the resolution to fire him was lost, whereupon one H. C Rose and suggested that if Jackson wasn't to be fired there was something the council should do for him. "What is that?" inquired the councillor. "Buy him a new piece of 2 by 4," said H. C. The meeting broke up in confusion. After the unfortunate episode of the "Pigs in the Pipe", Range Gate turned to less risky projects and decided that in such a dry climate turkeys should be a natural. Fifty eggs of broad breasted bronzes were purchased and placed under sitting hens — some 41 were actually hatched and 40 grew up to full size. The odd one was discovered when quite small half way down a rattlesnake jaws. What could have been a good photo was spoiled by my brother cutting the snake in half with a hoe. These turkeys were one of Range Gate's better efforts. They roamed around the range east of us and lived on grasshoppers a good deal. They perched in a large pine tree some 50 feet high, outlined against the full moon, well out of the way of the coyotes who were abundant at that time and whose yapping would waken us up especially in the winter. The role of the horse in that era is hard to exaggerate. Not only was he the essence of transportation but also of labor in the orchard. A good team was much admired and was well known to all and its abilities in handling loads much quoted. The trading of horses became an art surpassing the car salesman and our delight in a good trade of a white horse who rolled on the purchaser within 48 hours very keen. The local Indians were a big part of the Penticton of that era as their horsemanship, winter pasture and hay were all appreciated by the fruit 44 PIONEER DAYS OF HOLDEN growers. Our neighbor turned out his mare with them, and got her back in even better shape then he had expected! The Indian's comment "that there would be no extra charge for the inconvenience," anticipated Gaglardi by at least thirty years. In the summer a team and democrat could be spotted half a mile off by the cloud of white dust and if there should apper C A. C Steward's McLaughlin Buick, runaways would be the order of the day. Hauling of loads up Vancouver Ave., then very steep in the spring mud and ruts, was a test of man and beast. Descending Vancouver Ave. with loads of fruit, a good test of brakes and breeding. And so drew to a close the summer of 1912 with the orchard planted, the house built, a lot of sweat, some experienced gained, some good friendships started. Justa brief sketch of a family of amateurs in the early days of getting established in what is now the City of Penticton and its beaches and peaches. I believe the ground work was well laid. AT 106 YEARS OF AGE When Christine Joseph died in her home in Marron Valley on February 22,1970, she had reached the age of 106. Born in 1864 on what is now the Penticton Indian Reserve she lived in the Okanagan all her life. Left motherless in infancy she was brought up by an elder sister. Christine helped clear the land now part of the Penticton Airport of trees and brush, then to plough it with the help of two oxen and to seed it to grass. She remembers her father telling of the strong earthquake that rocked the valley in 1865 and which brought rocks tumbling down from the mountains at Chopake and through the Similkameen. Mrs. Joseph lived and died an Indian; she never learned English. It was her wish that her funeral be conducted the old way and that she be buried on her own land and close to the log cabin where she had lived most of her life. ,.e cabin itself was a century old. Christine Joseph is survived by two sons, Charlie and Willie Armstrong of Penticton, and one daughter, Maggie Stelkia, of Oliver. Also surviving are 29 grandchildren, 48 great-grandchildren, and eight great-greatgrandchildren. OKANAGAN FALLS PIONEER Margaret Allison Basset of Okanagan Falls died on August 15, 1969. The Falls had been her home for 71 years. Her husband Richard, known far and wide as Dick, predeceased her. Margaret, to her many friends, was a member of a pioneer Okanagan Falls family. Her father, John McLellan, arrived at the Falls in the mid 1890s. The 1899-1900 British Columbia Directory and Gazetteer lists him as the village postmaster. An imposing mountain on the west side of the river and overlooking the town perpetuates the McLellan name. H&KTRADINGCO. 45 H. & K. TRADING CO. By R. N.ATKINSON English capital has always been recognized as a large part of the success of many western towns and Penticton certainly came into this category. In many instances this wealth was poured in by investors who never saw or expected to see what they were about to acquire. This was not the case with Eustace Holden and Archie Kelly who arrived here in the spring of 1913 at the time when the Kettle Valley Railroad was making rapid strides towards completion and the first orchards were reaching a period of maturity when the crops would be ready for distant markets and some would require storage. Holden & Kelly hailed from the Bolton district in Lancashire. Major Holden was a steam engineer and his partner Archie Kelly an electrical engineer. After a careful survey of the district they foresaw the immediate need for refrigeration and cold storage to handle the perishable crops being produced in the area, and without delay purchased a site for their plant immediately east of the government dock at the foot of Van Home St. on the foreshore of Okanagan Lake. At the same time they purchased adjoining acreage on the upper bench near the present outlet of the pipe from Randolph Draw diversion on Naramata Road. Here each built a comfortable home and the two families soon settled down to a new life in the west. The plant was equipped with English machinery and was modern in every respect. It was designed to produce artificial ice, for which there was a good demand, and also to manufacture soft drinks, which featured a white oval label with black and gold printing and the wording HK trade mark means "High Klass". As soon as the plant commenced operations the firm opened three retail stores on Front St., just north of the Empress Theatre, a retail liquor store was opened with Wm. T. Pope, a former Londoner, in charge. A but- H &K Plant in 1912 46 H& K TRADING CO. cher shop was opened too, the first manager being Geo. H. Maundrell, who later was killed in France in the first World War. Mr. Billie Raincock also worked there. A confectionery was opened near where Syer's grocery store is today. Miss Esther Sinclair of Keremeos had charge of the shop. The first book—keeper at the plant was Frederick Maurice Smith, afterwards reeve of the town during 1918-1919. The chief engineer was Ulric Guilbeault, who remained there many years. W. T. Fleet was salesman and representative for the firm at Kelowna. Following the first war Mr. Fleet served many years as a Dominion fruit and vegetable inspector and subsequently retired as supervisor for the South Okanagan and Kootenay area. After the outbreak of war in 1914 both partners returned to England for service. Mr. Kelly never returned here. However, the effects of the war on the business forced them into liquidation and it was taken over by Chas. E. Burtch and associates and became known as the Penticton Ice & Cold Storage Co. It changed hands several times, later operating under the trade name - Penticton Purity Products. Mr. Claude W. Holden is the lone survivor of the firm in this country. Now retired he devotes his spare time to raising roses, at which he has been very successful. His younger brother, Tom, lost his life many years ago as the result of a logging accident. His first brush with death resulted in his losing an arm in a shooting mishap. The HK trademark meant "High Klass' f.o. Mcdonald ai FRANK OSCAR McDONALD By KATHLEEN S. DEWDNEY The Okanagan lost one of its most active and respected citizens when Frank Oscar McDonald of Penticton died on January 17,1970. He was born at Armstrong, B.C. on February 20, 1897 of United Empire Loyalist stock. At the age of eleven he moved with his parents to Penticton. His father, Joseph McDonald, was a master builder, a craftsman and a pioneer of the North Okanagan. (1) Frank McDonald received his education in Penticton and Vancouver. He taught school in Penticton for two years before joining the 172nd Battalion, Rocky Mountain Rangers, in the First World War. Later he transferred to the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles. He joined the Royal Flying Corps as a pilot, and served in France. Upon his discharge he taught school in New Westminster until 1920 when he returned to Penticton and helped his father with the construction of the C.P.R. dock on Skaha Lake. In 1921 and 1922 he was in the trucking business between Penticton and Oliver. During this time he married Hannah Hanson of New Westminster. Then he worked for a short time for the West Kootenay Power & Light Co. at Bonnington Falls, B.C. He returned once more to the Okanagan, bought an orchard at Winfield and in 1927 became manager of the Winfield Co-op packing house. In 1934 he came back to Penticton to become manager of the Pyramid Co-op packing house, and later manager of the Penticton Co-op. In 1954 he went to Oliver to manage the Southern Okanagan Lands Project and lived there until his retirement in 1964, when he returned to his orchard in Penticton. Here in his comfortable home overlooking Okanagan Lake and the City of Penticton he and Mrs. McDonald were genial hosts to their many friends. (2) Mr. McDonald in speaking of his retirement said that it was just another tangent to turn and not a declining period. As a participant in Penticton's Community affairs he was an alderman for two years and a trustee on the School Board for several years. As the Okanagan was his birthplace and permanent home, Mr. McDonald took a keen interest in the Okanagan Historical Society which he served as President in 1960 and 1961. He was a director of the Penticton Branch and also a director of the Oliver-Osoyoos Branch. He contributed articles of historic interest to the Annual Reports, and he was the officer in charge of restoration of the old Inkameep (Division) Church. (3) Mr. McDonald was the first president of the Interior Regional Council of the Boy Scouts Association. As a boy he had been a member of the first Scout troop in Penticton, and remained interested in Scouting all his life. In 1912 he became a King Scout and his badge was presented to him by the Duke of Connaught, Governor General and Chief Scout for Canada, who patted him on the shoulder and said, "God bless you, my boy." For several years he was Scoutmaster of the Penticton Troop. He was presented with a Scroll from the British Columbia Yukon Provincial Council of the Boy Scouts of Canada in recognition of his long and devoted service for Scouting in B.C. He was especially commended for his leadership in the Interior Region, after this area of the Province was organized for the expansion of Scouting, and for the effective manner in which he acted as the first President of the 48 f.o. Mcdonald Photo by Stocks Frank Oscar McDonald, 1897-1970, a former president of the Okanagan Historical Society. f.o. Mcdonald 49 Region in 1963. At a ceremony held in 1967 he was given an Honorary Life Membership and a "Thanks" badge. He was on the Regional Council at the time of his death. Music played a vital role in Mr. McDonald's life. He played the trumpet in the Penticton Band for many years and eventually became bandmaster. He was president of the Penicton committee of the Okanagan Symphony Society, and in 1969 he served as president of the Okanagan Valley Music Festival Association. Oliver and Penticton Rotary Clubs elected him at different times as their president. Because of his interest in Rotary and in music, a music scholarship was made available, after his death, by the Penicton Rotary Club to the Penticton Branch of the Okanagan Valley Music Festival Association. He was a meber of the Penticton Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association. In April 1970 the Association honoured his memory by making a donaton to the Penticton City Library. He served as the Penticton representative on the Board of the Okanagan Regional Library and was one of the prime movers behind the library's transfer from the Regional Library to the City Library. He was a member of the Trustees Section of the British Columbia Library Association. To honor him, voluntary memorial donations to the library have been made by individuals. Mr. McDonald was one of the original organizers of the Penticton Peach Festival and Square Dance Jamboree. He served as its president for two years. He was a member of the Penticton Industrial Committee; the Penticton Chamber of Commerce; the Southern Gates Masonic Lodge of which he was a secretary; the Royal Canadian Legion; and the Okanagan- Similkameen Parks Society. Frank McDonald loved to travel the Valley's highways and by-ways that wind through picturesque scenery, to roam familiar hills, and to hunt and fish with friends. In all his activities he was a dedicated and conscientious worker, and was always friendly and optimistic. He was a good husband, a good father, a good friend and a good citizen who will be greatly missed. Surviving are his wife Hannah (Brownie); one son, Ramsey of Cawston; two daughters: Marion, Mrs. James Menzies, and Norma, Mrs. William Johnston, both of Vancuver; 10 grandchildren; one brother, A. E. McDonald of Oliver; and one sister, Mrs. R. G. Rutherford of Kelowna. 50 MAJOR FRASER MAJOR HUGH NEIL FRASER OF PENTICTON By ERIC D. SISMEY Major Hugh Neil Fraser's paternal ancestors began leaving their marks on Canada more than 150 years ago. Great Grandfather Captain Hugh Fraser, attached to the Royal Engineers at Berwick-onTweed, Scotland, was ordered to Canada with a detachment of his regiment in 1810. Captain Fraser served through the war of 1812 and in return for his service was awarded a grant of Crown land near Ottawa; it was Bytown then. Army service fulfilled, the family moved to Pembroke, Ontario, where Captain Fraser practiced land surveying and was also engaged in engineering details surrounding the building of the Rideau Canal. In 1842, his son Alexander, the present Major Fraser's grandfather, began work, at the age of 12, in the general store belonging to Hiram Chamberlain of Westmeath where he lived while learning all he could about the lumber business in which Chamberlain was interested. Ten years later Alexander Fraser entered the lumber business for himself. This decision was influenced by his father's professional knowledge for he had built the first dam on the Ottawa river at McGillivray's Lake 12 miles from Pembroke and it was apparent that the water behind the dam would facilitate floating large logs and timber squares to market. In this operation Alexander's brother John was a partner. By 1870, Alexander Fraser, having acquired large timber limits, was in the square timber business-domestic and export-in a large way. Usually he logged only the largest and best timber and after this was done sold the limits to sawmill operators who cut lumber rather than squares and large beams. In 1885, Alxander Fraser disposed of certain timber interests to his sons who operated in the name of Fraser Company, one of whom was John Burns Fraser, Major Hugh Fraser's father. In the meantime Alexander Fraser's other business interests continued to expand. This made a move in 1892 from Westmeath to Ottawa imperative. Fraser was one of the founders of the Lachine Rapids Hydraulic Company; the Lachine Light, Heat and Power Company; the Bank of Ottawa (1874) in which he was a director for 27 years, and the Keewatin Lumber Company. He was also one of the founders of the Ottawa Trust and Deposit Company serving as president until it was taken over by the Toronto General Trusts Company. Fraser was instrumental in the establishment of the Hull Electric Railway and with other business men founded the Rideau Club of Ottawa in which he retained membership until his death. Meanwhile the firm, Fraser and Company, under the joint control of John Burns Fraser and hi«> brother, William, prospered. Hugh Neil Fraser, the present Major Fraser of Penticton, was born in Montreal on October 30, 1885. Serious schooling began at Asbury College in Ottawa and was completed by graduation from McGill University in 1912. MAJORFRASER 51 ■,v^;>;"^'^ iii__HHks>f:-fl__f B ____■ [ J iftiP*_Ai_M jflflbjl \)M- ,v '^v ♦IB III I UJk\&§m£k^? '•■ f t\iw *TM lli j ■'"■"' ■■ - »*'wl £/Q___0iS^-r" ■ % s K^i'v^-- ■• fl| ■ :•"'■".":■:;■ . ' .'■"■ ^ f- __f^f*' ^C; ^^ ■ _____ __■!__ If i * i \_W ^| ^V 1 ___fJ' ' Hw TM pHpH| ^ » ■ ^ lIlM B ,:■ ■ J -^iiii i^H-P _____ HBP?^ ^_____F :: ___i fi f... I i 91 v JH___St*k' md K|^Mttg| . :-■ ' ■K' ' te^MM||^HH@B^ "^ '' V'" •■; • ■... ■< ... ,.. Ma/or Hugh Neil Fraser of Penticton Photo by Hugo Redivo 52 MAJOR FRASER After graduation Mr. Hugh Fraser engaged in accounting until the outbreak of war in August 1914. He enlisted immediately and was commissioned in the 2nd Battalion. The several battalions of the First Contingent were mustered at Valcartier for initial training. From there he went overseas to Shorncliffe in the south of England, and to France before the end of the year. In France Lieutenant Fraser spent nearly two years in and out of front lines around Ypres. He was there when the Germans first used gas in April 1915. Early in 1916 he was attached, with a commission of captain, to the staff of General Williams of the Third Division with headquarters at Bethune. On June 6, 1916, when General Williams, together with his staff, was making an inspection of front line positions in Sanctuary Wood it was captured when the Germans launched a sudden attack and before the counter attack recaptured the position, the staff, which included Captain Hugh Fraser, had been whisked far behind the German lines. For the next two years Captain Fraser lived from time to time in one of three prisoner of war camps for commissioned officers; there were French, Russian and British. In the main prisoners were fairly well treated but a lot depended on the nature of the camp commander. One camp, Schramstedt, was quite bad, but the camps at Hochlinden and Crefeldt were fairly good. Discipline was strict, exercise and games permitted, but Captain Fraser remembers men being shot while trying to escape. During 1918 the quality of food fell off badly but our Red Cross parcels helped out. Just before the end of the war a prisoner exchange of commissioned officers was being arranged through Swiss Red Cross. Captain Fraser, together with other officers, was moved to the Hague while a similar number of German officers were at Rotterdam. But before arrangements were completed the Armistice was signed and it was not long before Captain Fraser was back in England. Soon after Captain Fraser was returned to Canada in 1919 and discharged with the rank of major he accepted an invitation from C.C. Aikins, a playwright of wide fame, to visit Naramata. During his stay Major Fraser decided that the Okanagan was where he would like to make his permanent home. After a thorough survey of the southern end of the Valley he purchased the 320 acre Hawthorne place on the mountain of that name on the west side of the river above Okanagan Falls. Later he bought an additional 160 acres from the Thomas brothers. Major Fraser realized that this could never be a successful commercial venture but it was, however, a delightful place to make a home and where a few cattle could be raised. The small house on the Hawthorne place was built into the enlarged three bedroom, two bathroom house and where from its lofty position a magnificent view stretched the length of Skaha Lake to Penticton; a view always fresh from day today, season to season. Recently the existing water supply being unsatisfactory an electric pumping plant on the Okanagan River was built to lift water 400 feet to the 20 acres of good land around the house. This land is now planted to grapes. MAJOR FRASER 53 Major Fraser has always taken an active interest in community projects. Often in those that could well have failed but for his generous help. At Okanagan Falls he initiated the founding of Christie Memorial Park; he contributed materially towards the Community Hall built from lumber salvaged from the old Alexandra Hotel; he contributed to the Legion Hall; was president of the Red Cross for five years and the stained glass window in the Okanagan Falls church memorializes his mother. In Penticton where Major Fraser has lived for the last 15 years he has been a patron of the S.P.C.A.; its president for five years. He has served the Penticton chapter of the Red Cross as a director for 10 years and has made several very worthwhile gifts to the Penticton Museum where his collection of old fashioned hand guns and a show case containing porcelain figurines and a glass piece of more than usual historic interest are displayed with identification of the donor. Major Fraser's home on Forestbrook Drive shelters a treasure trove of memories. Unkike so many who keep photographs and newspaper clippings in an old shoe box Major Fraser has them all carefully mounted in a large album, and it reads like a Canadian "Who's Who". Invitations dated from 1910 through to 1914 to State balls and State dinners addressed to Mr. Hugh Fraser and mounted on album pages are from Her Excellency Countess Grey of Rideau Hall; the Countess of Minto; Governor General Grey; Lady Shaugnessy; the Duke of Connaught and Princess Patricia and others. There are acknowledgements, written in the Spencerian script of the day, of bon voyage bouquets sent to Lady Sybil Grey and Lady Winifred Gore. And elsewhere in contrast to invitations to State functions is an entry card to the inner gaming rooms at Monte Carlo. Another album contains photographs taken in the war time prison camps in Germany; groups of fellow prisoners, French, Russian and British; sketches by Captain Bairnsfather - also a prisoner - and one which shows Captain Fraser's prison bedroom, not luxurious but at least tolerable. Major Fraser's furnishings, pictures and bric-a-brac reflect his virtue. Heirloom tables, sideboards, an ancient grandfather clock, a guilded French folding screen are among the larger items while argillite carvings from the Queen Charlotte Islands and Eskimo soapstone carvings share table-top space with polished agates, porcelain knick-knacks, Tody jugs and miscellaneous souvenirs. Another treasure is a scale model of the famous Nova Scotian schooner "Bluenose". Pictures and paintings almost cover the walls of the living rooms. Among those which particularly interested me were: marines in water color, one by W. M. Birchall, the other by W. L. Wyllie, R. A,. Peter Ewart of Prince George is represented and two large paintings of Major Fraser's two prize Scotch collies, Lassie and Goldie, executed by Penticton's Karl Michel, grace one wall of the study. Beside a bookcase filled with leather bound titles a framed letter on Buckingham Palace stationery, signed by the late King George V. expresses appreciation for service rendered in the war and nearby, in another frame, a silver medallion commemorates the Silver Jubilee of King George V, on 54 MAJOR FRASER May 6, 1935. And of more recent date a scroll addressed to Major Hugh Fraser signed by Premier Bennett on the occasion of the British Columbia Centennial in 1958. There is much more, far too much that would be of particular interest to an older generation, to catalog here. And when I leave the house after a pleasant visit Major Fraser's 19 year old parrot usually bids me "Bye" and the major always reminds me, which is quite unnecessary, to go and take my leave of his two beautiful collies. FROM EARLY FILES The following are items from the Kelowna Clarion and Okanagan Advocate, in its issue of October 12, 1905: The work of painting the front of the Leckie Block is completed and it looks very attractive—The Rev. Mr. Greene returned on Tuesday from his monthly visit to Peachland.—Frank Fletcher, bar tender at the Lake View, left on Tuesday for a visit to his parents at Silverton.—Mr. and Mrs. DeHart returned from the Fair (at New Westminster) on Monday.—Mr. Lloyd-Jones has disposed of his residence on Barnard Avenue to Mr. Geddes.—C C. Josselyn has a 40-pound mangle in his window that was growing in the garden of D. Lloyd-Jones.—We understand some of our young bloods are contemplating organizing a dancing class in opposition to the present dance club, something not so exclusive.—Kelowna now has three Chinese ladies, two having arrived last week.—Mr. Whiteacre's residence on Barnard Avenue is nearing completion.—C. Small shot four geese in two shots with a rifle one day this week.—Messrs. Stillingfleet and Fraser bagged ten chickens on the Rutland property last week. This is the biggest shoot reported.—B. F. Greene, who has a claim near Beaverdale, says caribou and bear are very plentiful.—The appearance of the post office has been much improved by a coat of paint, the work being done by Mr. Fuller. E.O.ATKINSON 55 E. O. ATKINSON July 5,1868 — December 25,1955 By R.N.ATKINSON A long interesting life came to a close late of Christmas Day 1955 in Penticton with the passing of Edward Octavius Atkinson at the good age of 86 years and six months. Born at "Eldon House", Woodhouse Land, Leeds, Yorkshire, he was the eighth son of Dr. Edward Atkinson, F.Z.S.; F.L.S., F.R.C.A. Eng. and his wife Fanny. Ted as he was best known to his family and friends received a classical education at the Leeds Grammar School where he was a top scholar but unlike most of his brothers and in spite of his father's urging to follow in his footsteps, he chose to have a go at farming and decided to try the Canadian Northwest. For generations the family had been closely associated with the professional life of Leeds. In fact my grandfather's death in 1904 terminated a period of 137 years during which the family had been continuously connected with the Leeds Infirmary as surgeons. The large well-kept house in Woodhouse Land where my father grew up amid the comforts and traditions of Old Yorkshire had been the rendezvous for many notable men of the age. One of the frequent visitors, Henry Rider Haggard, afterwards Sir Henry Rider Haggard composed much of the manuscript for his popular novel "King Solomon's Mines" while a guest at "Eldon House". Clement Flower, R. A., was a frequent visitor, a friendship which endured for many years through the doctor's efforts and assistance to Flower when he was a struggling young artist. Lord Alfred Tennyson also knew his way to Elden House. Much of the foundation work and early planning of lectures for the St. John's Ambulance Society was worked out there too. Many of the ideas advanced for this work were the results gained during the Crimean War where grandfather served throughout the campaign with Florence Nightingale. Once a decision was made to come to Canada Ted was articled to a Leeds firm of cabinet makers and joiners for six months in order for him to gain some firsthand knowledge of hand tools and the fundamentals of carpentry and wood-working to better equip him for his new adventure. Another family friend, Sgt. Alfred Taylor of the Northwest Mounted Police and formerly of the crack Briish Cavalry regiment the 17th Lancers, was stationed in Calgary and sweating on his discharge from the force to become effective in the fall of "88. Even though there was a great difference in age, my father and Taylor had agreed to take up land together. With final arrangements completed he set off for Liverpool early in February 1888 accompanied by his elder brother, Fred, who later had a long service record with the Standard Bank of South Africa. At Elden House they had grown accustomed to members of the family leaving home for far-away places. Already one son was firmly rooted in New Zealand and two others had raced off to South Africa with the gold fever. In all, the old house had boomed to the noise, music and laughter of ten sons. Three of them were destined to settle in British Columbia before the turn of the century, and a fourth came later in life and finished an eventful career on Vancouver Island. Father chose the worst winter in living memory to face a trans- Atlantic crossing and the long slow train journey on the newly completed 56 E.O.ATKINSON ***